India's fast-growing cities face polluted water crisis

NEW DELHI -- Ranbir Singh still remembers when the wells in his village on New Delhi's southwestern edge were filled with sweet-tasting water and livestock drank from the small ponds that dotted the area.
Now the village has been all but subsumed by Dwarka, a high-rise satellite city that sprang up in the 1990s on the edge of India's sprawling capital.
The ponds dried out long ago and are now filled with rubbish, while over-extraction has caused the groundwater level to fall so far that industrial pumps are needed to bring water to the surface.
“Today what you get from underground is not even drinkable,” the 62-year-old told AFP in Pochanpur, now a hodgepodge of small-scale construction overshadowed by Dwarka's tower blocks.
“People who still consume it complain of stomach problems, and many young people in our village suffer from skin problems because of this water.”
Decades of population growth and uncontrolled urbanization have created a water crisis in India.
The World Resources Institute, a Washington-based research group, says the national supply is predicted to fall to 50 percent below demand by 2030.
A new U.N. report to be launched in Delhi on Friday ahead of World Water Day on March 22 will warn of an urgent need to manage the world's water more sustainably and highlight the problem of groundwater over-extraction, particularly in India and China.
It says 20 percent of global groundwater sources are already over-exploited and warns the problem will only become more acute without better management, with demand expected to rise by 55 percent by 2050.
Contaminated Rivers
Sushmita Sengupta of the Delhi-based Center for Science and Environment says much more could be done to manage supplies in India.
“Our lakes and ponds were once a natural way of recharging groundwater, but they are being destroyed through urbanization,” she said.
“Our sewage goes untreated, so the rivers are contaminated. We used to be very good at managing water in India, but we are losing that ability.”
Activist Diwan Singh is campaigning for the city to divert rainwater drains, which currently flow into the sewage system, to lakes and ponds in order to replenish the water table.
 The 44-year-old experienced Delhi's water woes first hand when he moved into a tower block in Dwarka, which like many parts of the capital receives no piped water and has to rely on tanker deliveries and borewells. “Delhi's groundwater management has been dismal,” complained Singh, who says he faces an uphill struggle against a slow-moving and sometimes corrupt bureaucracy.
“In some areas around Dwarka, the groundwater level has fallen by 60 meters. Meanwhile all the water that falls in the monsoon is being drained into the sewers and lost.”
The result is that in many parts of Delhi the groundwater contains such a high concentration of impurities that it is undrinkable.
'People get very angry'
A few kilometers away from Dwarka's modern high-rises in the working-class suburb of Kailash Puri, life revolves around the city water board's twice-weekly deliveries.
Residents used to drink water drawn from the ground with borewells, but that is now too toxic, and few can afford the expensive water purifiers that are a standard feature of Delhi's wealthier households.
As the water board's brightly colored trucks roll down the street, entire families including small children dash out of their homes with plastic containers to fill.
“I was supposed to be at a job interview today, but I had to miss it because the water was coming,” said 22-year-old Neha Rana as she filled her buckets.
“It doesn't matter what's going on, you have to come and get the water. At times people get very angry, and fights can break out.”
No one at the Delhi water board would speak to AFP on the record, but an official speaking on condition of anonymity said this was a national crisis and could not be resolved at the state level.
“It is an issue that needs concerted, long-term planning at the national level,” he said.
The issue has become so big in Delhi that providing free water was one of new Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's key campaign promises in state elections last month.
In the meantime, private water “mafias” are catering for demand unmet by the government — at a price.
Many source their water from illegal borewells, exacerbating the problem, and there have been reports they collude with water board officials to create an artificial shortage.
“They can recharge their pockets but they can't recharge the groundwater,” said Singh, the Dwarka campaigner, as he looked despondently at the empty pond in the park near his home.

T SHIRTS CAN BE MADE FROM PET BOTTLES

Seminar was organized by APO COEGP CPC TAIWAN and BISMAN FINTECH P LTD on Green Technologies in the field of Waste recycling. Presentations were given in the area of Recycling of waste using Green technologies. Mr. Alex Yu Lo of Super textile corporation informed that their company makes T shirts and Uniforms from the fabric manufactured recycling PET waste which are being used by sportsman. Many world cup football teams have used this fabrics in their uniform. Prof. Ma explained the audience that you can recover precious metals worth US$20000 from the recycling of cell phone waste of 1 MT worth US$5000 using innovative technologies developed by Taiwan. Senior officers of Gujarat Pollution control Board were also present in this seminar.

Alpine Lifelines on the Brink

from WWF

Gland, Switzerland - Only one in ten Alpine rivers are healthy enough to maintain water supply and to cope with climate impacts according to a report by WWF. The publication is the first-ever comprehensive study on the condition of Alpine rivers.

The landmark WWF study, Save the Alpine Rivers, found that only 340 kilometers of large Alpine water systems remain ecologically intact compared to 2,300 kilometers of heavily modified or artificial stretches of river.

“Healthy rivers, streams, wetlands and floodplains provide a suite of ecosystem services including fresh water and flood protection,” said Christoph Litschauer, Head of WWF’s European Alpine Freshwater Program. “These systems are essential for human livelihood. Beyond basic services, we also have to look at healthy natural rivers as one of our best insurance policies against climate change.”

The high mountain ranges of the Alps function as water towers for 14 million people from eight countries. The rivers that drain these mountains provide household and agricultural water, food, fisheries, energy, jobs and recreation.

The study, carried out with Vienna’s University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, assesses the current status of 57,000 kilometers of river and found 89 out of 100 Alpine rivers are already substantially harmed. Only 11 per cent of rivers are in pristine condition, with the rest having been redirected, altered or impacted by hydro-electric dams.

“Many planned hydro-dams are situated in protected areas like the Soca in Slovenia or on pristine rivers like the Isel in Austria. These counteract current protection efforts,” continued Litschauer. “Rivers are more than mere energy suppliers; they need to be seen for the complete natural services they provide.”

In addition to damming and regulation of rivers, Alpine riverbanks are being converted to agricultural land and urban areas, reducing their natural ability to regulate floods.

Climate change was also identified as a threat to Alpine rivers in the report. This adds to the results of a separate study conducted for the Austrian government that found that temperature increase in the Alps is much higher than in other regions of the world. The temperature in the Alps has risen by 2°C within the last 200 years, far above the average global temperature increase of .85°C.

Following the costly and catastrophic floods that hit Europe in the past few years, WWF highlights the need to strengthen the resilience of water ecosystems and is calling on governments to prepare an action plan to protect and restore these rivers.

“Extreme weather events are increasingly likely and we must protect and strengthen the capacity of our ‘green infrastructure’ including living rivers and wetlands. The environment is changing and we must respond,” said Litschauer.

Despite being one of the most densely populated mountain ecosystems in the world, the Alps contain a variety of unspoiled wild places and are important for biodiversity. The WWF study defines no-go areas for hydro power plants and highlights river stretches for future restoration projects.

The stort of bottled water

Do you still buy or drink bottled water? If the answer is Yes, you should think about it and check this video out!