The Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation has launched an exclusive website for the Ganga. The aim of this website is to involve the public in the gigantic task of Ganga rejuvenation. Through the Clean Ganga Portal, people can give suggestions and tips on reviving and keeping the river clean. Also, the website contains a wide range of information on the 'clean Ganga' mission, Namami Gange, status of National Ganga River Basin Authority, Ganga Action Plan, and comprehensive details of the Ganga basin.
The Uttarakhand Government has allowed the Tehri Hydro Development Corporation to raise the the permissible limit for water storage in the reservoir to 830 metres. Locals residing on the periphery of the reservoir, who are already experiencing frequent landslips and issues of sinking land, are against the Government's decision. Along with the locals, enviornmental activists have also objected to the state's decision.
Jammu and Kashmir, which is experiencing its worst flooding in 60 years, is the only state in the country that does not have a flood monitoring system. Although, the Central Water Commission had proposed the setting up of flood-monitoring stations in the state more than five years ago, it still hasn't made progress. Also, scientists say that the recent floods in the state is an after-effect of unplanned urbanisation and encroachments along the banks of the Jhelum river and around lakes.
Though the Delhi-NCR has only 64 bottling plants that have the license to supply packaged drinking water, nearly 10,000 illegal packaged water units are operating in the region without getting clearances from the Bureau of Indian Standard (BIS). These units have escaped authorities' check owing to their locations as they are mostly located in slums and congested bylanes of Delhi, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. The quality of water supplied by these units hardly meets any standards. There have also been incidents where cockroaches and houseflies were found in the supplied water.
The Madhya Pradesh Government has accelerated work on the cleaning and rejuvenation of the Khan river. The project, worth Rs 2,719 crore, will be completed in two phases and envisages cleaning up of a 33km open sewer in the Ujjain area. The polluted Khan river, whose water goes into the Kshipra river, has become a hurdle to the recently completed Narmada-Kshipra river linking project.
This is a weekly roundup of important news from September 9-14, 2014. Also read last week's policy matters updates.