Mamata’s Intractable Opposition Nixes Efforts For A Pact. Bangladesh could be ready to revisit the Teesta water treaty’s terms as the ruling Awami League faces growing political heat but Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee’s intractable opposition is stalemating all efforts to ink the pact.

The Hindustan Construction Company (HCC), is executing a 300 MW Kishanganga power project in Bandipora district of occupied Kashmir, despite a warning by the Centre for Inter-disciplinary Studies of Mountain & Hill Environment (CISMHE), New Delhi, of terrible anti-environmental dangers of the project. A report, prepared by CISMHE on Kishanganga, clearly pointed to the issues like environmental degradation and the impact on water quality of Bandipora.

Environmental scientists have known that high levels of the toxic element, mercury, have been accumulating in the Arctic Ocean for some time. It was believed to be mostly caused by atmospheric sources stemming from the combustion of coal. However, a new study from the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and the Harvard School of Public Health has found that the great majority of Arctic mercury arrives via circumpolar rivers. Some of the largest rivers in the world flow north into the Arctic in Eurasia and North America.

Bangladesh on Tuesday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Netherlands to prepare the "Bangladesh Delta Plan 2100" in order to build up a 50-100 years water management system.
Under the deal, Bangladesh will conduct about 20 studies of different types at the main rivers and adjoining areas with the Dutch help. Planning Minister AK Khandker and Dutch Minister for Development Dr Ben Knapen signed the MoU on behalf of their respective sides at the Prime Minister's Office. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina witnessed the signing of the deal.

Agitated over the State government's plan to allow sand quarrying again at the dry Nambiyar riverbed in the district, residents of various villages in Radhapuram taluk submitted a petition to Collector R. Selvaraj on Monday against the move.

Unlike the Tamirabarani, the Nambiar would very rarely experience flood even during active monsoon. Naturally, sand deposit on this riverbed is not so dense and deep.

The cabinet yesterday approved a draft bill that aims to stop misuse of surface, ground and river water and preserve and manage water resources in an integrated manner.

Redirecting and intercepting the normal flow of rivers and blocking any river branches are illegal under the proposed law. It says the owner of a piece of land adjacent to any river will not have the ownership of the riverbed and foreshore.

Kisan Board Pakistan (KBP) has urged the government to take immediate notice of Indian efforts of buying carbon credits for its seven hydropower projects to be built on Sindh, Chenab and Jhelum rivers.

The Board said that this effort of India is aimed at to give legal cover to its water projects planned on rivers of Pakistan.

Raising the issue during the zero hour in the Lok Sabha on Monday, AIADMK member from Pollachi K. Sugumar said that Karnataka was also trying to divert the flow of the river to its territory depriving of the benefit to Tamil Nadu.

The construction of the check dam and diversion of water of Thenpennai by the Karnataka Government would affect Krishnagiri, Dharmapuri, Tiruvannamalai, Villupuram and Cuddalore districts in his State, he said.Karnataka had not communicated to Tamil Nadu about the proposal and also had not sought its consent.

Massive extraction of groundwater can resolve a puzzle over a rise in sea levels in past decades, scientists in Japan said on Sunday.

Global sea levels rose by an average of 1.8 millimetres per year from 1961-2003, according to data from tide gauges.

But the big question is how much of this can be pinned to global warming.