According to a Pakistani newspaper, though the most recent flooding is different in nature compared to the one in 2010 — the latter was a flash flood while the current is a riverine flood — in both cases, it can be argued that the damage caused by both disasters is the outcome of lessons not learnt in demography as well as unwillingness to carry out flood protection measures across Pakistan. A research carried out by this author in 2017, about 2010 floods in Pakistan, history has repeated itself because no corrective measures were taken. It was almost déjà vu in 2022 — and yet, no lessons had been learnt. After all, disaster management is more about preparedness than response.

In a case of The pot calling the kettle black, the planning minister Ahsan Iqbal is reported to have said Pakistan was feeling the effects of climate change caused by richer nations and their “irresponsible development”. While all natural disasters can be ascribed to climate change a study of the earlier research will reveal that the Pakistan government did precious little to prevent recurrence of events that could have reduced the impact of the calamity. For example almost all barrages in the country are silted up to the brim, where is the scope to cushion the floods. The government should be questioned and asked to give an account of desilting measures taken since 2010.

THE FACTS AS THEY STOOD IN 2010

The floods in Pakistan now show signs of abating but the havoc caused by them will continue to mount.  It is too early to measure even the immediate losses of lives or property, both private and public, although over 2000 persons are estimated to have died and 21 million become refugees in their own country.  Secondary damages to agricultural land and animal husbandry will take years to recoup.  At one point about one-fifth of Pakistan’s total land area had goneunder water.  Floodwaters have destroyed crops :  an estimated 700,000 acres of cotton, 200,000 acres each of rice and sugar cane and 300,000 acres of wheat.  This will impact the agricultural economy which contributed 20.4% of Pakistan’s GDP last year.  The cascading effect into industry and trade is bound to add to economic woes.

Scientists have described this catastrophe as a once-in-a-century flood. Out of a Population of 168 million nearly 21 milion people have been affected by floods out of a total area of Pakistan of 796 095 square kilometers, the Flood-affected area is 160 000 square kilometers. In a country where already a large percentage of the population is living as refugees, an additional 1.85 million homes have been destroyed or damaged due to floods. Look at the fact sheet of the present disaster:

Pakistan Flood Losses (as on 6 September 2010) Source:  NDMA, PDMA
Province	Deaths	Injured	Houses Damaged	Population Affected
Balochistan	48	102	75,261	*672,171
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa	1,154	1,193	200,799	4,365,909
Punjab	110	350	500,000	8,200,000
Sindh	186	909	1,058,862	6,988,491
AJK	71	87	7,108	245,000
Gilgit Baltistan	183	60	2,830	81,605
Total	1,752	2,701	1,844,860	20,553,176
* Additional 600,000 IDPs from Sindh are living in Balochistan

The degree of severity to which people have been affected by the floods varies depending on their particular losses and damages. UN assessments have been launched in at least three provinces to identify severely affected families who require life-saving humanitarian assistance. The UN experts have identified 2.7 million people in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 5.3 million in Punjab and 4.4 million in Sindh that are in need of immediate humanitarian assistance.

Approximately 4 out of 5 people in the flood-affected areas depend on agriculture for their livelihood. Across the country, millions of people have lost their entire means to sustain themselves in the immediate and longer term, owing to the destruction/damage of standing crops and means of agricultural production.  One of the greatest challenges on the ground is helping farmers to recover their land in time for wheat planting beginning in September/October and to prevent further livestock losses. According to the FAO figures released on 3^rd September 2010, the scale of losses to the agriculture sector caused by the Pakistan floods is unprecedented and further unfolding:

•  The Agriculture Cluster rapid damage assessments, completed in half of all flood-affected districts, found that 1.3 million hectares of standing crops have been damaged
•  Countrywide damage to millions of hectares of cultivatable land, including standing crops (e.g. rice,maize, cotton, sugar cane, orchards and vegetables) appears likely
•  Loss of 0.5-0.6 million tonnes of wheat stock needed for the wheat planting season
•  Death of 1.2 million large and small animals, and 6 million poultry (Department of Livestock)

While the full extent of the damage still cannot be quantified and assessments are ongoing, the direct and future losses are likely to affect millions of people at household level, as well as impact national productive capacity for staple crops, such as wheat and rice. The FAO feels that response to needs in the agriculture sector cannot be underestimated nor delayed.

The political spillover is equally if not more worrisome.  Relief efforts have highlighted the inefficiencies and corruption endemic in the Pakistani administrative set-up, magnified as it is becoming in the eyes of the already disenchanted masses, especially the internally displaced. The fear is that    fundamentalist organizations will extend their grip over affected populations by filling in wide gaps in disaster relief left by Pakistan Government and international relief agencies.  All this adds fuel to the already political fire in a volatile and unpredictable Pakistan.

Even if Pakistan wades through the floods, what is there to prevent another water disaster in the future?  To answer this question, one must examine these floods in a broader framework.  Pakistani meteorological data points to unusually heavy rains in July – August in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab provinces as the main cause of the floods.  Satellite pictures corroborate this.

Satellite Map shows the swelling Indus River at Sukkur Barrge Source NASA

 

According to a  WAPDA (Water and Power Development Authority) ] press release on Water Situation on 03 – 09 – 2010 the 24 hour Inflows / Outflows (in Cusecs) of the major Dams on the rivers in Pakistan were as follows:

Indus at Tarbela 203300 / 203300 Cusecs

Kabul at Nowshera 42000 / 42000 Cusecs

Indus at Chashma 249100 / 244100 Cusecs

Jhelum at Mangla 42800 / 42800 Cusecs

Chenab at Marala 87000 / 67400 Cusecs.

The above figures indicate that the Pakistani dams/barrages are virtually unable to retain any water, as can be seen above, almost all of the inflows are equal to the outflows. This is normally the case in monsoons for some dams but the figures are shocking because not a single dam except for Marala on the Chenab has been able to absorb some 20,000 cusecs of water.

Balochistan Times (August 21, 2009) reported that since the Chashma Barrage had been filled with water along with Tarbela Dam and Mangla Dam as a result of filling of these water reservoirs, IRSA had directed the provinces to use the released water as much as they needed without any restrictions. According to IRSA (Indus River System Authority)  officials, besides Mangla and Tarbela Dams the approximate inflow of water in the other rivers was 319500 cusecs and 4000 cusecs from river Kabul, all of which was being released as Tarbela and Mangla had filled completely. The CJ canal had been closed so that the Chashma Barrage could be destilled. The plus side for power starved Pakistan was that with the filling of dams with water, the power production had been increased, from which about 4000MW power was being generated from hydel power, which  reduced load shedding in the country..

The flood affected areas were mostly along the main Indus River and its western tributaries – Swat and Kabul; and less so from the eastern tributaries – Jhelum, Chenab and Sutlej.  This should not however obscure the overall picture.  More than 80% of the total water flows in the Indus river- system is accounted for by snowmelt and rainfall in the mountainous regions which are largely beyond its political control and belong to Afghanistan, India and China.  According to one estimate, the Kabul river accounts for 20 to 30 MAF of total annual flows, the main Indus 100 MAF and the Jhelum and Chenab 60, while the Ravi, Beas, and Sutlej add another 40 MAF or so. Floods are a cumulative effect of all these flows.

Initially, storage dams like Mangla and Tarbela   were built to modulate irrigation and control floods. But some 7 MAF of their storage capacity has already been silted up. And Pakistan has been singularly unsuccessful in building additional storage capacity to compensate, let alone provide for enhanced irrigation and flood control needs.  A major project – the Kalabagh dam – has failed to get off the drawing boards for two decades because of internal bickering between its provinces.  The international segmentation of the Indus basin rivers complicates the problem still further, particularly in relation to the two principal upper riparians – India andAfghanistan – with which Pakistan has troubled relationships.

The 3,200 km long Indus, one of the mighty rivers of the Indian subcontinent,   flows down from the Himalayas of Tibet, towards north-west through India before turning sharply southwards through  Pakistan,  draining into the Arabian Sea. Some of its water comes from melting Himalayan glaciers, but the vast majority is contributed by the monsoon. The monsoon floods are triggered almost annually. Historical records indicate that during a warm period ending about 6,000 years ago, the Indus was a monster river, more powerful and more prone to flooding than today.  Then, 4,000 years ago, as the climate cooled, a large part of it simply dried up. Deserts appeared whether mighty torrents once flowed. The matter of public debate is whether, with global warming, will the river again turn monstrous. A matter which further compounds the problem is the fact that siltation reduces the rivers capacity to hold water. Even with the total quantum of precipitation being the same, the intensity of rainfall gets aggravated by global warming resulting in unmanageable discharges.  Pakistan, which spends more of its scarce financial resources in building defences against India, has been unable to enhance its Hydraulic infrastructure comprising  of dams and barrages. In fact, due to siltation its overall storage capacity has further reduced.

Pakistan is, thus at a fork in the road.  It can either continue confrontationist policies which underlie present arrangements (or lack thereof) and face similar or perhaps bigger flood disasters in future, if anticipated climate change effects do materialise. Or it can chose to cooperate with countries in the Indus basin with a view to building an integrated system of storage dams, flood control installations and power generation stations which will help to modulate flows and avert floods, thereby benefitting Pakistan’s agriculture particularly its struggling farmers. The attendant hydropower potential is also huge and can be tapped for the energy-hungry Pakistani economy, as well as cross-border sales to India.  The big question is whether the Pakistan’s rulers can change their confrontationist mindset to make this possible.  If there was no deficit of trust India could have stored water even in the eastern rivers of the Indus basin to be used as a kind of buffer during floods. But, for that an integrated basin management is required, because the mighty rivers, follow their own course, they do not recognize man made political boundaries.

A  preliminary report was published in Hindu Business Line on 19th October 2010. Business Line version was available on the net at the following URL:

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2010/10/19/stories/2010101950330900.htm

Since it is a very old link it is probably no longer available but can be read on the link below

Pakistan floods reveal deep-rooted problems

 

Acronyms

NDMA National Disaster Management Authority

WAPDA Water and Power Development Authority

IRSA Indus River System Authority

OCHA United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

FAO Food and Agriculture Organisation

IDP Internally Displaced Person

MAF Million Acre Feet

Cusec Cubic Feet per Second

Everyone is talking about oxygen concentrators now. Most of us had not heard of them before. Many know about distillers which extract water from air, yet very few realised that even oxygen can be extracted from air. So what is an Oxygen Concentrator and how do you choose the right one?

The most important is to understand that Covid patients require 90% Oxygen concentration at 1to 5Litre flow and above to 10L

Tips on Selecting the right oxygen concentrator.

The most important is to understand Covid patients require 90% Oxygen concentration at 1to 5Litre flow and above to 10L when they are suffering with acute respiratory discomfort.

90% oxygen concentration is the most important point here.

1. We can break down oxygen concentrator into small (5 to 10 kg) oxygen concentrator suitable for COPD patients, medium (15 to 19kg) and large (20kg and above) oxygen concentrators are suitable for critical care and for COVID patients.
2. Small oxygen concentrators can have options from 1 Litre to 9 Litre Flow but this does not mean you get 90% oxygen at higher flow like at 5 litre. On small oxygen concentrators 90% oxygen contration is achieved only at lower flows of 1litre to 2 litre. on higher flows the oxygen concentration drops to 30% as you increase the flow. Suitable for COPD patients but not for COVID patients.
3. Check the specs of the oxygen concentrator and if you see 90% – 30% or ( 1L/min , 2L/min) means 90% oxygen is available only at 1Litre flow or 2Litre flow respectively and on higher flows oxygen drops to 30%. The air we breathing is with 29% oxygen. So small (5kg to 10kg ) oxygen concentrator at higher flows gives output of 30% oxygen means its just blowing air.
4. weight is the best indicator to understand the oxygen production capacity.

A 5kg to 10kg oxygen concentrator means a small compressor which will only mange to give an output of 90% oxygen at 1 litre to max 2 Litre

A 15kg to 19kg Oxygen Concentrator will have a compressor that can easily give an output of 90% oxygen at flows from 1 Litre to 5 Litre Oxygen (Ideal for COVID patients and critical care patients)

A 20 kg and above oxygen concentrator will have a large compressor which can give an output of 90% oxygen from 1Litre to 10Litre flow. (Ideal for COVID patients and critical care patients and for dual patients to use same machine with accessories)

Please do not only see the output flow of an oxygen concentrator like 5litre, 10litre or so. the most important is to make sure you get 90% Oxygen at highest flow level.

For a small family with no senior citizens a 5 litre at 90% oxygen concentration should be good enough.

For 2 senior citizens or for a big family 10 litre at 90% oxygen concentration should be good enough as it can support 2 patients at once if the need arises. And can assist senior citizens during home critical care if the need arises.

Please do not get fooled and pay big money for small oxygen concentrator sold by highlighting 5 Litre and 8 Litre and do not give an output of 90% concentration of oxygen at higher flows which is the need of the hour.

Please read the specs well and if required please ask your supplier to show you the oxygen output on an oxygen analyzer at higher flow of 5 Litre or 10 Litre.

they are suffering with acute respiratory discomfort.

90% oxygen concentration is the most important point here.

1. We can break down oxygen concentrator into small (5 to 10 kg) oxygen concentrator suitable for COPD patients, medium (15 to 19kg) and large (20kg and above) oxygen concentrators are suitable for critical care and for COVID patients.
2. Small oxygen concentrators can have options from 1 Litre to 9 Litre Flow but this does not mean you get 90% oxygen at higher flow like at 5 litre. On small oxygen concentrators 90% oxygen contration is achieved only at lower flows of 1litre to 2 litre. on higher flows the oxygen concentration drops to 30% as you increase the flow. Suitable for COPD patients but not for COVID patients.
3. Check the specs of the oxygen concentrator and if you see 90% – 30% or ( 1L/min , 2L/min) means 90% oxygen is available only at 1Litre flow or 2Litre flow respectively and on higher flows oxygen drops to 30%. The air we breathing is with 29% oxygen. So small (5kg to 10kg ) oxygen concentrator at higher flows gives output of 30% oxygen means its just blowing air.
4. weight is the best indicator to understand the oxygen production capacity.

A 5kg to 10kg oxygen concentrator means a small compressor which will only manage to give an output of 90% oxygen at 1 litre to max 2 Litre

A 15kg to 19kg Oxygen Concentrator will have a compressor that can easily give an output of 90% oxygen at flows from 1 Litre to 5 Litre Oxygen (Ideal for COVID patients and critical care patients)

A 20 kg and above oxygen concentrator will have a large compressor which can give an output of 90% oxygen from 1Litre to 10Litre flow. (Ideal for COVID patients and critical care patients and for dual patients to use same machine with accessories)

Please do not only see the output flow of an oxygen concentrator like 5litre, 10litre or so. the most important is to make sure you get 90% Oxygen at highest flow level.

For a small family with no senior citizens a 5 litre at 90% oxygen concentration should be good enough.

For 2 senior citizens or for a big family 10 litre at 90% oxygen concentration should be good enough as it can support 2 patients at once if the need arises. And can assist senior citizens during home critical care if the need arises.

Please do not get fooled and pay big money for small oxygen concentrators sold by highlighting 5 Litre and 8 Litre and do not give an output of 90% concentration of oxygen at higher flows which is the need of the hour.

Please read the specs well and if required please ask your supplier to show you the oxygen output on an oxygen analyzer at higher flow of 5 Litre or 10 Litre.

Also most importantly consult a doctor before you invest your hard earned money in the device. Right now, because of a shortage of oxygen supplies, the concentrators are overpriced. As soon as supply meets demand, the price of concentrators will come down.

Life “is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.” So said Shakespeare in Macbeth, a tragedy of epic proportion where the eponymous hero fell because of only one tragic flaw: “Vaulting ambition, which overleaps itself.”  Covid19 brought the “sound and fury, signifying nothing” part of Macbeth like a thunderbolt rolled onto an unsuspecting mankind. And Hamartia, or the tragic flaw, that Shakespeare’s tragic heroes had, has its echo in present times too. Covid19 lays bare our fault lines and exposes our flaws like never before. It has, in fact, come as a great teacher to mankind – perhaps because the ‘kind’ in “man” had shrunk to a miniscule level. It has given us a huge nudge to readjust our priorities that were slinking to abominable levels of putrid materialism.  Hmm…..looked closely, it also has been a period of wish-fulfillment, the collective wishes of entire mankind, or rather man-unkind, witnessing fruition of shared desires in a way unparalleled.

To further explain my points, let me take the first premise of collective wish fulfillment. Was the entire human race not clamoring for clearer skies, cleaner air and sparkling water? Millions of dollars were being spent on hosting international meets that often ended up revealing more dissensions than agreements. Each country blamed the other for being a greater polluter, never wanting to clean its own Augean stables. Year after year, there were foreboding studies that announced imminent doom of the planet if countries did not clean up the environmental mess. Countries met, they bickered and blamed each other, and dispersed.

“Monday morning blues” was the litany of all working people. I remember beginning to feel the blues just when Sunday dawned. Why can’t weekends be longer, was the refrain echoed in all corners of the world – languages varied, refrain the same.  “Let all days be Sunday,” said the mighty voice. And we all huddled home every day, day after day. Beautiful day-planners lying on the desk were an investment most futile!!

Don’t blame any virus or any government for the pandemic…..all wishes are coming true. Is it self-fulfilling prophesy, or mere Ignis Fatuus!  Is it a passing phase, or the new world order is here to stay. Only time will tell.

One thing is for sure. The virus is not atemporal. It may either gradually die a natural death after peaking, or human intervention will see it rendered less menacing. Whatever it may be, but it surely will have taught us the much-needed and long-forgotten basic lessons before it exits.

First and foremost, Covid19 has added the fundamental “Pause” button to human race – race, both as noun and verb – the former defining the species, and the latter their feverish scurrying forth. I feel it has made us stop as the traffic light gradually turns red, so that we have time to reflect until it turns green and hence signal us to recalibrate our speed and direction.  We were all racing from morning until night, 24X7, in pursuit of something that was always outside our grasp.  Were we not all running away from life, looking for a meaning in a place it did not exist.  And now, staying within the confines of our homes we are learning to live with ourselves. Most friends and family I have spoken to have expressed how little we actually need in life and yet we carry the heaviest baggage. Our priorities had gone misplaced and it is time to set them right.  

What is of utmost importance is human life. This lesson, unfortunately, a deadly virus had to come and teach us. It has showed us that we need to value people and use things when we had been doing the reverse – Valuing things and using people. Time for some reverse-engineering. Time to smell the coffee!

People in lock-downs, living away from families learnt the value of a family, and those locked with their families are learning to share, care, and the biggest of all, to let-go. Sharing limited home space has strained many a family, for the virus leaves no option of quietly slipping away from home in case of any friction.  And therein lies the lesson of developing tolerance. “Love me when I deserve the least because that is when I need the most,” my friend’s recalcitrant teenager told his mother. Mighty lesson that is! Equally relevant for the youngster and his mother.

“It would seem resourceful, perhaps wise, to use suffering as a vehicle of transformation that allows us to open ourselves with compassion to those who suffer as we do, or even more than we do”, said Matthieu Ricard in his book Happiness. Roman philosopher Seneca once said that “Suffering may hurt, but it is not an evil.” Schopenhauer, the German philosopher may have had similar belief when he said that suffering is the purifying process through which alone, in most cases, a person is consecrated.  Sure enough, no one wants suffering and all human endeavor is towards forswearing it. However, it can be argued that while suffering by its very nature is abhorrent but when unable to avoid, we can use it to learn and to change.

While we wait with bated breath for this Covid19 to pass, we can only forget the lessons it continues to teach us – both, at the physical level and at a deeper existential, philosophical level, at our own peril.  In the latter half of this century when it is well behind us, and human race has the wisdom of hindsight, Covid19 may seem to be the one game-changer humankind desperately needed for course correction.

I started writing this piece when we were, what is now known as the middle of Covid, or the first phas (It may be known differently sometime down the line) . As we are a cat’s whisker away from getting the vaccine, these disembodied times however seem  here to stay for a while. I’m quite inclined to close with Hafiz : “I wish I could show you, when you are lonely or in darkness, the astonishing light of your own being!” So instead of taking a world trip, go inside yourself and find the true essence. Nice things, beautiful scenic places, gourmet food and all the pompous pursuits of men are a happy place to be in, but the joy they provide is never ever-lasting. It is transitory. The value of things is only the value we ascribe to them. As Vivekananda said: “Things are dead in themselves. We breathe life into them, and then we either run after them or run away from them.”

Covid-19 has provided a big insight into what really matters in the race we call Life. The Pause-button ought to make us reflect on where we were headed, and which direction we need to take. Almost a year into the pandemic, the self-importance of man dissolves in laughter. Life will never be easy. It will always be hard, but we can choose our hard wisely. Look to the light within, for the more light you allow within you, the brighter the world you live in will be.

Channel One’s half-hour program where Prof. Manohar Khushalani elaborated on how to tackle the water crisis in Delhi in a holistic fashion. Recorded in Channel One Studio in Noida, UP in May 2013

With the rising temperatures in Delhi, the need and demand for water are also rising. The water supply in the capital is becoming worse day by day. Even after multiple promises made by the government, the pressing issue still remains and is in fact growing.

There are many ways in which the situation can be tackled but planning is required. The demand and supply have to be met. The amount of groundwater used is currently more than what is being percolated back. Most of Delhi is located on a hill and groundwater has a little to no existence there. Even the villages where water used to be abundant have very less water now.

Delhi Jal Board has introduced a GPS tracking system for the tankers to prevent stealing and black marketing. The government is also working on directing the water in the right canals which will increase the percentage of water that can be used. The system has been made but even after multiple complaints and requests, there’s no action being taken regularly.

Prof. Manohar Khushalani adds some solutions to the problems. He states that the water level was high years back even when Delhi was a hilly area. So there might have been some mismanagement behind the issue at hand today.

Sewage treatment is also very necessary because otherwise rivers get polluted by the sewage. Sewage farms have been replaced by construction of buildings. Dilution of water has become impossible after people started covering the gutters. These stormwater drains have been made by using public tax money and no one has the right to block them. A formal penalty will be the best solution to this problem.

The calls received in the panel discussion shows how people are frustrated with the situation. They usually get dirty water, which happens because the mainline gets mixed with the sewage line. One caller suggests that an RO system or any water-purifier system can be used in a locality. Jal Board needs to make sure that the voices of people are heard so that better decisions can be made in regards to providing clean water.

For more details visit the following link : https://youtu.be/ppQ-9nAdu70

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BTP Students: Sejal Kumar / Aysha Fazilath / Rahul Patwardhan / Vyshakh Dharan

Prof. Manohar Khushalani appeared Live, as a Panelist in the Lok Sabha TV Program INSIGHT on, Monday, 18th June 2018 at 1 pm and again at 4 pm. The discussions were on Niti Aayog’s report, titled ‘Composite Water Management Index’ (CWMI). An intense and productive discussion was held on issues confronting the nation concerning the water crisis in India and the world. Dr. T. Haque, from Niti Ayog, was Khushalani’s co-panelist. Pratibimb Sharma was the Anchor of the Program

According to Niti Aayog’s report on water scarcity published in 2018, India is going through the worst water crisis situation it has ever seen. More than sixty crores of its population are facing this issue and around two lakh die every year. This report discusses the plans made by the government to curb this issue and the position they have reached to achieve the goal in the predicted timeline. This has been done in order to make a competitive framework between the states to keep a check on where they stand and what they can do to get to a better situation.

Twenty-one cities including Indore, Bhopal, and NDMC area have switched to the cleaner city lists after constant efforts. According to the rankings, 5 states – Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, and Maharashtra are working the most towards fixing the situation. Their practices have been mentioned in the report as an inspiration for other states to see and apply. These ranks have been given on the basis of 9 key areas, for example, the state with best groundwater plans has been given 15 points, improvement in lakes and other water bodies is given 5 points, and so on.

The discussion takes us through the gaps between what the report discusses and the major issues that need to be tackled. The report informs us about what the states have done by far but will this help to intercept the problems that lie in front of us in time?

Prof. Manohar Khushalani then adds that the country is receiving the required amount of rainwater, but the problem is that it is not managed well by the government and the citizens. Reasons being lack of awareness among citizens, constant fighting between states, and inability or lack of knowledge to conserve rainwater. We are a lucky nation to have this huge amount of rainfalls spread across the country but we lack proper planning. One holistic approach is needed towards making and managing proper schemes.

According to Dr. T Haque, awareness has increased amongst citizens in the civil society and they are taking steps to increase the water harvesting practices but facts say that leakages at houses contribute to a large percentage of water being wasted.

Khushalani also talks about the 70 percent water being contaminated as mentioned in the report. It is very important that the water that goes below the ground is being filtered. The water below the ground is connected. So, it is very important to monitor water harvesting as well.

Talking about the utilization of water among farmers, when they were given the free electricity incentive they started using groundwater more than required. Now, when they are asked to use less water or practice micro-irrigation to grow their crops, they have no incentive to be drawn to this new practice. This is a very big area where the government can focus on. Even for the citizens, this is a big question that can come up, what’s in it for me?

There has been a lack of vision despite the efforts taken by the government. The state and the central government needs to be aligned to make better decisions. It is very much possible as some of the decisions taken in the past have proved to be very fruitful. The report has helped in creating awareness in terms of where the states stands and the positive impact of this will be seen in the coming future. This report with the inputs of people will help create a better understanding of what more needs to be done in order to solve the crisis at hand.

For more information please visit the link : https://youtu.be/hohvMVZvPcQ