Drinking Water
Rajasthan approves Rs 5,120 cr to improve drinking water supply in state
To provide over 800,000 new drinking water connections in 176 cities and towns across Rajasthan
Groundwater in Punjab, Haryana contaminated with uranium, arsenic: Report
The Central Ground Water Board report attributes the rising uranium levels to leaching from agricultural land. Intensive use of fertilisers has exacerbated the problem
Pune civic body seals 30 water supply plants in wake of GBS outbreak
The Pune Municipal Corporation has sealed 19 private RO plants in Nanded village area, the epicentre of the Guillain-Barr Syndrome (GBS) outbreak, after tests confirmed water from these facilities was unfit for drinking, officials said. Four fresh cases of suspected GBS, a nerve disorder, were reported in Pune district on Wednesday, taking the overall tally in Maharashtra to 170, they said. The now-sealed privately owned reverse-osmosis (RO) plants, located in Dhayari-Nanded area, supplied bottled water to a large number of people in the vicinity. Following the crackdown, the Pune Municipal Corporation's (PMC) water supply department announced plans to formulate standard operating procedures (SOPs) to prevent the distribution of contaminated water in the area. During the investigation of water samples collected from some privately run RO plants, it was found that water from 19 such RO plants operating in the Nanded and adjoining area was unfit for drinking. Accordingly, all these 1
Budget allocates Rs 74,226 crore for drinking water and sanitation
The Centre has allocated Rs 74,226 crore for the Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation in the Union Budget 2025-26, with most of it allotted to the Jal Jeevan Mission which aims to provide tap water connections to rural households. The allocation marked a substantial rise from the revised estimates of Rs 29,916 crore for 2024-25 for the department. However, the allocation is lower than the Rs 77,390.68 crore originally earmarked for the department in the Budget for 2024-25. The Department of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation has been allocated Rs 25,276.83 crore, an increase from Rs 21,640.88 crore from the revised estimates. Under the Namami Gange Mission-II, Rs 3,400 crore has been earmarked for cleaning and rejuvenating the river, up from Rs 3,000 crore last year. Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM), the flagship programme of the Centre aimed at providing tap water connections to every rural household, has been allocated Rs 67,000 crore, marking a significant
Bisleri FY24 profit rises 82.8% to Rs 317 crore, revenue at Rs 2,689.69 cr
Leading packaged drinking water company Bisleri International's profit rose 82.8 per cent to Rs 316.95 crore in FY24 and its revenue from operations was up 14.8 per cent to Rs 2,689.69 crore, according to an RoC filing by the company. Total consolidated revenue of Bisleri International was up 18.32 per cent to Rs 2,814.04 crore for the financial year ended on March 31, 2024, helped by other income, according to financial data accessed through business intelligence platform Tofler. This is the highest revenue in the last five years for Bisleri International, a company owned by Ramesh J Chauhan, popularly known as RJC, and his family. Bisleri International Pvt Ltd had reported a profit of Rs 173.38 crore in FY23 while its revenue from operations was Rs 2,341.98 crore on a consolidated basis. The total tax expense of Bisleri International is Rs 95.79 crore in FY24. Bisleri's advertising promotional expenses in FY24 were up nearly 60 per cent to Rs 100.96 crore. This was at Rs 63.22 c
Only 16 of 207 water supply projects completed in Odisha: Minister Naik
Only sixteen of 207 approved mega piped water supply projects have been completed in Odisha and the rest are in progress, a minister informed the assembly on Tuesday. Replying to a question by BJD legislator Souvic Biswal, Panchayati Raj and Drinking Water Minister Rabi Narayan Naik said the projects were targeted to be completed in two years after issuance of work orders. However, some projects got delayed due to various reasons, including delays in the conduct of detailed engineering surveys and investigations, identification of the source of water and approval of different departments, Naik said. Considering the prevailing issues and progress, steps are being taken to complete the ongoing 191 projects in three phases, he said. Fifty-six projects were targeted to be completed by March 2025, and an additional 54 would be to be completed by December 2025, the minister said. A target has been set to complete the remaining 81 piped water supply projects, which were started at the en
Bihar CM lays foundation stone for Rs 1,347 cr drinking water project
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Monday laid the foundation stone for a project valued at Rs 1,347 crore for supplying water from the Sone river for drinking purposes in Aurangabad, Dehri and Sasaram cities. The project will be completed in two years. Besides, the CM inaugurated and laid the foundation stones of a state industrial training institute, tech labs, installation of street lights projects and construction of Anganwadi centres at Dehri in Rohtas district. Accompanied by Deputy Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary, Water Resources Minister Vijay Kumar Chaudhary and others, Kuamr also gave a cheque of Rs 74.17 crore for the distribution among 1,864 self-help groups associated with the Bihar Rural Livelihoods Project (BRLP), popularly known as JEEVIKA, in Bihar. The CM inaugurated the scheme for the supply of drinking water to the cities of Aurangabad, Dehri and Sasaram. In this scheme, the water of the Son river will be supplied to people. This will the dependence of these .
How quickly can the human body get dehydrated during severe heatwave?
Heatwave Dehydration: Scorching summer heat has shattered several records this year causing several illnesses, some of which can become life-threatening if not treated on time
Lack of drinking water facility main issue in Odisha's Koraput LS seat
Lack of drinking water facility, better price of agricultural produce of tribal farmers and good healthcare facilities are the main demands of the voters of Koraput Lok Sabha constituency in Odisha which will go to the polls on May 13. Koraput which is also called the Kashmir of Odisha for its hills, waterfalls and forests has more women voters than male. Out of total 14.80 lakh voters, 7,73, 885 are women and 7,06,777 are male. Farmers in Rayagada district, a part of which is under the Koraput Lok Sabha seat, are demanding regulation of cotton farming in the district as the farmers do not get fair price for their produce. They claim that they have to go for distress sale of cotton produce to the traders from Andhra Pradesh as there are no buyers of their cotton. They are demanding that the state government should come to the rescue of cotton growers who are hit by calamities. "While the paddy farmers get compensation over loss of their crop due to calamities, there is no such ...
Udupi second city in coastal Karnataka to announce water rationing
Udupi became the second city on the Karnataka coast after Mangaluru to launch water rationing, a senior official said on Tuesday. Commissioner of the Udupi City Municipal Corporation Rayappa told PTI that the rationing system will come into force from Wednesday and will continue till the water in the reservoir reaches comfortable levels. The dam built across the Swarna river at a place called Baje, which is the only source of water for Udupi city, recorded 3.25 meters of water as against the top level of 6.30 meters. The decision of water rationing will be reviewed periodically until the reservoir regains its fullest levels, the official said. The Mangaluru City Corporation resorted to water rationing on Saturday following declining water levels in the reservoir built across the Nethravati river at Thumbe.
'If B'luru stops saying yuck to treated wastewater, it'll never go thirsty'
Back in 2016, Centre for Ecological Sciences (CES) of Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, figured a way for the IT hub to stay water surplus. On an average, 20.05 TMC (thousand million cubic feet) of water is required every year for domestic purposes, CES's technical report established. Of which about 16.04 TMC, about 80 percent, could be met just by treating sewage water, suggested the report. Add to this, the rain yield, which is about 14.80TMC a year and Bengaluru could easily meet its water needs, the report stated. Cut to 2023. Some apartment owners of Emmanuel Heights in Hosa Road, Sarjapur, proposed setting up a sewage treatment plant in October. Little did they know that it would take them almost six months to convince the others. They all agreed only after the firm setting up the sewage treatment equipment put it in the agreement that they will buy all the treated water. Many people were adamant that not a drop of the treated water should be used inside the complex. ...
Lok Sabha polls: Drinking water to ORS, EC's advisory to tackle heatwave
Provide polling officials and voters with oral rehydration salts (ORS)
Karnataka govt's first priority is irrigation, water projects: Shivakumar
"The priority is the development of irrigation projects and filling up tanks. Other works, such as roads, will be taken up subsequently. We have already discussed this with the Chief Minister"
Kashmir Valley endures unusual, severe dry spell amid harsh winter
Reduced snowfall and precipitation levels have prompted worries about potential water scarcity and its far-reaching impacts on the environment and daily life
Drinking water access have reached 72% households in India: Union minister
Union Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat on Sunday said drinking water facilities have reached 72 per cent households in the country and the remaining will be completed by December 2024. When the Jal Jeevan Mission started in 2019, a little over 16 per cent of the households had access to drinking water facilities, Singh told a group of visiting journalists from Assam here. He emphasised that the implementation of the scheme is the responsibility of the state governments, and each state faces different geographical challenges and availability of water resources ranges from surplus to scarce. "We had prepared a guideline in consultation with the state governments and implementation of the scheme was done according to it", he said. Despite the challenges faced during two years of COVID, "I can say with pride that drinking water facilities has reached 72 per cent of the households", the Union minister said. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has pledged that each household will b
2023: NGT cracks whip to spur officials to strive for cleaner air, water
As large swathes of India gasped for breath, choking on air laden with contaminants, the National Green Tribunal grappled with a wide range of environmental issues, including pollution of the Ganga and quality and quantity of groundwater and air pollution in 2023. It went to the extent of imposing huge penalties on states like Delhi and Bihar for poor liquid and solid waste management. In February, the tribunal directed the Delhi government to pay Rs 2,232 crore as environmental compensation for improper management of solid and liquid waste, while in May it imposed a staggering Rs 4,000 crore compensation on Bihar. The green panel also passed orders to check over-exploitation of natural resources. It took suo motu (on its own) cognisance of industrial and environmental disasters, and awarded compensation to the victims. A highlight of the tribunal's directions involved restoring the pristine sanctity of rivers, many of which are venerated entities like the Ganga and Yamuna. Express
Parl panel alerts contamination of heavy metals in ground, drinking water
The report was considered and adopted by the Committee in its meeting held on December 12
As more of world thirsts, luxury water becomes fashionable among the elite
Monsoon rains have finally passed and floods blocking the lone dirt road have retreated enough for a small truck to climb these Himalayan foothills to a gurgling spring. It spews water so fresh that people here call it nectar. Workers inside a small plant ferry sleek glass bottles along a conveyer. The bottles, filled with a whoosh of this natural mineral water, are labelled, packed into cases and placed inside a truck for a long ride. Ganesh Iyer, who heads the operation, watches like a nervous dad, later pulling out his phone, as any proud parent might, to show the underground cavern the waters have formed in this pristine kingdom, the world's last Shangri-La. This is no ordinary water. It will travel hundreds of miles to some of India's luxury hotels, restaurants and richest families, who pay about USD 6 per bottle, roughly a day's wage for an Indian labourer. Millions of people worldwide don't have clean water to drink, even though the United Nations deemed water a basic human
New York sues PepsiCo for plastic pollution, alleging water contamination
New York Attorney General Letitia James announced a lawsuit against PepsiCo Inc. on Wednesday, accusing the soda-and-snack food giant of polluting the environment and endangering public health after its single-use plastics were found along the Buffalo River. The lawsuit filed in state Supreme Court aims to require PepsiCo and its subsidiaries, Frito-Lay Inc. and Frito-Lay North America Inc., to clean up its mess, where its single-use plastic packaging including food wrappers and plastic bottles have found a way to the shores of the Buffalo River and watershed, contaminating drinking water supply for the city of Buffalo. No company is too big to ensure that their products do not damage our environment and public health. All New Yorkers have a basic right to clean water, yet PepsiCo's irresponsible packaging and marketing endanger Buffalo's water supply, environment, and public health, James said in a statement. PepsiCo is the single largest identifiable contributor to the plastic was
World Food Day 2023: We must not take water for granted
Freshwater is not infinite, and we need to stop taking it for granted, writes Dr QU Dongyu, Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization
