The News Review:
- Severe Drought Sounds Alarm for Water Supply
- Water – limitless supply at any cost?
- Drought leaves 18 million thirsty in China
- Kandaleru water reaches zero point
- End Neyyar water row: ryots
Severe Drought Sounds Alarm for Water Supply
china.org.cn – Aug 20, 2006
” 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…
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. “A better management of water resources is also required to reduce the number of regional fights over water from the Yellow River,” Ma Jun said. “Local officials should be judged not just by how fast their local economies grow, but also by how well they protect the environment. ” “Water is the lifeline of a country’s economy and a regional economy. Economic growth cannot be allowed to come at a steep environmental cost. It is time for the government to cope with the realities of declining water stocks and their implications for the whole society,” he said.
Water – limitless supply at any cost?
Hindu – Aug 20, 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.
Drought leaves 18 million thirsty in China
EastDay.com – Aug 20, 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…
Elsewhere in the north, hundreds of thousands of relatively new wells aimed at drawing ground water and aided by advances in modern, efficient pumping methods are now drying up as the water table continues to drop by one meter per year. While the landlocked northern areas of China are tortured by drought, the southern coastal cities also fail to escape the dry spell in spite of richer water resources. “Chemical spills, rampant pollution and poor stewardship of the land have tainted much of the area’s water supply,” said Prof. Though the water resources of the Yangtze River drainage basin are rich with an annual water runoff of more than 980 billion cubic meters, which is 37 percent of all the water runoff of the country, the problems of water pollution and extravagant use of water still cause severe water shortages. In rural areas, the situation is grimmer. More than 300 million people in rural areas are short of clean drinking water and pollution is so severe that the Ministry of Water Resources estimates 40 percent of water in the country’s 1,300 or so major rivers is fit only for industrial or agricultural use.
Kandaleru water reaches zero point
Hindu – Aug 20, 2006
PICHUMANI CHENNAI. The city’s water supply position will be more be comfortable this year with water from Kandaleru reservoir in Andhra Pradesh reaching zero point (the Tamil Nadu-Andhra Pradesh border) in Uthukottai on Saturday. The zero point recorded a flow of about 280 cubic feet per second (cusecs) on Saturday evening, said a Public Works Department official. About 1,300 cusecs was released from the reservoir on Saturday. The water, released on Tuesday, reached zero point at 8…
Thanking the Andhra Pradesh Government for releasing water, the Tamil Nadu Minister said about 1,000 cusecs was expected to be released between August and October. Pointing out that it was the third consecutive year of water release to Tamil Nadu, Mr. Lakshmaiah said Andhra Pradesh was ready to give water as per the agreement and the availability of resources. Water would be provided to Tamil Nadu after tapping it for domestic consumption in Kalahasti and Tirupati. “Though we met with difficulties, we kept our promise made to the Tamil Nadu Government as drinking water was the major need of the people. But, Karnataka and Maharashtra have not provided Krishna water to Andhra Pradesh as per the agreement. ” Officials of the PWD here said water from zero point would travel about 25 km to reach Poondi reservoir by Saturday night or Sunday morning.
End Neyyar water row: ryots
Hindu – Aug 20, 2006
The district secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), Noor Mohammed, said a solution was in sight, thanks to the change of guard in Kerala. The secretary of Tamil Nadu Vivasayigal Sangam, Pandaram Pillai, hoped that a mutual agreement would be arrived between the two Governments. The dam is the source of water supply for the Kanyakumari branch channel and situated in Neyyatinkarai taluk in Thiruvananthapuram district of Kerala. The right side channel taking off from the dam irrigates the ayacut in Kerala and the capacity of the channel is 300 cusecs. The left side channel taking off from the dam irrigates the ayacut both in Tamil Nadu and Kerala. The designed capacity of the left side channel is also 300 cusecs. The Kanyakumari branch channel takes off from the left side channel.