As the monsoon retreats and the flood waters recede, the flood bank and bed of the River Dikrong in Itanagar, Arunachal Pradesh becomes a humming ground of the human activities. Temporary labour tents or huts, crusher machines, movement of trucks and other vehicles all along the length and breadth become the state of affairs in the river.

Although persistent drought in West Africa is well documented from the instrumental record and has been primarily attributed to changing Atlantic sea surface temperatures, little is known about the length, severity, and origin of drought before the 20th century.

In geochemical studies of water it is a general practice to filter the water samples through a 0.45 ?m membrane. Filtered samples are then acidified with a mineral acid (mostly nitric acid) to a pH

Heavy metal (Pb, Cd, Cr, Ni ) concentration in water sediments and fish was analysed from Madivala lake in the month of June 2008. There was an appreciable increase in metal concentrations in going from the water to the sediment samples.The Heavy metal concentration, in water was in the order Pb > Cr > Cd > Ni , in sediments Pb > Cr > Cd > Ni.

The breach of the Kosi embankment in Nepal in August 2008 marked the failure of conventional ways of controlling floods. After discussing the physical characteristics of the Kosi River and the Kosi barrage project, this paper suggests that the high sediment content of the Kosi River implies a major risk to the proposed Kosi high dam and its ability to control floods in Bihar.