Micro watershed management needed

By M V Sridhara

Existing drains in urban areas will have to be carefully connected to tanks in the neighbourhood.

Pursuant to the Prime Minister’s meeting which decided to declare the River Ganga a national river a meeting chaired by the Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister today discussed the framework for the proposed Ganga River Basin Authority. The State Governments of basin states generally endorsed the key features of the draft notification for comprehensive planning for the river. The Ganga River Basin Authority is to be chaired by the Prime Minister with the Chief Ministers of the five Ganga Basin states of Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal as members. It will also have the Union Ministers of Environment and Forests, Finance, Urban Development, Water Resources, Power, Science and Technology and Dy. Chairman, Planning Commission as members.
Ganga basin Authority notification discussed
by , Press Information Bureau,GOI, 10 February, 2009
The Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh today approved the notification for setting up the Ganga River Basin Authority for comprehensive management of the Ganga basin. The Notification would be issued with immediate effect. The framework for the proposed authority was finalized today after discussion at a meeting chaired by the Principal Secretary to Prime Minister with Chief Secretaries of the Ganga Basin states of Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand while West Bengal was represented by Principal Secretary, Department of Environment of West Bengal. The five states unanimously endorsed the proposal, based on which the Ministry of Environment and Forests will issue the notification under the Environment Protection Act. This Authority chaired by the Prime Minister will consist of Chief Ministers of the Ganga Basin states as members along with related ministers of the Government of India. The first meeting of the Authority to be chaired by the Prime Minister would be held at the earliest.
Ganga river basin authority notification
by , Press Information Bureau,GOI, 01 January, 1970
Climate Change is perhaps the biggest challenge facing the world today. There is little doubt that the responsibility of having created this specter that threatens our very survival, lies with the policies and practices of the countries of the Global North. It is also true that the western world, the UN and all the various multilateral agencies, including the UNFCCC have not managed to come up with anything more than feeble, cosmetic efforts in this direction. Given these circumstances, the western world has forfieted the right to lecture on this issue. At the same tiem, for a variety of reasons. India is more vulnerable to climate change impacts than the US the Europe or even China. Within India it is the rural and urban poor. Dalits and Adivasis, those who depend on access to natural resources for their fragile livelihoods that are the most vulnerable. This is the cruel irony of Climate Change: those who have contribured least towards causing it, will suffer the most because of it. More crucial still, they are the ones who have been entirely left out of the process of finding a solution.
There is Little Hope Here
by Himanshu Thakkar, South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers & People, 01 February, 2009
NWP 2002 published in April 2002, is the second edition of India’s NWP, the first one was in 1987 Being a policy statement, it does not have legal force. Its formulation did not involve necessary consultations. One does not see reflection of NWP while planning, decision making or implementing water resources development or management projects.
Provisions & Practices in Water Sector in India (Powerpoint Presentation)
by , Sandrp.in, 16 March, 2007
Water is becoming a focal topic, linking food security, ecological sustainbility and socio-economic development. The rising demand for water leads to depletion of natural water resources as well as to increasing competition and conflict between various group of users.
Water and Democracy
by K Rama Rao, Evangelischer Entwicklungs Dienst, 24 February, 2007
\"Exaggerated Fears on Linking Rivers\" is significant as it comes from BG Verghese, a member of the Government of India (GOI) appointed Task Force on River Linking. One fundamental issue that has been raised by the critics of the India Government\'s river linking proposals is, do we need it at all and if yes, then for what needs and benefits? (It must be clarified that there is a fundamental difference between needs and benefits. Fulfilment of needs could be included in benefits, but all projected benefits by a protagonist may not be called needs.)
SANDRP Response to BG Verghese (member of the ILR Task Force) on ILR : Verghese in denial
by Himanshu Thakkar, Himal, 01 September, 2003
Dikes and dams, levees and anicuts, storm surge barriers and tanks-- these are thick things.1 Most of them are thick in size, such as the hundreds of kilometers length of dikes to keep the water out of the Netherlands. (Some things were not thick enough though, such as the levees to keep the water inside the Mississippi River and the New Orleans canals in 2005.2) All of them are thick in connections and linkages: like the anicuts that form crucial starting points for networks ofirrigation canals and tanks in South India. All of them are thick with values, such as the Oosterschelde storm surge barrier that is hailed as a celebration of modern environmental democracy in the Netherlands.
Dikes and Dams, Thick with Politics
by Wiebe E. Bijker, CEC Order, 15 November, 2007
Mismanagement and negligent operations of the large reservoirs on Tapi, Narmada, Kirshna, Godavari, Mahiand Sabarmati Rivers have created man made disaster in Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Karnatakaand Andhra Pradesh. The Big dams that were expected to reduce the floods have actually been responsiblefor the flood disaster visiting these states now, the states that also happen to have the largest number of bigdams.
Criminal Negligence of Dam Operators Lead to Man Made Disaster
by Himanshu Thakkar, Dams, Rivers And People, 10 August, 2006
Middle of 1950s saw a flood control mania in North Bihar when the Kosi was embankedwith much of fanfare defying all the logic and throwing to winds the debate of over acentury against embanking of rivers. The Kamla, a relatively small river was embankedimmediately thereafter without any debate or preparation. This embanking wascompleted in three phases and the third phase is still continuing.
People Within The Kamla Embankments Of Mithila Region Of Bihar
by Dinesh Kumar Mishra, Barh Mukti Abhiyan, 02 June, 2006
Ken-Betwa Link Project (KBLP) is one of the links among 30 River links proposed by the Government of India’s National Water Development Agency (NWDA), involving MP and UP in the Bundelkhand region. A 73.8 m high Greater Gangau Dam (GGD) is proposed on Ken River near Daudhan village, on the border of Chhatarpur-Panna districts in Madhya Pradesh, 2.5 km upstream from the existing Gangau Weir. The water is to be transferred to Betwa river through a 231.45 km long concrete lined link canal which is to drop water upstream of the existing Barwasagar reservoir in Jhansi district in UP. The project is supposed to strengthen the Paricha barrage canal system. Two power projects (60 MW and 12 MW) are also planned on the left bank of the proposed dam.
Analysis of the Ken Betwa River Link Proposal
by Himanshu Thakkar and Bipin Chandra Chaturvedi, South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers & People, 01 October, 2005
Bihar will be exposed to the fury of rivers this year and the setting is getting completebecause of non-formation of the Government. Water Resources Department of the statehad identified 280 schemes to be taken up on to prevent breaches in the embankments.As a customary, all the works on the Kosi embankments are completed before Marchevery year. All other maintenance and repair works are completed by the end of May.Nothing has been done so far because the decisions are delayed and the files areshuttling between various sections of the Department of Water Resources, in theabsence of a popular Government.
Bihar Flood Dispatch-1
by Dinesh Kumar Mishra, Barh Mukti Abhiyan, 19 March, 2005
The current debate in India on the government’s river linking proposal is occurring when the coalition in power at the centre is preparing to face general elections next year. On the issue of water, agriculture, food and energy resources’ development and management, the coalition government led by the Bharatiya Janata Party could not have done much worse. The clearest evidence of under-achievement comes from the way the coalition managed the droughts of 2000 and again in 2002-3, and the way it is managing floods this monsoon.
Flood of nonsense How to manufacture consensus for river-linking
by Himanshu Thakkar, Himal, 01 August, 2003
Pursuant to the notice issued by this Court to all the States and the Union Territories in relation to the inter-linking of the rivers, an affidavit has been filed by the Union of India and also by the State of TN. No other State or UT has filed any affidavit and the presumption, therefore, clearly is that they do not oppose the prayer made in this WP and it must be regarded that there is a consensus amongst all of them that there should be inter-linking of rivers in India.
The Mindlessness called River Linking Proposals
by Himanshu Thakkar, South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers & People, 01 May, 2003
  1. Living with Floods: People’s Perspective
  2. Flood Protection That Never Was : Case of Mahananda Basin of North Bihar
  3. Natural Resources Management :Approaches to Private Participation in Water Services - A Toolkit
  4. Riverlinking

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