National Geographic, Farhan Akhtar team up for water conservation initiative.
‘National Geographic Mission Blue’ is an initiative to address the cause of water scarcity.
This includes special documentaries on the water issue, as well as specially created short films by directors Imtiaz Ali, Hansal Mehta, Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury and Madhur Bhandarkar, who creatively bring out the key message through everyday stories of India.
Water Aid Foundation, a non-profit known for its exemplary contribution to the cause of water, has also partnered National Geographic Mission Blue, where they will together help provide clean drinking water to schools.
In India alone, 76 million people lack access to safe water—a problem that is only going to get worse if no immediate action is taken.
We are hopeful that this initiative will help enlighten people on what can be achieved by collective action.” She noted that is a part of National Geographic’s brand promise last year of going ‘Further’.
It has the power to enlighten, inspire and empower people who are unaware of what they can do towards the cause of water scarcity and drive real change.
I hope people will realise that the responsibility of conserving water and of their own future is essentially in their own hands.” He noted that when he was growing up brands like National Geographic were not present to help educate.
However, over the past 20 years, things have been changing.
I have a connection between the cities and villages as far as water is concerned.” He noted that through National Geographic he can reach out and tell people what his father is trying to say.

CAP board members: Arizona has a long history of cooperation on water, and we need it now more than ever.
3 big drought plans are in the works The water scarcity dilemma on the Colorado River is two-fold: We’re facing an extended drought and a "structural deficit," which means that the Colorado River is over-allocated by about 1.2 million acre feet (or a 12 foot reduction in Lake Mead’s water elevation per year).
To manage water scarcity during an almost two-decade-long drought, Arizona water leaders agreed to the 2007 Shortage and Sharing Guidelines.
The purpose of the Drought Contingency Plan is to address the immediate problem of drought by reducing the use of Colorado River water to prevent lower water levels in Lake Mead from triggering water shortages.
Because the risks of shortage at Lake Mead are so high to Arizonans, we negotiated the Drought Contingency Plan Plus to save even more water in Lake Mead by reducing Colorado River water use and storage within Arizona for three years.
Central Arizona Project experts want to avoid unintentionally triggering a shortage at taxpayer expense and believe that a flexible approach to managing water savings in Lake Mead, which takes into account the highly variable hydrology of the river as well as water savings efforts of other states, would allow water managers to more effectively avoid future shortages at the lake.
It is essential that we put our differences aside to find innovative solutions that result in lasting conservation to improve the health of the river and to secure our water supplies.
This collaborative partnership is an essential element in Arizona’s effective water management, ensuring that the knowledge and expertise of both the Water Conservation District and the Department of Water Resources are harnessed when making decisions that impact the Colorado River and Central Arizona Project.
It is essential that Arizonans continue working together to avoid shortages on Lake Mead in times of drought and to achieve lasting conservation of Colorado River water.
They both serve as elected members of Central Arizona Water Conservation District board of directors.

Mayor Hemalatha vows to develop Chittoor as a model one.
Ads by Kiosked Chittoor: City Mayor Hemalatha asked corporators and officials of the Chittoor Municipal Corporation (CMC) to work relentlessly for developing city as a model one.
After taking charge, the Mayor convened a meeting in which the corporators and civic officials took part at corporation office here on Friday.
Highlights: Hemalatha takes charge as Mayor.
Assures to resolve drinking water woes of city residents.
Later, speaking to the media, Hemalatha said that her first priority is to resolve the drinking water scarcity with the support of civic officials and corporators.
The Mayor has instructed the Engineering department of the CMC to take effective steps for mitigating the drinking water scarcity in the city with proper planning and sincere supervision.
“I would impress upon the Collector for releasing the drought relief funds at the earliest,” she added.
Municipal Corporation Commissioner G Balasubramanyam explained the difficulties in resolving the drinking water scarcity in the city due to shortage of funds.
Drinking water is being supplied to city through NTR Jalasayam in an effective manner, he added.

Jajpur: The District Mineral Fund and the rural development (RD) department will launch a mega water supply project with an estimated cost of Rs 55.17 crore, much to the relief of thousands of people of Sukinda mining area.
The project envisaged at supplying water in the mine areas under Sukinda block will directly benefit 26,736 people of 25 villages under four panchayats.
The department has also sent a letter to the superintendent engineer for the release of tenders and other formalities.
Rampant mining has gradually affected the water quality and depleted the groundwater.
Although the mining companies are supposed to supply drinking water through tankers as part of their Corporate Social Responsibility programme, none of them seem to follow the guidelines.
There are about 30 water supply projects in the block but most of the pipelines release water with high chromite content.
Locals have no option but to depend of ponds and other water bodies, but these too are polluted due to release of untreated industrial waste.
As a result, the villagers fall victim to various diseases.
Keeping the water woes of people in mind, the administration had several years ago planned to launch a mega water supply project.
The DMF has already allocated Rs 33.92 crore for the project.

Water-Efficient Toilets Could Save 170 Billion Gallons of Water Per Year.
Water-efficient toilets could potentially save up to 170 billion gallons of water per year across five states facing water scarcity, according to new research from the Alliance for Water Efficiency (AWE) and Plumbing Manufacturers International (PMI).
The study focused on Arizona, California, Colorado, Georgia and Texas, where water shortages are prevalent.
The “Saturation Study of Non-Efficient Water Closets in Key States” research found that if non-efficient toilets in residential properties are replaced with water-efficient ones, the five states could save 170 billion gallons of potable water yearly or 465 million gallons saved per day, which is equivalent to up to 360 billion potable gallons of water per year saved nationally.
More than 13 million non-efficient toilets, defined as ones with gallons per flush (gpf) of more than 1.6 gallons, remain installed in Arizona, California, Colorado, Georgia and Texas residences, and represent about 21% of all toilets installed in these states.
As toilet flushing is the largest single indoor use of water, representing 24% of total use in single-family homes, replacing non-efficient toilets in the five states researched would save a significant amount of water overall.
For visualization, savings of 170 billion gallons of water per year equates to: -Enough water saved to take 10 billion showers – more than one for each person on the planet -Enough water saved to serve the indoor home water needs of a city of 100,000 for 45 years -Enough water saved to fill 250,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools -Enough water saved to fill 1,000 Rose Bowls -Enough water saved to equal the water that goes over Niagara Falls in 2 1/2 days At the current 4% annual toilet replacement rate in the U.S., the potential savings illustrated in this study will not occur for another 15 to 30 years unless replacement programs are accelerated.
“This study affirms the important and sometimes overlooked role that water-efficient plumbing products – and programs such as the EPA WaterSense label – play in assuring water sustainability for our nation,” said Mary Ann Dickinson, AWE president and CEO in a news release.
“We are nowhere near the potential of water savings we can achieve through water efficiency.” Lauren Shanesy Lauren is the Products Editor for Hanley Wood’s residential construction group.
She holds two bachelor’s degrees in English Writing and Communications from Clemson University.

Nat Geo and Farhan team up, inspire ‘water footprint’ reduction.
MUMBAI: National Geographic is all set to lead the way in its endeavour to go further as a brand and inspire change.
National Geographic Mission Blue, is an initiative to address the cause of water scarcity.
It aims to spread awareness and empower people with knowledge on what they can do to help impact the lives of the millions who are deprived of this precious resource.
This includes special documentaries on the water issue; both global and local, as well as specially created short films by award winning directors Imtiaz Ali, Hansal Mehta, Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury and Madhur Bhandarkar who creatively bring out the key message through everyday stories of India.
Water Aid Foundation, a non-profit known for its exemplary contribution to the cause of water, has also partnered with National Geographic MISSION BLUE, where they will together help provide clean drinking water to schools.
Today, the water crisis around the world calls for much attention.
In India alone, 663 million people lack access to safe drinking water – a problem that is only going to get worse if no immediate action is taken.
It has the power to enlighten, inspire and empower people who are unaware of what they can do towards the cause of water scarcity and drive real change.
I hope people will realize that the responsibility of conserving water and of their own future is essentially in their own hands.”

Stop Hunting for That Oasis: This Device Can Create Water Out of Thin Air.
One stumbling block for global water accessibility is the reliance on "grid" structures for transit and access — as drinkable water currently needs to flow through pipes, creating the necessary infrastructure to ensure access in remote or inhospitable areas is extremely costly, time consuming, and even virtually impossible in some cases.
The work is a collaboration between Dr. Evelyn Wang’s Device Research Laboratory at MIT Mechanical Engineering, and Professor Omar M. Yaghi’s Reticular Chemistry Laboratory at University of California-Berkeley.
While powered by solar energy, its most important components are metal-organic frameworks (MOFs).
Professor Yaghi invented MOFs two decades ago — he explains they are materials made by stitching together organic and inorganic metallic units into porous frameworks, which are ideal for capturing and storing gases and liquids.
"The MOF [in this device], MOF-801, is capable of trapping water at extremely low humidities typical of arid regions of Earth where almost one-third of the world population lives.
As air passes through the MOF, water is trapped in its tiny pores and then concentrated," Prof. Yaghi told Sputnik.
It’s the first device capable of water capture and delivery under such conditions — but its application extends beyond drinking water and household purposes.
Certainly, there are many techniques for capturing water at high humidity, but none work at low humidity as this MOF device does.
Moreover, the average human needs roughly 330 milliliters (the equivalent of a standard Pepsi can) of water per day to survive — the device can collect that total in under an hour.

In big boost to preserve water, Narendra Modi government to construct barrages on all 100-mtr new bridges on National Highways.
To deal with the increasing problem of water scarcity, Centre has decided to build barrages on all bridges on National Highways that are less than 100 meters in height.
According to the report by Dainik Jagran, it will be mandatory to construct a barrage for bridges that are 100 meters or less in height.
The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has issued instructions to all the central and state agencies that are involved in the construction of roads in India to that effect, according to this report.
A letter was sent to all the state transport heads, NHEI, NHDCL and BRO on 18th April by the department, the report states.
Apart from this, the government also plans to use the old bridges that are no more in use for water conservation by constructing barrages on them.
The government has instructed the Public Woks Departments (PWDs) of all the states to prepare a proposal and send the same as early as possible.
You may also want to watch: Before creating this proposal, the Public Work Departments have been asked to consult with the water resource department and Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.
Along with this, they will also have to get No Objection Certificates (NOCs) from various departments.
The transport Ministry will bear the cost of maintenance of these barrages for the first three years along with the construction charges.

Madurai to get special allocation for water supply.
Madurai district would get special allocation for augmenting drinking water supply under Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT), Revenue Minister R. B. Udhayakumar said on Thursday.
The Minister pointed out that Madurai was one of the districts affected by acute drinking water scarcity and the district administration had taken steps to augment supply from borewells in farm lands with State Disaster Response Fund and funds provided by Madurai Corporation.
He said that the State government had sanctioned Rs.
100 crore from the State Disaster Response Fund for drinking water supply, in addition to Rs.
Already, Rs.
Recently, an additional Rs.
170 crore had been sanctioned for the Department of Municipal Administration to provide drinking water in urban areas.
28 crore.
Those who participated in the meeting included Mr. D. P. Yadav; K. Veera Raghava Rao, Collector; MLAs V. V. Rajan Chellappa, A. K. Bose, P. Neethipathi, and P. Periapullan; Sandeep Nanduri, Corporation Commissioner, and Rohini Ramdas, Additional Collector, according to an official press release.

Summary: On the surface, the MCG officials appear to be confident of handling the extra load and meeting these challenges.
To give perspective of the “extra load”, last year, the MCG had directed Ansal to improve its amenities with special emphasis on Sushant Lok Phase 1.
“Currently, the MCG is meeting its load with difficulty and has started assessing the deficiencies in these colonies and allocating resources accordingly.
Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) is in a fix.
After repeatedly refusing to take over maintenance of DLF phases 1, 2 and 3, Sushant Lok Phase 1 and Palam Vihar in the past, Wednesday’s directions from chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar that the civic body take over the colonies from next month has left MCG with no choice.
The municipal corporation is already struggling to take care of areas under it while grappling with less manpower and outdated machinery.
In March last year, the MCG had refused to take over the maintenance of five colonies stating that the developers (Ansal and DLF) had to improve basic amenities such as roads, drains, parks, garbage disposal, water pipelines and community centres in the colonies and submit a compliance report.
To give perspective of the “extra load”, last year, the MCG had directed Ansal to improve its amenities with special emphasis on Sushant Lok Phase 1.
Such was the sorry state of the drains and roads in block C of Sushant Lok that residents pooled their money and built a 500m road and new drains.
On the surface, the MCG officials appear to be confident of handling the extra load and meeting these challenges.