V Krithiga
Tirunelveli

ANOTHER intra-river linking project in the State is expected to take off shortly as the State Government has released Rs 50 crore for the first phase of the project.
The project involves linking the Tamirabarani, Nambiyar and Karumaeniyar rivers in Tirunelveli district to divert floodwater to the rain deficient districts of Radhapuram, Nanguneri and Sattankulam taluks.

Making the announcement here on Friday , District Collector (in charge), G Srinivasan, said a Government Order to this effect was issued in the last week of June.

Municipal commissioner Jairaj Phatak on Sunday inspected the ongoing work at Mithi river after the Congress MLA from Kurla, Naseem Khan, expressed displeasure over the second phase of the widening project. Khan claimed that the work was moving slowly and demanded completion of the project before the onset of the monsoon.

The drinking water situation in Chennai is comfortable and the city will not face any water shortage even during peak summer, Secretary to Public Works Department S. Audiseshiah said here on Saturday.

An exhibit at the Birla Industrial and Technological Museum. Picture by Amit Datta The next best thing to a Hooghly cruise with your child this summer could be a visit to the Birla Industrial and Technological Museum for a virtual journey through the rivers of the world. The museum is holding the exhibition to commemorate its 49th anniversary and will be open for 45 days before travelling to other cities.

The Ministry of Water Resources (MoWR) said that Inter-linking of river can be taken up as a national project. The Minister, however, clarified that no river-interlinking project under National Perspective Plan (NPP) is currently under implementation and the Project depended on the consensus and cooperation of the States and agreements with neighbouring countries.

Water being an emotive issue, only a mandated institution can provide a platform to build consensus among States On the occasion of World Water Day, 2002, Kofi Annan, the then U.N. Secretary General, had warned that "water issues contain the seeds of violent conflict.' Similar sentiments were echoed recently by Ban Ki-moon in his message on World Water Day, 2008, that the problems growing from the scarcity of a vital resource (like water) would spill over state borders creating a high risk of violent conflict.

The multi-crore Polavaram project in Andhra Pradesh is currently embroiled in legal issues. But now, the project is being contested on technical issues as well. A study carried out by the