SRINAGAR: The Union Minister of State for Urban Development, Dr. Saugata Roy today conducted an extensive tour of the Dal Lake and also visited golden Lake Dole Demb area to review the ongoing works.

The Union Minister was briefed about the progress achieved on the conversation measures like Sewerage Treatment, laying of trunk, lateral/secondary sewer network, working of existing STPs and progress in respect of new STPs coming up at Brari Numbal and Nallah Amir Khan.

The WEPA Outlook is the flagship publication of WEPA which includes basic information on the water environment and its management in each WEPA partner country. The Outlook 2012 consists of three main chapters. Chapter 1 presents the result of the analysis of institutional frameworks for water environmental management in each country.

Untreated waste water is a health hazard. Nonetheless, it should be considered a resource. Unless it is recycled and re-used, it will be impossible to provide all people in the cities of developing countries with safe drinking water. The example of India shows that agglomerations cannot get ever more fresh water from ever farther away.

The Tawi, the river that gives Jammu its identity, is today a channel to dispose of human waste, and little else.

The Centre was asked by the Delhi high court on Wednesday to respond to a PIL seeking a ban on treated effluents entering water bodies.

Flowing of city drains, nallahs into Tawi

JAMMU: Having remained inactive over the issue of preparing a comprehensive plan to preserve river Tawi and making it free from pollution, for which a resolution was passed in the Upper House last year, majority of the members in the House of Elders cornered the Minister of State in charge Housing and Urban Development, Nasir Aslam Wani, today.

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday issued notices to the Union Ministry for Environment & Forests, the Central Pollution Control Board and the Delhi Jal Boad on a petition by a social activist alleging that the release of effluents from the Capital's sewage treatment plants into water bodies was polluting them as well the ground water making it hazardous for use.

When the first set of detailed data from Census 2011, Houses, Households Amenities and Assets, was released a couple of weeks ago, there was much flinching at the fact that around half of all Indians still defecate in the open. The census data also showed that piped and treated drinking water is presently enjoyed by just a third of Indian households.

Now, the aim of providing sanitation and piped drinking water for all will demand increasing allocations. But the CSE report Excreta Matters: How urban India is soaking up water, polluting rivers and drowning in its own excreta shows that mere money just can’t solve the problem.

The Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) has been implementing a number of schemes for industrial as well as environmental pollution abatement under which financial assistance is provided to the State implementing agencies.

It is time the government stopped treating environment as a soft subject. The health of the people and future growth of the state depend on it.

Pages