Water level goes up in major dams

THENI: In the wake of torrential rain in several parts of the district on Saturday night, water level in major dams has gone up considerably. The level at Sothuparai dam on Sunday was 104 feet (total height of the dam is 127 feet).

Heavy rain in Kodaikanal hills scaled up flow into Sothuparai dam considerably. The storage level in Vaigai dam also increased by half a foot to touch 67.52 feet.

However, water level went down to 120 feet in Periyar dam owing to heavy discharge into the Mullaperiyar river (the level was 126.10 feet on Saturday).

But inflow into the dam has increased to 1,665 cusecs, compared to 905 cusecs the previous day. The dam site also received heavy downpour. Public Works Department officials have stepped up discharge to 1,463 cusecs from the dam.

Vaigai dam has been receiving good inflow since Friday. It has gone up to 1,778 cusecs from 1,208 cusecs the previous day.

Second flood warning will be issued to five southern districts from Vaigai dam when the level touches 68.5 feet. Already, Manjalar dam on the foothills of Kodaikanal has water to its brim.

Total rainfall recorded at 8 a.m. in the district in mm: Periyar 37, Thekkadi 3, Gudalur 39.5, Shanmuganadhi dam 2, Uthamapalayam 8, Vagai dam 8 and Veerapandi 7.

With sufficient flow, water level in Varadhamanadhi and Palar Porundhalar dam rose sharply. Even as the power crisis has hit agriculture activities, farmers in rain-fed areas have managed to complete sowing in several parts of the district with the moderate showers in the last one week. “If there had not been intermittent showers, we would not have saved our crops and seedlings would have withered,” said farmers. “We have sufficient water in the wells. But, unfortunately, we cannot use it owing to load shedding.”

Source The Hindu

Caring for the Environment...

Swami Vivekananda Youth Movement has always ensured that all activities it undertakes have a positive environmental impact. Apart from this, SVYM is constantly endeavouring to use alternate energy sources in its different campuses. Today, solar power plants in SVYM campuses produce close to 15 KW of power. This is used for lighting, charging the UPS which runs the computers and telephone systems, for electrifying fences and energising the water pumps. Efficient hearths and ovens built with technology provided by the Indian Institute of Science have reduced the fuel consumption by more than 60%.

SVYM has planted more than 25,000 trees on all its campuses put together and is constantly working towards reducing fossil fuels consumed for its vehicles. SVYM has installed rain-water harvesting structures in most of its buildings. It is now working to ensure that soil and water conservation techniques are used in all its campuses.

Rain water harvesting

by Shimar
The world is facing scarcity of water. There is water shortage everywhere. Earlier, we used to get water from the municipal corporation twice a day. But now-a-days, we get it only once a day and that too for one hour only. So perhaps it would be wiser to go in for rain water harvesting in this monsoon.

Rain water harvesting means collecting the rain water, purifying it and then storing the water for future use.

A rainwater harvesting system consists of transporting rainwater through pipes or drains, filtration of the collected rainwater and storing it in tanks for reuse or recharge.


Rain water harvesting is a great solution to prevent water crisis.

How to Save Rain Water ?

How to do RWH ( Rain Water Harvesting ) :

In Cities : If you live in a single dwelling house or a multi-tenant apartment complex, you already have 80% of the RWH system. We just need re-orient the plumbing design.The present design of the house will take all the rainwater from the roof and all the ground level areas surrounding the house and flow the water towards the street. (where it floods the street,clogs the storm drains and sewer lines for a few days, before flowingaway as sewage water) .From the roof tops, bring the rainwter down using closed PVC pipes and direct it to a sump. Include a simple 3-part filteration unit consisting of sand, brick jelly and broken mud bricksIf you do not have sump, use a well. In many parts of the country, old wells when they go dry, is used as garbage dumps. Please clean the well and put the rain water into it.

If you do not have a well, construct a baby well (about 2ft in diameter and about 16 feet deep based on soil structure)


Other types of RWH - collect the ground water and stop their flow at the gate. Put a concrete slab with holes in it, build a 2 feet deep pit, across the full width of the gate. Collect and connect a pipe and flow the water to a well or a baby well.


In Rural Areas : Build community wells in a few places in the village. Within 10-20 feet from the well, construct a bore-well using a hand-operated pump. Educate the villagers to keep the area around the well and the bore well clean - no washing (human, cattle, motor cycles, clothing), no defecation.


If there are existing water tanks in the village, desilt and dredge them every 3 years. If there are any small rivers or streams, build check-dams across them to hold the rain water for usage after the rains have stopped.

India third biggest CO2 emitter in world; NTPC tops list

MIAMI: India is the third biggest emitter of carbon dioxide in the world, with state-owned NTPC topping the list of companies belching the deadly gas, according to new data released by a Washington-based think tank which has advocated an "energy revolution" in the country based on solar power.

The Centre for Global Development (CGD) said that India figures at the third position in the list of biggest CO2 emitters through power generation after China and the United States.

When contacted, NTPC officials said in Delhi, "We are among the most efficient producers of power using fossil fuels. NTPC is the second best in the world, emitting only 800 grams of CO2 per kwh of electricity generation."
Out of 638,000,000 tons of CO2 emission by India every year, NTPC alone contributes for 186,000,000 tons which constitutes about 30 per cent of the total gas release, the data revealed and Talcher power plant in Orissa operated by the company has the notoriety of emitting the biggest quantity of CO2.

As many as 16 power plants, operated by NTPC, one of the Navratna companies of India, are in CGD's "Red Alert" category for spewing out the deadly gas in the country.

The findings, part of a recent report by CGD on "China surpassing the US as the world's biggest emitter of CO2 from power generation", also name Russia, Germany, Japan, UK, Australia, South Africa, and South Korea among the world's top-ten power sector emitter in absolute terms.

CPI-M promoted water theme park at Kannur

The water theme park was inaugurated by CPI (M) party state Secretary Pinarayi Vijayan (File photo)
A water theme and amusement park, the first such cooperative venture run by Kerala's ruling CPI (M), has been opened at the picturesque temple town of Parassinikadavu in Kannur on Sunday (August 31).

In his inaugural address, party state Secretary Pinarayi Vijayan said that the setting up of the Rs 30 crore "Vismaya" Amusement Park, spread over 30 acres of land, indicated the growing influence of "cooperative movement" in Kerala. Kannur district occupies a prime place in the state having maximum number of cooperative units.

Chief Minister V S Achuthanadan, who was scheduled to have inaugurated the park, could not make it due to indisposition. Opposing the "misinformation" campaign by certain quarters that setting up of the park would lead to depletion of ground water reserves in the area and result in ecological degradation, Vijayan said such "deliberate attempts" were aimed at misleading the public. In fact, the entire water requirement for the park is to be drawn from a rain water harvesting tank with capacity of 500 lakh litres, he said.

"The park is not going to use ground water and those who spearheaded the "misinformation campaign" should realise their mistakes," Vijayan said. This sort of campaigns would create false apprehensions among the people and have a "negative" approach on developmental issues, he said. The project is managed by CPI-M controlled Malabar Tourism Development Cooperative Society Ltd (MTDC).

The inaugural function was attended by Home and Tourism Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, Health Minister P K Sreemathi, local MPs P Karunakaran, A P Abdulla Kutty, local MLAs M Prakashan, P Jayarajan, Ramachandran Kadannappaly and K K Shylaja.

The newly formed Malabar Pleasures (India) Pvt Ltd would be responsible for running the park, MTDC Chairman and District Panchayat President K K Narayanan said. The park, said to have been modelled as per international standards, has a musical fountain and children's park, among other facilities. (PTI)

A Plan For Water Sustainability

The current levels of water use are completely unsustainable in Australia. Excessive water use, especially by heavy industry and water-intensive agribusiness, is causing irreparable damage to our fragile ecosystems and creating chronic water shortages.


Conventional free-market economics aims to solve this problem by putting a price on water and allowing it to be traded by those who can afford to purchase it. This approach allows governments to ignore the real challenge of conserving water properly and rationing its use according to need.

Trading in water encourages the most profitable, rather than the most sustainable and socially just, uses. It leads to poor farming practices and increased prices for residential use.

The federal and state governments’ National Water Initiative has this approach. It is also insufficiently funded to achieve the wholesale conversion of water infrastructure and reduction in water demand that the ecosystems along the Murray-Darling basin need in order to recover.

A serious water conservation policy has to target the big industrial and agricultural water users. Currently, the lack of water conservation by industry and agribusiness means that the efforts of householders to conserve water are wasted.

Water is not simply an “input” into industry and agriculture; it is the central element of our ecosystems. Instead of market-based approaches, we need an all-round plan for water sustainability based on a thorough scientific assessment of rivers, wetlands and water tables. Indigenous communities’ knowledge is an essential part of developing sound proposals for water conservation.

There is enough water for everyone if comprehensive conservation measures are adopted and its use is allocated fairly. Such an approach would also remove the need to build further large, environmentally damaging dams.

To achieve the goal of water sustainability, public ownership and democratic, accountable management of water resources is essential. Unless water is publicly owned, the profit motive will always disrupt scientifically based water conservation measures.

No privatisation of water

•No privatisation of water and water infrastructure (dams, water pipelines, pumping stations). Where these have already been privatised, they should be returned to public ownership.

•No public-private partnerships for water projects; all water projects to be 100% in public hands.

No water trading

•Establish water allocations for each catchment and region based on the assessed needs (scientific, environmental, agricultural/industrial and domestic) of that area.

•No trading of water “rights” for speculative purposes.

•End schemes for trading between regions, such as the pipeline being built to Melbourne from the Goulburn Valley.

An all-round water conservation plan

In the country:

•build irrigation pipelines to save water evaporating in open-channel irrigation areas;

•promote and fund conversion to drip irrigation wherever practicable;

•reduce water extraction rates from groundwater systems until depletion ceases;

•stop land clearing and logging in important water catchments to preserve water quality, and increase funding to land clearing prevention services;

•implement plans to restore water catchment areas and halt the damage done by land clearing, erosion and mining;

•prioritise the replanting of native vegetation in damaged catchment areas;

•fund education and appropriate assistance for farming communities to move to lower water-use crops and farming practices; and

•phase out water-intensive monoculture crops in climatic regions that remain unsustainable.

In urban areas:

•improve urban water conservation by providing grants to subsidise installation of water tanks, grey water systems and dry composting toilets;

•recycle water for appropriate industrial and outdoor use;

•enforce conservation measures on industrial and commercial water users;

•require sustainable water use planning for all new industrial, commercial and agricultural developments; and

•establish comprehensive water efficiency standards for appliances.

Desalination

•Use desalination only as a last resort.

•Do not build desalination plants unless they use renewable energy and brine discharge is avoided.

Restore river flows

•Establish adequate, scientifically based flow targets for all river systems.

•Use the water made available by conservation measures to restore flow in rivers and wetlands to a level sufficient to sustain the river ecosystem in its natural state or as close as can be scientifically determined.

•Buy back water allocations to increase flows further if conservation measures are insufficient, and increase funding for buying back water allocations if necessary.

•Fully protect the rivers of northern Australia in order to prevent a recurrence of the Murray-Darling disaster.

Full support for affected communities

•Provide financial assistance for transition, including relocation and retraining, to regional communities where farming and other activity is stopped or severely curtailed by water conservation measures and/or ongoing drought and climate change.

•Assist rural communities to establish sustainable farming practices to maintain national food supply.

•Increase funding to Landcare to provide permanent employment for farmers displaced by water conservation measures and climate change.

[Abridged from the Socialist Alliance’s national policy on water.]