Thrissur city is reeling under an acute water crisis. All wells, ponds and water sources in and around the city have either gone dry or filled up by real estate sharks. There is already a fall in water supply and the situation is bound to deteriorate during summer.

In this grim situation, an interesting success story of rainwater harvesting in Kolazhy, a village in the district, could serve as an inspiration to the Thrissur Corporation. The soil in the village, located just 6 km away from the city, is loamy on the top and has a laterite carpet at the bottom. The average depth of the wells here is nine metres from the ground level.

The State Expert Appraisal Committee (SEAC) has deferred its recommendation for environmental clearance to the first phase of the SmartCity Kochi project based on the inference that “the proposal submitted by the proponent had many factual errors and lacked a specific plan of environmental management”.

Stating that the SEAC had expressed its displeasure in drafting the ambitious project of the State government in such a very casual manner, sources told The Hindu that the promoter has failed to seriously consider many of the environmental factors while drafting the proposal.

Pune: Only 35 out of the approximate 10,000 buildings constructed in the city in the last five years have received the status of an ecofriendly structure.

The civic body adopted the ecohousing policy in 2008 to promote environmental, economic, health and safety benefits that come with such buildings. The policy plans to educate developers, architects as well as buyers to change the city's scenario and to create awareness about such homes. As per the PMC officials, on an average nearly 2,000 building permissions are issued by the PMC each year. Considering this, permissions to around 10,000 buildings have been given in the city in the last five years.

Inadequate fund allocation is hampering the ambitious Noyyal river system revival or restoration project and the meagre allocation of Rs. 30 lakh per annum is just proving to be insufficient even for carrying out emergency repairs to the channels and tanks.

Noyyal that originates in Western Ghats near Poondi and runs through Coimbatore, Tirupur and Erode, to become a tributary for Cauvery, is the lifeline of these districts. It runs for 65 km in Coimbatore, 34 in Tirupur and 39 in Erode before joining river Cauvery in Kodumudi. The system was once catering to the irrigation needs of over 36,000 acres.

NONGPOH: With the aim and objective to avoid acute shortage of drinking water and to prevent the State from shortage of portable water, the Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) of North Eastern Region, Guwahati, Under the Ministry of Water Resources launched a two-day training course on village level aquifer management plan to preserve the ground water on Tuesday at C&RD Block office, Umsning.

Ri-Bhoi Deputy Commissioners Akash Deep, who inaugurated the training, and P Kalita, Scientist, CGWB, were the special invitees at the programme.

Hyderabad: Hyderabad is facing the threat of groundwater degradation beyond recoverable level, warn Indian researchers of a German University.

A team of four researchers from the department of engineering geology and hydrogeology, RWTH Aachen University has taken up studies on the scarcity of water in the mega cities in India. Hyderabad is one of the cities selected for research thanks to its rapid urbanisation and heavy pressure on water resources.

The 'water ATM' can process 1,000 litres in an hour

As dawn breaks, two queues start forming at the only petrol pump in Lakshmangarh, a small town in Rajasthan’s Alwar district. One, obviously, is of people waiting to get their vehicles’ fuel tanks refilled. The other is in front of a simple metal box mounted on the petrol pump’s boundary wall. People like to call it an ATM machine. But, instead of dispensing cash, it gives them clean drinking water.