JOWAI: With an aim of spreading the message to the younger generation and to the people residing in the mineral rich, East Jaintia Hills District that water is a finite source, a day long mass awa

Pune: The drought-hit Kamkhera village in Beed taluka is all set to try rainwater harvesting, hoping it would end the dry spell. Half the wells in this village have dried up and villagers here have now invited Pune-based Paranjya to help set up two rainwater harvesting plants.

Paranjya, that has introduced several residential societies in Pune to rainwater harvesting as an effective technique to conserve water, will travel to Beed on May 13 to educate villagers on its benefits.

Kochi: World Wildlife Fund (WWF) India has shown willingness to collaborate with Kerala to evolve and execute an integrated river basin programme for the state to address its twin requirements of making water available throughout the year and conserving the rivers and nature.

WWF India CEO Ravi Singh and other senior officials already held talks with the top officials of the State Planning Board and other departments early this week. “Our input will be primarily in terms of the expertise we have acquired during the implementation of similar programmes in India and abroad. We don’t want to involve in the programmes as consultants or funding agency,’’ Ravi Singh told TOI here over phone from New Delhi.

Devla village (Rajkot): Thousands of people from 4,800 villages across the water-starved Saurashtra took pledge at a ‘mahayagna’, organized by Saurashtra Jaldhara Trust, near Bhadar Dam at Devla village in Gondal taluka of Rajkot district on Sunday to work for water conservation.

“The Saurashtra Narmada Jal Avataran Jan Jagruti Mahayagna will help create awareness about water conservation, drip irrigation and unused borewells and also pressurize the state government to bring Narmada water to Saurashtra,” said Saurashtra Jaldhara Trust president Mathur Savani.

It could not have been more poignant than this when a sea of humanity in the heart of the rain-starved Saurashtra region in Gujarat took a pledge here on Sunday to conserve water by adopting drip irrigation on a massive scale and check the mining of groundwater.

A staggering 1.25 lakh people from across 4,800 villages of the State’s largest region that often falls prey to drought-like situations gathered on the bone-dry catchment of the Bhadar dam to decide to conserve water and appeal to the State and Central governments to speed up solutions to their water woes.

More than 10 years after it was made mandatory, BMC has failed to ensure rainwater harvesting in most new buildings.

A study by Observer Research Foundation, a think tank on public policy, has revealed most new buildings do not have rainwater harvesting facilities.
It said even if half the developed area in the city was roofed for rainwater harvesting, about 590 million litres — almost a sixth of the 3,000 million litres BMC supplies — could be generated every day. The study, to be released by mayor Sunil Prabhu Saturday, also revealed the city wastes over 900 million litres daily, much more than the about 650 million litres supplied in Pune.

Works taken up as part of NREGA scheme were found to help maintain ground water levels, aiding crop productivity

The UPA government’s flagship employment guarantee programme can play an important role in conserving natural resources and sustaining water supply and food production, according to a study. Conceived to provide livelihood security for the rural poor, the scheme can also help reduce and counter the impact of climate change in villages, according to the study, “Environmental Benefits and Vulnerability Reduction through Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme” by IISc, Bangalore in collaboration with the rural development ministry and the German international co-operation agency, GIZ.

The groundwater level in Nashik district has dipped by 1.37 metres below the average level for the last five years, ringing alarm bells among the authorities concerned.

PUNE: Water expert Rajendra Singh on Tuesday said that the Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad civic administrations need to draft a policy to restore rivers passing through city areas.

He also stressed on the need to restrict encroachments on river beds which hamper flow of water and said that many rivers in Maharashtra were in a pathetic condition and the government needs to take steps to restore them.

The total area covered under the micro irrigation systems in the district has more than doubled during the last two years as many farmers are adopting effective water management practices in the wake of the drought.

In a period of three years starting from 2007-08, the farming community in the district installed drip and sprinkler systems to cover only about 3,500 hectares. But in the last two years, farmers installed micro irrigation systems covering more than 6,000 hectares.