JONAI

Operators of waterway transports have urged the government to take immediate steps for dredging of rivers the navigability of which, they said, have declined drastically on major routes blocking movement of vessels. Due to insignificant dredging, navigability of river channels across the country has shrunk to only 3,800 kilometers in the current dry-season, against 28,000 kilometers in 1971, they said.

Shipbuilders', Launch Owners' and Cargo Vessel Owners' Association yesterday urged the government to take immediate steps for dredging rivers to save the waterway transportation. The three water sector organisations that represent about 2,000 inland and coasting ships also demanded the government for zero tax facility in importing heavy capital machinery to let the ship making industry flourished. They warned that plying of water vehicles would be stopped if the government does take urgent steps to dredge riverbeds.

Inspite of surplus water and one of the world's richest traditions of managing it, India's water crisis has reached critical levels, an author of a new book on the subject has warned. Goa is one of the places former business and environmental journalist Nitya Jacob has studied in what he called an "ecological travelogue' across the Indian subcontinent, focused on water.

PRESSURE over the declining health of Australia's rivers has been thrown back on the states, with federal Water Minister Penny Wong using the announcement of $3.1 billion in environmental flows to highlight the plight of rivers such as Melbourne's Yarra. The $3.1 billion for buying back water entitlements in the Murray-Darling is part of $12.9 billion for water in next month's federal budget.

As the governments of Argentina and Brazil are taking a new look at the Garabi hydroelectric project, initially planned in 1972, environmentalists are calling attention to the dam's potential harm to

Following opposition at a public hearing, Canada's environment minister has blocked a run-of-river type hydro facility proposed to be built on the Upper Pitt river in the province of British

The Australian state Victoria has finally agreed to sign the Murray-Darling Basin national water plan. Victoria agreed to the plan in return for a $1 billion (us $0.9 billion) to upgrade its

Bodo Territorial Council (BTC) executive member Mano Kumar Brahmo today visited the countrys's biggest National Rural Employment Gurantee (NREGA) project at river Swrmanga in Kokrajhar district. The construction of the left and right embankment of river Swrmanga at a cost of Rs 46.22 crore is well in progress.

KRISHNAGAR Less than a month before the panchayat elections begin, the Nabadwip block Trinamul Congress has decided to focus on the issue of erosion along the banks of the Ganga. To register their outrage against the state's inaction in checking river erosion, the Nabadwip Trinamul Congress blocked Nabadwip road on Sunday morning and also stopped the Shantipur-Nabadwip toy train at Maheshganj near Nabadwip.