Do we need 'Corporate help' in Creation of water bodies and building of check dams, when huge amount of funds are available/allocated under MGNREGS, Watershed Development etc. and also most of these remaining unspent? Corporate's involvement is not questionable, but whether it should be in form of Govt 'seeking help', or Corporate showing its 'philanthropy' (in line with history of pond/WHS digging by rich/elites)or as a Corporate's 'strategy' or should form a part of 'Corporate's Responsibility', is what requires to be debated. This also need to be considered together with the type and amount of water-extraction/use and water-disposal/pollution by the corporates.

Nevertheless it is good that Govt's engagement with corporate over water has started touching many dimensions - be in preventing corporate to draw water from rivers Or initiative towards rationalization of water allocation to industry Or asking corporate to augment water-resources etc. as reflected in the water-news over last few days!

Orissa to seek corporate help to solve water crisis

STAFF WRITER 12:26 HRS IST

Berhampur (Orissa), May 4 (PTI) Faced with drinking water crisis in several urban areas, Orissa government is now planning to seek help from public sector and private corporate houses to mitigate the problem.

"We need assistance from major corporate houses to tackle the drinking water crisis in major urban areas in the state," Minister of State for Housing and Urban Development Badrinarayan Patra said here.

Mahanadi Coalfields Limited (MCL) has agreed in principle to fund around Rs 40 crore for creating a water body to solve the crisis in western Orissa towns - Brajaraj Nagar, Jharsuguda and Belphar. While the MCL set up a water body, the government will fund the laying of pipeline for water distribution, the minister said.

"We have discussed with the authorities of Rourkela Steel Plant for construction of a check dam on the nearby river, which will help tackle the drinking water crisis in Rourkela," he said.

Arcelor-Mittal to harvest rain water in Orissa
17 Nov, 2007, 0000 hrs IST, PTI

BHUBANESWAR: Global steel leader Arcelor-Mittal, which proposes to set up a 12 mtpa plant in Orissa, on Friday said it will harvest rain water and use technology that consumes least quantity of 'H2O' to reduce pressure on the natural resource. "We are consulting international experts in the field on how to meet the challenges ahead", member of Arcelor-Mittal's group management board Malay Mukherjee told reporters, admitting water was a major problem for industries in Orissa. .................... "We too do not want to take a farmer's share of water. Therefore, the company has planned to make its own arrangement in the plant premises", he said, adding that water harvesting was one of the key options the company would like to exercise. However, a permanent solution would be using technology that requires least water for steel making and research was on for recycling the water in order to minimise the requirement. Full Story

Water over the dam:

Monday, August 20, 2007

BY VAL SIGSTEDT

The Delaware River Basin Commission was created to supply New York City with 50 percent of its water. Always be fore, the New York City dams were the elephant in the Delaware River Basin's living room. But global warming is not simply a water theory anymore.

For 50 percent of its municipal water, New York City chose to take a river that receives such a low average amount of precipitation that it needed to dam almost every inch of its tiny watershed just to get enough water. The dam's capacity is enormous, "enough to last about a year and a half, even without one single drop more rain or snow-melt flowing into them," according to The Intelligencer (May 7).

Full Story

AKRSP project brings prosperity to 54 villages August 18, 2007

Posted by ismailimail in Aga Khan Rural Support Programme, India. trackback

Checkdams on Meghal bring prosperity to 54 villages

Saurav Kumar

Ahmedabad, August 17: What was once a small seasonal, rain-fed river has now turned into an all-season one. This metamorphosis of the Meghal river in Junagadh district has brought about an increase in farm produce and prosperity. Construction of check dams at strategic points on the river has ensured that water remains in it all through the year.

The Aga Khan Rural Support Programme (AKRSP), which is a part of the Aga Khan Foundation, is largely responsible for this transformation. Umesh Desai, programme coordinator of AKRSP, says, “It was easy to mobilise people for the revival of the river project. They have an emotional connection with the river and were ready to help us.”

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AKRSP used a three-pronged approach for the Meghal River Basin Project. First, was ensuring massive community participation, second was the constructing the check dams and the third was employing side by side traditional rain water harvesting measures.

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Hill Country seeking to avoid being left high and dry

Web Posted: 08/02/2007 10:49 PM CDT

Zeke MacCormack
Express-News BOERNE — Water conservation, rainwater capture and brush removal can help keep faucets flowing in Hill Country areas of fast growth, declining aquifers and limited surface water supplies.

Calls for regional coordination on those initiatives were aired this week at a water forum here, along with a warning that despite recent heavy rains, the Trinity Aquifer level barely has rebounded in places.

Tommy Mathews, chairman of the local water board, said combined pumping from wells across Kendall County already might exceed the annual draw of 4,840 acre-feet of water considered "sustainable" by the Cow Creek Groundwater Conservation District.

The district is expected to stop issuing new permits for commercial pumpers once that limit is hit, although officials say permits likely will be available for domestic and livestock uses. An acre-foot is 325,851 gallons.

A study is under way to determine the exact pumping volume in the county, where the population has grown 33 percent to about 32,000 — and an average of nearly 300 residential well permits per year have been issued — since 2000.

The groundwater supply has been supplemented by water piped in from Canyon Lake by the Guadalupe Blanco River Authority, but GBRA General Manager Bill West said at Wednesday's forum that all of the available water in the pipeline is spoken for.

Among the GBRA customers is the city of Boerne, whose 10,000 residents enjoy a level of certainty about future water sources that's envied by rural neighbors, including some who've seen their wells dry up in recent droughts.

Combined with Boerne's own reservoir and its nine wells, there's enough water to serve 25,000 residents, City Manager Ron Bowman said.

The city's water can be stretched if conservation measures are stepped up and the city pursues plans to pump treated wastewater back into Boerne Lake for reuse as drinking water.

Rainwater capture programs were in the spotlight when the water forum was launched last year by the Greater Boerne Chamber of Commerce. This year, there was increased talk about brush control.

Some 65,000 acres have been cleared of mesquite and ash juniper (better known to Texans as "cedar") in the Pedernales River basin since 2002.

The Legislature this year allocated $3.6 million to the Texas State Water and Soil Conservation Board for brush control programs, said Tuffy Wood, program specialist for the agency.

The project started in San Angelo in 1999 and has expanded to seven river watersheds, he said.

Wood estimated nearly half of all rainfall never reaches the soil in areas thick with ash juniper because it's caught in the canopy and absorbed in the mulch.

He said the grant program covers 70 percent of brush-clearing costs — an estimated $180 an acre in the Pedernales basin areas of Gillespie, Blanco and Hays counties — with the balance paid by landowners.

"In the past there has not been any money for the Guadalupe basin, but that is a project we are looking at heavily now," Wood said Thursday. "I'm assuming they will get some."

Cow Creek board member John Kight, a former Kendall County commissioner, said a coordinated brush-clearing program is needed here.

He predicted clearing 100,000 acres of brush in Kendall County could translate into 130,000 more acre-feet of rainwater annually for aquifers, rivers and streams.

"We're going to run out of water if we don't do something to help ourselves," Kight said.