A large number of growers staged demonstrations for the second consecutive day on Monday in Thari Mirwah, Faiz Ganj and Kotdiji talukas in protest against shortage of irrigation water. In Thari Mirwah, the protesting growers and their leaders Mehmood Phull and Gul Mohammad said that there was no water in Mirwah Canal in the crucial months of February and March when wheat crop highly depended on water.They were force to make alternate arrangements for watering their crops through private tube-wells even though they had to pay abiyana (water tax) as well. Growers in Faiz Ganj said during a demonstration that their taluka was at the tail-end of Mirwah Canal, hence it received very little water. There was no water in the canals and minors of the taluka. Mohammad Sachal, Aijaz Hussain and Mir Mohammad Brohi told journalists that the irrigation system had collapsed due to shortage of water since last 15 years. In Kotdiji, growers led by the general secretary of Abadgars Ittehad, Faqir Niaz Bhambhro, staged a demonstration and said that the shortage would also affect the production of banana and mangoes besides wheat crop. A delegation of civil society and growers of Khairpur led by general secretary of Khairpur District Bar Association Abdul Qayoom Shaikh also protested on Monday. They said that Khairpur and its adjoining towns including Kotdiji, Kot Bungalow and Hussainabad had no drinking water due to closure of irrigation channels.

In September 2003, the government of Gujarat introduced the Jyotirgram Yojana to improve rural power supply. Two major changes have since taken place: (a) villages get 24 hour three-phase power supply for domestic use, in schools, hospitals, village industries, all subject to metered tariff; and (b) tubewell owners get eight hours/day of power but of full voltage and on a pre-announced schedule. It has, however, offered a mixed bag to medium and large farmers and hit marginal farmers and the landless. This article offers an assessment of the impact of Jyotirgram, and argues that with some refinements it presents a model that other states can follow with profit. Feb 16-22, 2008

Badha lake at the periphery of Fazilka town has dried up. The Badha lake, with its fresh water source and green surroundings was the attraction for establishing the boating station at this place. Now that it was dried up and is likely to be never change with water from Sutlej.

In Mayyanad panchayat of Kerala, drinking water is supplied by Kerala Water Authority through pipelines from 8 tube wells drilled for the purpose. An analysis of water quality showed that the mean water pH was 6.72, the colour and the iron content were above desirable limit and the total and faecal coliform counts were above desirable limit and permissible limits.

Five years ago, Bhim Singh lost all of his groundnut crop because his fellow villagers did not let him dig a borewell. With the advantage of hindsight, he is happy they stopped him. He says it

the Bihar Groundwater (Regulation and Control of Development and Management) Legislation, 2006, has been recently approved by the state assembly during its winter session. Another water-endowed

The large agrarian population of West Bengal drink groundwater with arsenic content anywhere between 0.05 and 3.7 mg/L. Greater than 44% of this population suffers from arsenic related diseases like conjunctivitis, melanosis, hyperkeratosis, and hyper pigmentation. In certain areas gangrene in the limb, malignant neoplasm and even skin

This book is a unique compilation of different water conservation and management practices that have traditionally been used in the state of Karnataka. Each practice is simple, low-cost and in harmony with the local conditions. Based on the knowledge drawn from within the community, each article not only documents the practice, but also attempts to explain scientific principles underlying the same.

In the early 1980s, K. C. Saha from the School of Tropical Medicine in Kolkata attributed skin lesions in West Bengal, India, to exposure to arsenic in groundwater pumped from shallow tube wells. Despite these findings, millions of tube wells have been
installed across the Bengal Basin, the geological formation that includes West Bengal and Bangladesh, and across river floodplains and deltas in southern Asia.

I met an angry farmer recently in the interiors of what a brown paper calls a

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