Water balance is a useful hydrologic tool. Recent literature has seen some studies on India’s water budget, which show that evapotranspiration estimate for India is much lower than what may be expected given the India’s climate and land use. This note attempts to find an answer to this puzzle and suggests how it can be resolved.

Many areas in Secunderabad Cantonment are reeling under a severe water scarcity. The cantonment civilian population requires over 75 lakh gallons of water every day against the present supply of less than 40 lakh gallons. Citizens and elected ward members said a major water supply pipeline laid between Mahindra Hills and Karkhana for the supply of additional 10 lakh gallons water per day had been awaiting the release of water for two years.

Once phase-I of Godavari project is commissioned, the water will first reach Hitec City, Sainikpuri, Cantonment, Kapra, Alwal, Malkajgiri, Qutbullapur, Kukatpally, Rajendernagar and Serilingampally areas. In other words, the residential colonies of surrounding municipalities, which are reeling under severe water scarcity, will be the first among the beneficiaries to receive Godavari water. To put the internal distribution system in place for the supply of Godavari water in the city alone will cost nearly Rs 500 crore.

Cairn Energy India Pty Ltd. (CEIL), on Tuesday, said it had discovered oil in Nagayalanka-SE-1 well in the onshore block of Krishna-Godavari Basin.

CEIL, the wholly-owned subsidiary of Cairn India Ltd. (CIL), has notified the management committee — comprising Director-General of Hydrocarbons, ONGC and Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas — of the discovery in the onshore block KG-ONN-2003/1.

The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) has pulled up the Gujarat government-run Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation (GSPC) for financial irregularities and undue favour to select companies such as Reliance Industries Ltd and Adani Enterprises Ltd. According to its report for the year ended March 2010-11, GSPC incurred losses of a little more than Rs 5,000 crore during 2006-2011 for exploration activities at its oil and gas block in the Krishna-Godavari (K-G) basin.

The Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, Jayalalithaa, has requested her Andhra Pradesh counterpart, N. Kiran Kumar Reddy, to release water from the Kandaleru reservoir to Chennai to meet the city's drinking water requirements in the coming months.

In a letter to Mr.Reddy, the Chief Minister thanked him for releasing Krishna water from Kandaleru from June 23 last year pursuant to her letter.

Water bodies, big or small, assume great importance as sources of storage and groundwater recharge — but they are also easy prey for abuse. Three such long-neglected lakes will be rejuvenated next month, with the State government proposing to turn them into drinking water sources to meet the growing demands of the expanded city.

Tiruvallur district will soon get its fifth reservoir to meet the growing drinking needs of Chennai. The Water Resources Department has initiated the process by inviting bids from firms for consultancy service to conduct environment studies for the project.

The consultants are required to get clearance from Environment Impact Assessment Authority of Central government for the proposed reservoir with a capacity to hold up to one thousand million cubic feet of water, by filling it twice.

GO to divert Hemavathi water to Sira sparks row; Kunigal farmers approach HC

Summer usually brings to the fore the century-old Cauvery river water dispute between the two riparian states -- Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. But this year’s summer seems to have sparked a fresh row over the Cauvery water within the State.

The entire Western Ghats must be considered as ecologically sensitive, especially to ensure the sustainability of the rivers of the Indian Peninsula, the Madhav Gadgil Committee report has said.

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