Great Lakes

72% of urban wastewater flows into rivers, lakes, land untreated: Report

A meagre 28 per cent of the urban wastewater and sewage generated in India undergoes treatment while the rest flows directly into rivers, lakes and land, according to a report by the think tank Centre for Science and Environment. India's urban water crisis could ease if all the wastewater is treated and reused, the report released here on Monday said. Rajiv Kumar Mital, Director General of the National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG), said, "Using and disposing of treated water without harnessing its potential means we are losing out on utilising an important resource. The challenge is to scale up and ensure that the work we do in this sector is impactful." Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) Director General Sunita Narain said India faces significant water scarcity challenges due to rapid urbanisation, industrial growth, population expansion and, most importantly, climate change. "Wastewater reuse can be a key part of the strategy to address these concerns and promote water ..

Need to mitigate risks linked with glacial lakes: Principal secy Mishra

P K Mishra, principal secretary to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on Tuesday stressed the need for mitigating risks associated with glacial lakes to ensure a safer future for communities. Mishra asserted that through the tri-focal lens of assessment, monitoring and mitigation, India has made substantial progress in this area. He made the remarks at the 4th Workshop of the Committee on Disaster Risk Reduction (CoDRR) on Strategies for GLOF (Glacial Lake Outburst Flood) Risk Reduction here. Complimenting the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) and the Department of Water Resources for organising the workshop, he focused on international perspectives and experiences, pertinently India's experiences, gaps and challenges in mitigating the risks and related aspects. Mishra said the discussions on Sikkim glacial lake outburst flood disaster has brought to focus the enormity of the challenge. Indeed, the South Lhonak GLOF was a wake-up call for all of us, he said. Mishra undersc

Water stock in Mumbai lakes down to 7%, BMC to impose water cut from July 1

With the level of lakes supplying water to Mumbai going down due to inadequate rainfall in their catchment areas, the city civic body has decided to impose a 10 per cent water cut here starting from Saturday, officials said. Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) commissioner and administrator Iqbal Singh Chahal also appealed to citizens to save water and use it judiciously. The southwest monsoon covered Mumbai on Sunday after a delay of two weeks. Talking to PTI, Chahal said on Wednesday that the BMC has decided to implement 10 water cut in Mumbai from July 1 as the stock in lakes supplying water to the city is about seven per cent. Mumbai receives 3,800 MLD (millions of litres per day) of water from seven reservoirs namely Bhatsa, Upper Vaitarna, Middle Vaitarna, Tansa, Modak Sagar, Vihar and Tulsi, located in Mumbai, Thane and Nashik districts. According to a BMC report, the seven lakes had 7.26 per cent stock at 6 am on Wednesday. On the same day in 2022 and 2021, the ...

More than 50% of world's largest lakes are losing water: Research

More than 50 per cent of the largest lakes in the world are losing water, according to a new study, with key culprits unsurprisingly being warming climate and unsustainable human consumption. The study, published in the journal Science, is the first comprehensive assessment of trends and drivers of global lake water storage variability based on an array of satellites and models, said lead author Fangfang Yao, University of Virginia, US. He said this new method of tracking lake water storage trends and the reasons behind them could give water managers and communities insight into how to better protect critical sources of water and important regional ecosystems. Motivated by environmental crises such as the drying of the Aral Sea between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, Yao and colleagues from the University of Colorado Boulder (US), Kansas State University (US), France, and Saudi Arabia set out to measure changes in water levels in nearly 2,000 of the world's biggest lakes and reservoirs,

New US federal guideline seeks higher safety standards for more pipelines

A new federal regulation requires higher safety standards for pipelines carrying oil and other hazardous liquids through the Great Lakes region, marine coastal waters and beaches, officials said.

Management guru Bala Balachandran, 84, passes away after brief illness

The Chairman and Dean (Emeritus) of Great Lakes Institute was also a J L Kellogg distinguished professor; in 1960s he helped recruit the first set of faculty members to IIM Bangalore

Management guru Professor Bala V Balachandran passes away

Management guru and founder of Great Lakes Institute of Management (GLIM) here - Professor Bala V Balachandran died following a brief illness

How Bala swam across oceans to create Great Lakes

Bala V Balachandran's Great Lakes is a personal tribute to his country after escaping the clutches of death and a fulfilment of his promise to the Father of the Nation