Wide breach in Yamuna floods Panipat villages (Hindu 11 September 2010)

CHANDIGARH: Six villages -- Pathergarh, Sonali Kalan, Samsabad, Dhamshali and Babain -- in Panipat district of Haryana have been affected by floods due to a 80-feet breach in the Yamuna at Pathergarh.
Confirming this on Friday, Financial Commissioner and Principal Secretary (Irrigation) S.S. Dhillon said crops over an area of 2,500 acres had been affected due to the breach. JCB machines have been pressed into service for rescue work in Panipat.
While reiterating Haryana's stand on Hathni Kund being a barrage and not a dam, he asserted that the State had not released any water as was being mentioned in some quarters. Rather, the water from the barrage “flows down with the natural flow''.
He further said that the water had receded considerably in the Yamuna. Giving figures, he said that 7.07 lakh cusecs of water was flowing in Hathni Kund on September 8 which came down to 2.64 lakh cusecs on September 9 and was pegged at 74,000 cusecs on Friday afternoon and is expected to reduce further.
Meanwhile, an official spokesman said the Yamuna had caused widespread flooding due to heavy rain in its catchment area and its tributaries on September 7 and 8. Accordingly, all the villages falling along the river in the State were warned about the “flood threat''.
He further disclosed that the discharge in the Yamuna had increased abruptly from 30,000 cusecs on September 7 to 330,000 cusecs on September 8 which further increased to a peak discharge of 6,07,000 cusecs at Hathni Kund Barrage.
Due to heavy rain in Bilaspur and Chhachhrauli area of Yamunanagar district, an additional 100,000 cusecs was received in the Somb and Pathrala rivers which further added to the flow in the Yamuna. Accordingly, peak discharge in the Yamuna was 707,000 cusecs on September 8.
About 97 villages in Sadhaura, Bilaspur, Chachrauli and Radaur blocks are flood-affected and agricultural land in 22 villages is submerged in water.
Even though flood waters of the Yamuna spilled into 12 villages in Karnal district, no damage was reported from the abadi area. He further said that the Palwal district authorities had evacuated two villages-- Indra Nagar and Mobali Pur -- and shifted the people to safe places.
The Sonepat and Panipat district authorities have also taken precautionary measures to tackle any situation.

Shivalik Hills to be notified as inter-State biosphere reserve (Hindu 07 September 2010)

Union Minister for Environment and Forests
CHANDIGARH: Union Minister for Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh on Monday said that Shivalik Hills would be notified as the country's first inter-State biosphere reserve with the setting up of a bio-diversity corridor there to protect its natural habitat, flora and fauna.
Speaking at the inaugural session of the sixth edition of a three-day national meeting of State Bio-diversity Boards, he said the corridor would pass through Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir and Uttarakhand.
He said the Shivalik Hills had a cultural and geological importance and that the area had been damaged by unregulated mining of sand and stone. Surely the sand and stone mining mafias would protest the move but it should not be misconstrued as prohibitory; rather it was regulatory, he added.
“We will not stop mining but follow a sustainable approach towards it. There would be a monitoring committee to draft a bio-diversity plan and only then we would allow any economic activity in the area and share the fruits of these bio resources among the people,” Mr. Ramesh said.
Addressing the audience at the event he underlined the need to make optimum use of Traditional Knowledge Digital Library (TKDL), Geographical Indications (GIs) and People's Bio-diversity Registers to prevent the firms and companies within the country and abroad to get our bio resources patented. “Bio-piracy, which is gradually robbing India of its precious assets and rich bio-diversity, has emerged as one of the biggest concerns before the Union Environment and Forests Ministry,” he added. “Recently the US tried to get the patent of our basmati rice with a different name and many other products of neem and haldi, of immense value, facing similar threats. Every year hundreds of patents are being granted in the US and in Europe. Therefore, to save our original products, we had established ‘traditional knowledge digital library'. We have also signed agreements with the US and European patent offices to save our intellectual property rights,” he said.
“Indian culture is not written, it is in an oral form that is conveyed from one generation to another. But modern society is based on written form. Therefore, to avoid various violations, we have started writing down that is called people bio-diversity register. States like Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh have already started it,” said Mr. Ramesh.

New water projects for 14 Haryana towns (Hindu 17 August 2010)

CHANDIGARH: The Haryana Government has taken up a project under the Economic Stimulus Package to provide 100 per cent coverage of water supply and sewerage facilities in 14 towns, an official spokesman said here on Monday.
The towns are Ambala City, Assandh, Bhiwani, Charkhi Dadri, Fatehabad, Hansi, Kalayat, Kaithal, Mahendergarh, Narnaul, Sirsa, Ellenabad, Tohana and Uchana. He further disclosed that Rs. 250 crore had been provided for implementation of the project during the current financial year and efforts are on to provide an adequate supply of safe drinking water in the problem area of Mewat.

Ensure adequate drinking water for Delhi: Court (Hindu 12 August 2010)

New Delhi: Reminding the obligations of a welfare state, the Delhi High Court on Wednesday directed the Delhi Chief Secretary to convene a meeting of the various agencies concerned to chalk out a plan to ensure adequate and safe drinking water supply in the Capital.
A Division Bench of the Court comprising Justice Dipak Misra and Justice Manmohan passed the direction on a public interest litigation by an advocate submitting that the Delhi Jal Board had failed to supply adequate drinking water in the Shahdara area of East Delhi. The Bench directed the Chief Secretary to convene a meeting within a fortnight of the officials of the Delhi Jal Board, Municipal Corporation of Delhi, New Delhi Municipal Council, Delhi Development Authority and Delhi Cantonment Board to chalk out a comprehensive plan to resolve the problem.
The Bench also pulled up the Jal Board for not co-ordinating with the MCD to deal with erratic supply of drinking water.

Where water is polluted and the people are sick (Hindustan Times 13 August 2010)

A resident of Nevada village shouw the stagnant water near their village. The water is full of affluent discharged from industrial units in Baghpat.
A villager shows his palms which have visible signs of skin disease. He said the contaminated underground water is the reason.
During our previous surveys in the area there were some problems reported about the quality of water here (Ghaziabad CMO)
We have no option. Either we consume this water or purchase packaged water, which is beyond our means. (Rajbir Singh)

Ghaziabad: "Mujhe Zeher de do (Give me poison)," cried 70-year-old Sita Devi, a resident of Loni's Lutfullapur Navada village, 30 km from Ghaziabad.
She said she can't bear to look at her skin, which has developed rashes and itches all the time. She also complained about discolouration of her skin.
Navada village, with over 250 households, lies adjacent to a huge drain that carries water from industrial and dying units at Khekra area of Baghpat district in Western Uttar Pradesh.
Residents claimed the contaminated water from the drain gets mixed in the ground water in the area and has, over the years, caused various skin diseases.
The villagers, whose only source of consumable water is hand pumps, said the water in the drain adjoining their village has been stagnant for many years, claiming that this polluted water is contaminating their groundwater.
Regional Pollution Control Board (UPPCB) in-charge T.U. Khan said a survey was conducted in the area some time ago and four deep bored hand pumps were installed for the residents.
"The shallow hand pumps used by the residents had traces of colours during the sampling surveys. So the authorities have installed four deep bored hand pumps," Khan said.
Talking to Hindustan Times, Ghaziabad CMO A.K. Dhawan said, "During our previous surveys, there were some problems reported about the quality of water.
" Another resident, Kuldeep Tyagi, said, "This water emits foul smell, is different in colour and is unfit for drinking. Even after many representations to the administration officials, there has been no permanent solution to this problem."
"We have no option. Either we consume this water or purchase packaged water, which is beyond our means. Safe drinking water is a distant reality for us," said Rajbir Singh, who has developed skin disease along with his eight-year-old son Sonu.
Not just people, animals have also not been spared. Bima Jeet said he purchased seven buffaloes some months ago and they were fed the same water which the humans consume.
"None of the buffaloes have borne any calves and some even got aborted," he claimed.
UPPCB officials and Ghaziabad Additional District Magistrate (ADM-City) S.K. Srivastava said they were unable to control the inflow of water as the matter relates to a different district and the development agency, UP State Industrial Development Corporation (UPSIDC), should work out a plan to dispose of the stagnated water.
UPSIDC Regional Manager R.K. Chauhan said their officials were concerned with the stagnant water in the area and pursued their seniors at Kanpur who have now sanctioned Rs 12 crore to dispose off the water from the area.
"It is a heavy investment which we have to bear just because Baghpat authorities could not make proper arrangements for industrial water disposal," Chauhan told Hindustan Times.
As part of the safe disposal of the stagnant water from Navada, UPSIDC now intends to construct 5.5 km pipeline network, which would take the drain water to an effluent treatment plant near April Park area adjacent to Delhi-Saharanpur road.
The project would take another 3-4 months to get completed, Chauhan added.
Till then the residents of Nevada will have to wait in hope that one day they would be able to have safe and contamination-free water.

Water through Pakistani eyes (Hindu 6 August 2010)

“India is stealing Pakistan's water” has become a familiar cry at the popular level, echoed in the media, picked up by the jihadists, and acquiesced in at the official and expert levels through silence in Pakistan.
Writing in these pages some time ago (March 3, 2010), this writer had expressed the apprehension that perceptions of Indian wrongdoing on water might become widespread in Pakistan and might affect India–Pakistan relations even at the people-to-people level. That is no longer an apprehension; it is a reality. This is a very disturbing development that needs to be understood in India and responded to appropriately. This article will try to set forth the Pakistani perceptions for the information of the general public in this country.
The first point to note is that in Pakistan, as in India, there is a sense of an imminent (or already present) water crisis. The per capita availability of water is said to have declined; groundwater is said to be under stress through over-exploitation; river flows are reported to be diminishing, and some rivers to be so polluted as to be no more than sewers; and water supply in cities is reportedly intermittent and unreliable. All this is very familiar to us in India. Whether the crisis in Pakistan can be averted or minimised through better management is an internal matter for the people of Pakistan to consider. However, the perception of a crisis tends to lead to the attribution of that crisis to Indian wrongdoing. “India is stealing Pakistan's water” has become a familiar cry at the popular level, echoed in the media, picked up by the jihadists, and acquiesced in at the official and expert levels through silence (or even aggravated by official statements). This is a new development. Until recently, there were criticisms of particular Indian projects on the western rivers as not compliant with the Treaty, but no accusations of ‘water theft' by India.
Accepting that Pakistan faces a water crisis, how is the connection to India established? The answer is that some studies reportedly indicate a reduction in the flows in the western rivers, and it seems to be readily assumed that if the flows show a reduction, the upper riparian must have reduced them. India would say that this is a non sequitur, and that if there are reductions in flows, they cannot forthwith be attributed to Indian action. It is clear that both the fact (and extent) of reduced flows and the factors responsible need to be studied.
The second point to note is that Pakistan continues to be uneasy about Indian projects on the western rivers despite the many stringent safeguards provided by the Treaty to protect Pakistan against certain perceived dangers. What answer can India give to that continuing uneasiness, except a request to look at the provisions of the Treaty? Pakistan could have been totally free of anxiety if the Treaty had given it the exclusive use of the western rivers with no provision whatever for even limited use by India; but such a Treaty might not have been signed by India. What both sides agreed to and signed was the Treaty in its present form; and what both sides can do now is to abide scrupulously by the provisions of the Treaty. Unfortunately, the combination of permissive and restrictive provisions in the Treaty, and the density of technical detail in it, make for an adversarial situation in the Permanent Indus Commission (PIC), leading to a constant tug of war, instead of what is desirable, namely, a spirit of constructive cooperation. As for members of civil society, the media and academia in either country, they tend to be guided by whatever officialdom says, because they have no other sources of information.
The third important component in Pakistan's anxiety, whether at the official level or at the level of civil society, is the worry caused by the number of projects that India is planning on the western rivers. Pakistan is apprehensive that even with strict compliance with the provisions of the Treaty in each case, India might, taking all the projects together, acquire a measure of control over the waters of the western rivers and might potentially be able to inflict harm on Pakistan. (A military variant of this view is that with the assistance of such structures India will be able to use water as a weapon of war.)
Two questions arise here: the number of projects that India is planning, and their cumulative potential for harm to the lower riparian. Some Pakistani writings talk about a hundred projects. There seems to be no basis for that number. It appears that India might have in mind some thirty projects or so. It is not clear whether all those projects will in fact be undertaken, but assuming that they are, it is necessary to consider whether all of them will together give India a greater degree of control; enable large storage; make it possible for India to withhold water from Pakistan, or release stored waters and flood Pakistan. The Indian answer would be that most of these will be small projects; that all these are run-of-the-river projects; that given the restrictive provisions of the Treaty, there is hardly any scope either for the retention of waters to the detriment of the lower riparian or for flooding the lower riparian; and that assuming that India wants to harm Pakistan it can do so only by openly violating the Treaty and by first harming itself, its own people, and its own projects (built at great cost).
Having taken note of both Pakistani and Indian views on this question, one would still suggest that the hypothetical fear of ‘cumulative impact' needs to be looked at. Quite apart from Pakistan's worries (real or imaginary), there is room for some concern even from the Indian point of view: by building such a large number of projects on these rivers what are we doing to the river system as a whole and to the ecological system of which they are a part? Perhaps this too is an imaginary fear, but it seems desirable to look at this carefully before dismissing it.
As evidence of possible harm, Pakistan might mention two cases: the initial filling of the Baglihar reservoir, and the planned diversion of Kishenganga waters. The first was a very minor and relatively innocuous matter which was blown up into a huge controversy. One has written about this elsewhere. In any case, the issue has been closed at the last meeting of the PIC. The Kishenganga diversion, which Pakistan considers to be a violation of the Treaty and India holds to be specifically permitted by the Treaty, is going to the Court of Arbitration, and need not be discussed here.
In the light of the foregoing, what needs to be done? This writer has some suggestions: (i) a joint study needs to be made of the fact and extent of reductions in flows in the western rivers and the factors responsible; (ii) whenever the Treaty prescribes an operational condition (as in relation to the initial filling of Baglihar), there should be institutional arrangements for the joint monitoring of compliance at the relevant point (there are none in the Baglihar case); (iii) the working of the Permanent Indus Commission should change from a spirit of tug of war to one of constructive cooperation (but unfortunately this is a function of the political relations between the two countries); (iv) there should be a review of the totality of the planned projects on the western rivers from the ecological perspective as well as from that of Pakistani apprehensions; (v) in both countries, the media, academia and civil society should refrain from echoing official positions and should examine matters independently; and (vi) to facilitate this, all data and information regarding the working of the Treaty should be in the public domain. Going beyond those specifics, it is necessary to take note of and allay what has been called the “visceral lower riparian anxiety,” but is that feasible in an ambience of distrust and hostility (again visceral) often sedulously fostered by official disinformation?
(The writer is a former Union Secretary for Water Resources.)

Protest against go-ahead to dam on the Ganga (Hindu 03 August 2010)

‘ Satyagrahis' demand a public audit of the Loharinag-Pala project
‘No dam on the Ganga':Manushi Sangathan founder Madhu Kishwar (centre) and noted Supreme Court lawyer Major-General (Retd.) Lakhwinder Singh (right) with members of Ganga Jalbiradari during a protest in New Delhi on Monday.
NEW DELHI: Protesting against the Central Group of Ministers' decision to give the go-ahead for the Loharinag-Pala dam on the Ganga, the Ganga Jalbiradari and the Manushi Sangathan organised a daylong fast and ‘ satyagraha' at Samata Sthal opposite the Gandhi Samadhi here on Monday in solidarity with former IIT-Kanpur professor and Central Pollution Control Board ex-member secretary G. D. Aggarwal's indefinite fast on the issue.
The ‘ satyagraha' participants alleged that the Prime Minister's decision to assign the job to a hand-picked Group of Ministers was “overriding and undermining” the power of the National Ganga River Basin Authority (NGRBA).
The “Ganga Satyagrahis” vowed to mobilise Ganga devotees all over the country and demanded a public audit of the Loharinag-Pala project. The protestors said the sanction to the dam project was illegal and in bad faith as the Union Environment Ministry had earlier admitted that the dam did not merit environmental clearance.
A three-member team of experts authorised by the NGRBA had recently submitted an adverse report and recommended decommissioning of the dam, the Ganga Jalbiradari members said.
The protestors further claimed that a team of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India in March had submitted a negative report on the cost-benefit ratio, violation of environmental laws, ecological impact of the power project besides gross corruption and mismanagement.
The Ganga Jalbiradari members also alleged that the GoM was appointed by the Prime Minister without the knowledge of nine expert members of the NGRBA. The protestors alleged that the Central Government had violated written and public assurances given earlier that the natural flow of the Ganga would not be interrupted.
The protestors said they would appeal to the MPs to raise the issue with the Government and called on the public to support the indefinite fast undertaken by Prof. Aggarwal.