The International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) has won UNFCCC's 2014 Lighthouse Activity Award for its work on community-based flood early warning system in the eastern Brahmaputra river basin in India. The project is being implemented in Assam's Lakhimpur and Dhemaji districts and exemplifies the innovative use of information and communication technology in capacity building of communities to cope with the effects of flash floods.
According to the digitization and sedimentation survey of Mhadei river done by IIT-Bombay, the length of the river in Goa has been assessed as 76 km as against 52 km, maintained by the National Water Development Board. With the increase in the river's freshwater length, the State Government which is in a tussel with Karnataka over the sharing of the Mhadei's freshwater, can now claim more water before the Mhadei Water Dispute Tribunal.
Following the opposition from the Forest Department, the Karnataka Water Resources Department has decided to modify its proposal of the Mekedatu project across the Cauvery river for suppling drinking water to Bengaluru. In order to reduce submergence of large tracts of forests, the Board is planning to construct a smaller reservoir with a capacity of 5 to 10 tmcft at Mekedatu, instead of a 45 tmcft capacity balancing reservoir, as planned earlier. According to the new plan, the balancing reservoir will be linked to various other smaller reservoirs so that the quantum of water proposed for the project remains the same.
This year marks the 30th anniversary of the Bhopal gas tragedy that took the lives of over 3,000 people and affected nearly 10,000 since then. 18,000 tonnes of toxic waste still lies in the defunct Union Carbide plant and is contaminating the soil and groundwater of the region. Till date, both the Indian and the US Governments have not taken considerable action to dispose off this waste.
The Centre for Water Resources Development and Management (CWRDM) is readying a management plant of international standards to conserve Kerala's three Ramsar wetlands namely, Ashtamudi, Sasthamkotta and Vembanadu. CWRDM scientists have also conducted discussions with 14 concerned Deparments and major NGOs to come up with the finer aspects of the plan. In the first phase of the project, CWRDM plans to make Ashtamudi and Shasthamkotta wetlands pollution- free and reclaim the two wetlands.
This is a weekly roundup of important news from November 25 to December 1, 2014. Also read last week's policy matters updates.