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Attending today's technology sessions, I couldn't help thinking about what Carl Sagan once remarked about science and technology. He noted,
“We've arranged a civilization in which most crucial elements profoundly depend on science and technology.”
And rightly so! Most of our present day problems warrant an understanding of the science and developing appropriate solution to address it....
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The speaker line up for the opening day of the conference has some of the most respected names in the water sector, in India. I have put together resource pages for each of the speaker's profiles and the subject of their talk.
Ramaswamy Iyer
Honorary Professor and Former Secretary,
Ministry of Water Resources
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All these decades from early twentieth century, storm water and artificial recharge of aquifers have seldom been an area of consideration for planners and policy makers. The country appeared to be oblivious to the fact that these too are integral part of the resources that we need to take care of before it starts hitting back at us in our daily lives! But then, such has been the case with every other resource base in India, which starts with "abundance" , runs into "shortage" and then graduates to being "scarce" and finally the "crisis" sets in.
I have to admit here that I have never been to a conference where storm water management and artificial recharge methods were discussed...
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The Working Group on Technological Issues drew up its list of issues as:
- Rainwater harvesting techniques for different geo-hydro thermo regions
- Risk management in rainwater harvesting
- Capacity assessment for rainwater harvesting
- Innovative water storage techniques
- Groundwater recharge
- Conventional water-borne sanitation system
- Water Storages and Wetlands
Recommendations:
- Basin/sub basin should be treated as unit of water resources planning.
- Critical irrigation to crop during production...
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One of the most grippping and intensly scientific presentation at WHSC has been this one, by Prof. P.S. Datta of the Nuclear Research Laboratory, IARI. Groundwater can be studied in its entirety by profiling the isotopes of water. His talk on Isotope fingerprinting of Ganga Basin groundwater to protect it from vulnerability to depletion and pollution had gripping scientific findings, which could advance our understanding of the diverse phenomena of hydrological cycle.
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Observing water harvesting from many different geographies, demographies and cultural setups, we have different approaches emerging to address the situation! The following are the cases presented by the speakers from their regions of work, who have come to understand and identify what works in RWH.
Jyoti Sharma shared her organisation's work in Urban Community Rain Water Harvesting indicating that Four Way Partnership holds the key. She shares the developments and successful implementations from Delhi region. Download the presentation from...
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How is it possible to discuss water harvesting and conservation and not talk about the traditional water management systems that have existed over centuries, in India. If there were case studies yesterday, it was success stories today!
Rajendra Singh of Tarun Bharat Sangh and Farhad Contractor of Sambhaav Trust, had some interesting cases to share, which were mostly...
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Credit: Binay, Business Standard
The Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment of NASA has yielded a set of very insightful and alarming data on the ground water resources status in India. Ministry of Water Resources of India had been observing the hydrological balance since long and had indicated that the withdrawl rates are far...
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Sometome back, in one of the interviews discussing large dams (with ADB) Ramaswamy Iyer said,
If we say "No" to big dams, we should be prepared to say "No" to those other things as well. But this requires a rethinking of what we see as "development," and at the moment, it is difficult to imagine such a radical exercise taking place.
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Inaugural Session of the conference
Bharat Sharma speaking on managing risk and low productivity of rain fed agriculture
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