The state budget that is to be announced on March 26 is likely to be a populist one with the state government planning to expand the ambit of its social welfare schemes and announcing some new ones. However, given the challenges faced by the state, chief minister Ashok Gelhot will have to tread cautiously and present a balanced budget for the overall growth of the state.

Sinking borewells is no solution to tackling water crisis. Aggressively advocating rainwater harvesting will help mitigate the scarcity, said Amita Prasad, principal secretary, Rural Development and Panchayat Raj (RDPR).

Addressing officials on World Water Day, Prasad said the biggest problem faced by the Department of Panchayat Raj and Rural Development was not effectively managing water wealth. Water quality and coverage should be the priority. Sinking of borewells should be stopped, she said.

March 21: On World Water Day tomorrow, when UN experts will mull ways to save the world’s shrinking freshwater resources, animals in Gibbon wildlife sanctuary in Jorhat will wake up to another thir

Residents of Rajagopalnagar in Peenya Industrial Area are forced to drink water, from a borewell, with high levels of chromium in the absence of an alternative.

Not potable: A resident of Rajagopalnagar shows water drawn from a public tap in the area that is green in colour, due to chromium contamination. levels of chromium in water causes skin irritation or ulceration in the short-term, while lifetime exposure to levels above the maximum contamination level can damage liver, kidney and nerve tissues.

Move to end water crisis in Tura

Tura: After facing intense pressure from the people and various NGOs, political parties and stake holders of Garo Hills, the State Government has cleared the decks for sanctioning of three new pumps and maintainence of old ones with immediate effect to bring to a close the ongoing water crisis in Tura.

Apprehending severe water crisis in Bangalore in the near future, the Expert Committee constituted to assess long-term additional needs of water for the City, has urged the government to re-look at the controversial reservoir project at Mekedatu that was shelved earlier.

The 10-member committee headed by B N Thyagaraja, retired BWSSB chairman, submitted its report to the government in December 2011, suggesting short-term and long-term measures to tide over the crisis.

New Delhi: Drinking water is supposed to be one of India’s success stories — the government says it met its Millennium Development Goal on water five years ahead of time, and that its rural drinkin

Since infrastructure inevitably lags behind commercial development, there is a severe water problem in about 800 new colonies located at various places in 12 surrounding municipalities that are now part of Greater Hyderabad. A majority of these colonies are not even connected to a drinking water distribution system and thousands of families have to buy drinking water.

A global meeting on water opened in France on Monday with demands to bring clean water and sanitation to billions in need and to address worsening scarcity and waste.

KOCHI: Summer is the cruellest for the people of Kuttanad as drinking water would be the most sought-after thing in Kuttanad. The waterlogged areas of Kuttanad like Chambakulam, Edathua, Kainakary and Thayankari are reeling under acute shortage of potable water.

According to the people in Edathua, more than six wards of the panchayat have no water pipeline connection and the drinking water is brought here in boats from distant places.