Water scarcity is increasing day by day in Chittaurgarh district. Groundwater level is falling at a high rate. 12 percent of the hand-pumps have been completely dried out.

Gujarat is a waterstressed state going by the definition of such areas as those having water availability below 1700 cum/ca/annum (cubic meter per capita per year).

The NWFP government has decided to build reservoirs for storage of water coming from springs of the Abbottabad district's Galyat area to meet the growing demand of the local population.

Survey in progress to demarcate boundaries of waterbodies; encroachments to be removed SPRUCING UP: An earth-mover on the job around the Perungudi Lake recently as part of the lake rehabilitation project of the Public Works Department. CHENNAI: The Public Works Department (PWD) has geared up its efforts to remove encroachments from, and rehabilitate lakes in the fringes of the city as per the Tank Protection Act, 2007. Of the 19 lakes, demarcation of the boundaries and serving of eviction notices to encroachers have been completed for five lakes, including Ayapakkam and Korattur in Tiruvallur district. A PWD official said measures were under way to complete the work by May as per a Madras High Court directive. Survey is in progress to demarcate boundaries of waterbodies in places such as Ambattur, Tambaram, Nemilicheri, Peerkankaranai and Kadapperi in Tiruvallur and Kancheepuram districts. Notices issued Eviction notices have been served so far on about owners of 1,000 households who have allegedly encroached on the lake. The work with regard to eight waterbodies, including those at Zamin Pallavaram and Kovilambakkam, however, has been put on hold because cases are pending in the court pertaining to removal of encroached structures, the official said. On completion of the area demarcation and removal of encroachments, measures to rehabilitate the waterbodies would begin. The districts' administration has to decide on issues pertaining to provision of alternative sites, the official added. Another senior PWD official said that around Rs.3.6 crore had been allocated to execute rehabilitation work, including construction of retaining wall, at lakes in Velachery, Pallavaram and Perungudi. One of the lakes on which the PWD recently started rehabilitation work at the cost of Rs.97 lakh is the Perungudi eri, which has a 35-acre spread. It is being used by residents of nearby Kallukuttai for various purposes, including bathing, washing clothes, animals and vehicles. Rehabilitation work The rehabilitation work includes clearing of the bushes around the lake, levelling and strengthening of the 816 meter bund and fencing the lake. A compound wall is to be constructed to a height of three feet over which there would be chain link fencing. Desilting work has already been completed in the lake. Perungudi panchayat president K.P. Kandan said toilets would be constructed nearby to prevent people from dirtying the place. The water from the wells that line the lake was being used to supply drinking water by the panchayat. Efforts hailed B.Maximus of the Kurinji Nagar Residents Association, who welcomed the efforts of the PWD, said they planned to plant trees and make a walkway around the lake with benches. "As it is being fenced and the area around getting cleaned, we are now planning to approach IT companies for funds to beautify the lake,' he added.

The Central Government has declared 14 water resources projects, including two each in Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir and three in Himachal Pradesh, as National Projects. It is proposed to provide 90 per cent project cost of irrigation and drinking water component of the project as Central Grant after techno-economic appraisal of the detailed project report and investment clearance by the Planning Commission. The projects are Teesta Barrage (West Bengal), Shahpur Kandi (Punjab), Bursar (Jammu and Kashmir), 2nd Ravi Vyas Link (Punjab) Ujh multipurpose project (Jammu and Kashmir), Gyspa project (Himachal Pradesh), Lakhvar Vyasi (Uttranchal), Kishau (Himachal Pradesh /Uttranchal), Renuka (Himachal Pradesh), Noa-Dehang Dam Project (Arunachal Pradesh), Kulsi Dam Project (Assam), Upper Siang (Arunachal Pradesh), Gosikhurd (Maharashtra) and Ken Betwa (Madhya Pradesh).

M. Rajivlochan Towards Water Wisdom: Limits, Justice, Harmony by Ramaswamy R. Iyer. Sage. Pages 270. Rs 350. Towards Water Wisdom: Limits, Justice, HarmonyOUR pot of water woes is brimming over. That does not seem surprising, according to Ramaswamy R. Iyer, since even though India is one of the few countries in the world which is blessed with an adequate quantity of water, there is a tremendous amount of mismanagement of water resources. While the country has over 4,000 billion cubic meters (bcm) of annual rainfall and almost 2000 bcm of river flow, the reality remains that we have had constant lamentations about the shortage of water and the destruction of fertile soil because of the overuse of water. According to experts, we have already poisoned most of our major rivers to the extent that their waters are not fit for drinking any more and very soon would be unfit for irrigation as well. Under such circumstances, Iyer suggests, it is important to remove ourselves from the hurly-burly of water conflicts, mull over our relationship with water a little more than it has been possible till now and then, serendipitously think of a constructive way out. That calls for wisdom which has been lacking till now in our management of water resources. In this thought-provoking book, Iyer quickly takes us through the various conflicts that have marked the use and misuse of water since Independence. He looks at the various demand-driven policies made by the government for the management of water. However, fulfilling the demand does not necessarily result in an efficient use of water. For a long time, the main focus of the government was to increase the amount of water for irrigation to increase food grain production. Today, over 80 per cent of the total water used in India is for agriculture. However, of the water available for irrigation, more than 60 per cent is wasted. India is one of the few countries in the world where the cities provide as much as 200 litres per capita per day of water. It goes without saying that most of it is wasted, used for cleaning toilets, washing cars and maintaining gardens. No wonder our fields and cities constantly starve for water and our states busy fighting over it. Karnataka battles Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra fights with Karnataka, Punjab has its sword drawn against Haryana and Madhya Pradesh is getting ready to battle both Utter Pradesh and Gujarat. The fights have become so intense that today even the Supreme Court is wary of pronouncing firmly on the judicious distribution of water resources lest it be drawn into an irresolvable conflict. While the state governments battle each other for water, they find it increasingly difficult to manage the supply to their own citizens. Hence they are trying to palm off the management of water resources to private parties in the hope that private ownership of water would ensure market rates being charged for the water use and correspondingly less wastage. Whether this would generate even more inequalities is a matter that the states are not willing to consider at the moment. All this suggests that we are completely lacking in water wisdom, insists Iyer. Hitherto we have left the matter of planning for water in the hands of experts. Engineers, planners and economists may be very well in providing suggestions on how best to go about using our water resources, but for every expert there seems to be an equal and opposite expert who under political pressure is willing to provide contrary advice equally strongly backed by scientific evidence. Hence, Iyer suggests, the need of the hour is to get out of the conundrums created by experts and apply some Gandhian thinking. First and foremost this means restraining our greed for more water and bringing about a change in the way that we think about water as a resource. The state needs to play the role of a trustee over this resource and the people have to be involved in preserving it and encouraged to live in harmony with nature and each other.