The News Review:
- Severe drought sounds alarm for China’s water supply
- Water for Chennai – limitless supply at any cost?
- Porur water supply project faces further delay
- Delhi Govt. accused of inequitable water distribution
- Six Flags closes water park on news of illness
Severe drought sounds alarm for China’s water supply
China Economic Net – Aug 19, 2006
64 million acres, of crops in just three months, according to the State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters. Although possessing the fourth-largest fresh water reserves in the world, China, by virtue of its population, has the second-lowest per capita water holdings in the world, averaging about 2,200 cubic meters of water per person, a quarter of the world average. Figures from the Ministry of Water Resources show that 400 of China’s more than 600 cities lack water and 110 cities, including the national capital Beijing and adjacent port city Tianjin, face extreme shortages. Beijing in 2008 can expect to face a water shortage of up to 1. 1 billion cubic meters. Outside of the cities, the agricultural heartland, which feeds much of the country and houses the majority of the population, is facing a similar problem as surface water resources and water tables continue to decline in volume. The water shortage nationwide will reach 50 billion cubic meters by 2030 — up from the current 6 billion cubic meters, according to the Ministry of Water Resources…
” China has been a production marvel when it comes to labor costs, but not for water costs. To produce a unit of GDP, China uses approximately six times more water than the Republic of Korea and ten times more than Japan, according to Zhai Haohui, vice minister of water resources. “What China needs most is a dependable and safe internal water supply and a clean environment to act as a stable platform for sustainable economic growth,” he said. So far the government has adopted a multi-faceted strategy to the water issue, he said. Water conservation and recycling programs have been introduced and the water price in major cities including Beijing raised as part of an attempt to stem demand. In addition, steps are being taken to curb rapid deforestation and soil erosion across the country. More innovative forms of water creation, including artificially seeding clouds with dry ice, are introduced, and hydropower, which creates large evaporating reservoirs, is increasingly being replaced with wind power.
Water for Chennai – limitless supply at any cost?
Hindu – Aug 19, 2006
Has Chennai finally found a reliable long-term solution to its notoriously chronic water crisis? Going by the city’s self-promotion as a favoured destination for sophisticated industrial sectors, high-end services and IT, it would seem that it has no reason to worry about water supply to these newcomers. If you are buying a home in Chennai, reliability and quality of water are probably high on your checklist. But do aspects like long-term source sustainability, future supply costs, and ecological calculations figure in your concerns? Let’s look more closely at what constitutes the city’s self-assurance in water resources. Yet, until 2004, Metrowater was unable to supply more than 350 mld in normal years, and 200 mld in the increasingly routine drought years. Years of chronic scarcity were relieved when, in late 2004, the city received 180 mld of Cauvery water through a 230 km pipeline from the Veeranam lake in Cuddalore district. Simultaneously the city was able to realise some supplies from the Krishna river in Andhra Pradesh after eight years of false starts and failed hopes…
This study has predicted that the high-end residential development along the IT corridor would spell disaster for groundwater aquifers and villagers in Sholinganallur area. Lacking effective regulation, private vendors who already supply water to major companies along the corridor would vie to provide for the growing demands of wealthy residential consumers, posing a real threat of seawater intrusion into the aquifer. Indeed there are sections of urban consumers ready and able to pay for this. But in the absence of a perennial water source, Chennai cannot hope to support unlimited consumption by its growing population. A more promising prospect for our water security would be a strategy founded on a recognition of finite resources, focused on harvesting, conservation, recycling of available water, and water-sensitive urban planning. Experts sceptical Instead, desalination is now being touted as the great white hope for the metropolis as a limitless source that will liberate us from the dependence on uncertain rain and the goodwill of neighbouring States.
Porur water supply project faces further delay
Hindu – Aug 19, 2006
Malarvizhi Work will be hit if local body polls are announced Board partially executed the project, spending about Rs. 97 crore “It looks like implementation of the scheme will be delayed by another two months” CHENNAI : The Porur water supply project is like to suffer further delay in implementation despite a fresh grant of funds to the agency executing it. The Chennai Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (CMWSSB) recently had to re-assess the project it estimated at Rs. The Board has partially executed the project, spending about Rs…
97 crore “It looks like implementation of the scheme will be delayed by another two months” CHENNAI : The Porur water supply project is like to suffer further delay in implementation despite a fresh grant of funds to the agency executing it. The Chennai Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (CMWSSB) recently had to re-assess the project it estimated at Rs. The Board has partially executed the project, spending about Rs.
Delhi Govt. accused of inequitable water distribution
Hindu – Aug 19, 2006
accused of inequitable water distribution Staff Reporter BJP leaders to lead a protest march to the Sheila’s residence NEW DELHI: The Bharatiya Janata Party MLA from Saket, Vijay Jolly, along with the MLA from Tughlakabad, Ramesh Bidhuri, on Friday accused the Delhi Government of inequitable distribution of water from the Sonia Vihar water treatment plant and mismanagement of the power situation leading to the worst ever power crisis in the Capital in the past many years. They also announced that they along with senior party leader and former Union Minister Vijay Goel would lead a peaceful march to the residence of Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit this Sunday to protest against the discrimination in water distribution and also the massive power cuts and load-shedding that the people of Delhi have to undergo despite four years into privatisation. Addressing a joint press conference here, Mr. Bidhuri expressed anguish over step-motherly treatment being meted out to residents of Tigri slum clusters, DDA flats, Devli Road colonies, Sangam Vihar, Saket and Pushp Vihar along with Dakshinpuri, Kalkaji Extension and Tughlakabad…
Contesting the claim by Delhi Jal Board CEO Arun Mathur that many South Delhi colonies were getting water for 12 hours now, Mr. Jolly said that was not the case. Accusing the Delhi Jal Board of adopting a biased approach in distribution of drinking water, he said that full water supply was being maintained for the East Delhi parliamentary constituency represented by the Chief Minister’s son, Sandeep Dikshit. They said that despite having pumped nearly Rs. 900 crores into construction of the water treatment plant, only parts of Delhi were being given water as the underground reservoirs were not complete in many cases. “It is a clear indication of the Government apathy and speaks volumes on the functioning of the Delhi Jal Board. ” Mr.
Six Flags closes water park on news of illness
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel – Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (subscription… – Aug 19, 2006
The symptoms appear after the parasite has been ingested and has incubated for about a week. Six Flags Great America officials learned of the Wisconsin cases when one of the families phoned the park. The park was closed voluntarily on Friday for precautionary water treatment; no evidence of the parasite has been found at Hurricane Harbor. In a statement, the park said: “There is no evidence linking this to our water park, and no evidence linking the illness of a small group of friends to our pools. We have received no reports or complaints from our thousands of other guests or from the dozens of lifeguards who are in the pools every hour of every operating day. After closing Hurricane Harbor, an attraction that opened in 2005 and attracts 7,000 people a day, Six Flags Great America began using a process called hyperchlorination on the park’s 2. 6 million gallons of water…
The Health Department declined to release the names of the youths who were sickened, citing the health privacy law. Jim Taylor, a Six Flags Great America spokesman, said that people wishing to check whether Hurricane Harbor has reopened may call the park at (847) 249-1776. In 1993, Milwaukee’s water supply was contaminated with Cryptosporidium, killing 100 people and sickening more than 400,000 others. In 2003, a community swimming pool in Stanley, Wis. , was closed for cleaning after eight people were sickened by Cryptosporidium.