The Central Government has constituted the National Ganga River Basin Authority (NGRBA) under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 on 20th February, 2009 as an empowered planning, financing, monitoring and coordinating authority for conservation of the Ganga River. The Authority has both regulatory and developmental functions.

For more information, please visit: pib.nic.in

The Central region's Water Resource Department is taking concerted action towards providing reliable potable water supply to the public, stated Eng. Kidane Kiflemariam, head of the technique branch in the Department.

For more information, please visit: www.reliefweb.int

Construction of big dams/reservoirs on rivers at suitable locations are considered as permanent solution to floods, especially if dedicated fold cushion is provided in the storage reservoirs. Big dams moderate the floods in downstream by way of releasing controlled discharge through spillway. Panchewshwar Multipurpose Project on river Sharda (Mahakali in Nepal), Saptakosi High Dam Project on river Kosi and West Rapti (Naumure) Multipurpose Project on river West Rapti are under discussion with the Government of Nepal. These high dam projects, on implementation, would provide benefits to people of India and Nepal, both, in the form of hydro-power, irrigation and flood moderation.

For more information, please visit: pib.nic.in

Australia has today moved a step closer to action on climate change, after the Rudd Government this morning delivered a deal to the Opposition aimed at securing the passage of the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme this week.

For more information, please visit: www.pm.gov.au/node/6353

A total expenditure of Rs. 682 crore has been incurred under the first phase of the Yamuna Action Plan (YAP).The phase which commenced in April 1993 was completed in 2003 covering 21 towns of UP, Delhi & Haryana. The second Phase of YAP commenced in December, 2004.

For more information, please visit: pib.nic.in

Birmingham – In another challenge of the Alabama Department of Environmental Management’s failure to protect the purity of Alabama’s waterways, the Southern Environmental Law Center today petitioned for a hearing on the permit issued last month for a 3,255-acre coal mine in Blount County.

For more information, please visit: www.alabamarivers.org

“Good Sanitation practices are the key to a healthy life style” and the Total Sanitation Campaign has generated a lot of enthusiasm among the rural people making it truely a people’s campaign. This was the message from President, Smt. Pratibha Devisingh Patil while presenting the Nirmal Gram Puraskars for the year 2009 at a function held in Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi today.

For more information, please visit: pib.nic.in

Diseases are rising at an alarming rate among the human population especially in a country like India. Doctors’ clinics are hot spots right now what with the increasing number of people falling ill these days. The World Bank estimates that out of the growing spate of diseases, 21% of communicable diseases are water related.

For more information, please visit: www.1888pressrelease.com

“Good Sanitation practices are the key to a healthy life style” and the Total Sanitation Campaign has generated a lot of enthusiasm among the rural people making it truely a people’s campaign. This was the message from President, Smt. Pratibha Devisingh Patil while presenting the Nirmal Gram Puraskars for the year 2009 at a function held in Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi today. Smt. Patil said it is essential that the presidents of Gram Panchayats play a pivotal role in sanitation promotion as they reflect the will of the people at grass root level.

For more information, please visit: pibmumbai.gov.in

Recognizing the fact that sanitation is one of the most critical aspects for better and improved life, Government of India has launched the Total Sanitation Campaign in the entire country. The Campaign is being led by the PRIs, focusing on ensuring a clean & hygienic environment in the rural areas. The Panchayati Raj Institutions that have attained full sanitation coverage and completely eliminated the practice of open defecation are awarded the prestigious Nirmal Gram Puraskar are every year.

For more information, please visit: www.pib.nic.in

Rising water temperatures are kicking up more powerful winds on Lake Superior, with consequences for currents, biological cycles, pollution and more on the world's largest lake and its smaller brethren.

For more information, please visit: earthobservatory.nasa.gov

November 19 is World Toilet Day. All across the world, sanitation advocates will be raising awareness for the world's 2.5 billion people without sanitation by squatting for one minute in public places. It's called The Big Squat. And our local Squat Squad will be squatting at LOCATION at TIME.

For more information, please visit: www.worldtoiletday.com

Recently, on the 29th of October 2009, the Union Minister for Environment and Forests, Shri Jairam Ramesh has written a letter to the Chief Minister, Madhya Pradesh Shri Shivraj Singh Chauhan and informed him that there has been grave violations of the conditions of the environmental clearance. As a consequence, the Ministry has proposed to stop the construction work on the dam until a comprehensive R&R Plan with all details of agricultural land, house-plots, etc is submitted to the Ministry and found to be implementable, and until the R&R works are brought up to pace with the construction work on the dam.

For more information, please visit: www.narmada.org

A Bench of Hon’ble Chief Justice Shri A.K. Patnaik and Justice Ajit Singh of the Madhya Pradesh High Court passed a major interim order today in the case of the Indira Sagar (ISP) and Omkareshwar (OSP) Canal Projects, their impacts on the environment and thousands of families affected by the twin projects, demanding compliance of environmental measures and upholding many of the contentions of Narmada Bachao Andolan on land acquisition and excavation for the canals.

For more information, please visit: www.narmada.org

Much as adrenaline coursing through our veins drives our body’s reactions to stress, the plant hormone abscisic acid (ABA) is behind plants’ responses to stressful situations such as drought, but how it does so has been a mystery for years. Scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Grenoble, France, and the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas (CSIC) in Valencia, Spain discovered that the key lies in the structure of a protein called PYR1 and how it interacts with the hormone.

For more information, please visit: www.embl.de

The European Union and India will hold their annual summit on the 6 th of November in New Delhi. The Commission’s delegation will be led by the President of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, who will be accompanied by Benita Ferrero-Waldner, Commissioner for External Relations and European Neighbourhood Policy, as well as Catherine Ashton, Commissioner for Trade. This Summit will address major global issues such as climate change, energy security and fight against terrorism, besides regional issues.

For more information, please visit: europa.eu

“The time has come for us to return to the science of Climate Change” said Mr Rajendra K. Pachauri, Chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), in a video address to the delegates presented yesterday, 3 November 2009, in Barcelona, where the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is meeting for a last round of talks before Copenhagen – “What we need to do now is to focus on our responsibility, not only towards ourselves in a very narrow and myopic context, but to the world as a whole because it is abundantly clear that mitigation of greenhouse gases is not at all an expensive proposition and if anything it is probably a negative cost opportunity.

For more information, please visit: www.ipcc.ch

Governments, UN agencies, international NGOs and civil society advocates gathered at a Water Day in Barcelona today, to urge negotiators to consider the critical role that water plays in climate change adaptation. The failure to recognise that role risks undermining the wider objective of the negotiations.

For more information, please visit: gppn.stakeholderforum.org

A landmark water recycling project has picked up a national green award. 'Living Water’ near Billesdon won the accolade at the prestigious Highways Magazine Excellence Awards in London at the end of October.

For more information, please visit: www.leics.gov.uk/pressrelease.htm

Abbott announced today that it is saving 1 billion gallons of water annually since launching a comprehensive, global effort in 2004 to preserve natural resources through reducing use of water in the production of its nutrition and other health care products.

For more information, please visit: www.csrwire.com