Abu Dhabi: The UAE’s Mars 2117 project, which will see Emirati settlement on Mars within 100 years, will help solve many crucial problems like scarcity of water and food on earth, a senior official said in an interview with Gulf News on Sunday.
The new project will be associated with research themes featuring the exploration of transportation means, energy and food on Mars.
The research to meet such challenges on Mars as part of Mars 2117 project will help solve similar problems in the region, the official said.
You do research on space and find solutions to problems on earth.
This is very similar to what India, a developing nation making big progress in the space sector, is doing.
Dr Ahmad Abdullah Belhoul Al Falasi said the UAE Space Agency has become the largest agency in the region to oversee a modern space programme.
Dr Mohammad Al Ahbabi, Director General of the UAE Space Agency, said the stamp highlighted the UAE’s ambitions towards Mars by detailing the Hope Probe, which has spearheaded national space exploration programmes.
The agency also launched a new website, with a modern, interactive and user-friendly design that highlights its various missions and departments.
Collaboration UAE to have collaboration with almost all global agencies by this year The UAE Space Agency will establish official collaboration with all prominent space agencies across the world by the end of this year, a senior official told Gulf News in an interview on Sunday.
Over the past three years, the agency has developed laws and regulations governing the national space sector.

In the province people are in deep water to face these kind of crummy problem.There are some problems by them plenty of people are being disappointed to live and pass a luxurious life and most of them are in hot water to survive.
(1) Electricity crisis:- Electricity crisis has become a jumbo problem for the residents of Balochistan people are facing many difficulties especially, the students who are unable to study due to the frequent power outages and small children are also not bearing this harsh weather season.
In the province many educated people are jobless and wondering here and there to find jobs for them.
Almost 14 per cent of our youths aged between 15-24 years are unemployed.
Unemployment has plenty of ominous effects upon the progress of the country, because unemployed people cannot take part in the development of the society or the country.
Libraries are very helpful in creating a splendid reading culture and promoting the value of knowledge and books.
But most of the area in the province are deprived of public libraries.
many areas of Balochistan have been facing acute shortage of water but no remedial measures have been taken yet.
They are deprived of electricity, water, nutritious food, healthcare facilities, education and many more to name them, but water shortage is the main problem because of it no one can survive.While the government is trying to build a world-class port in Gwadar but it remains deprived of water and electricity.
Balochistan still lacks an industrial base, and probably the single biggest cause of unemployment in the province.

SONEPUR : Even four years after the foundation stone for drinking water project at Sonepur town was laid by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, the project is yet to see the light of day.
Although Sonepur town is surrounded on three sides by rivers Mahanadi and Tel, water scarcity is reported from Viveka Nagar, Ramji Nagar, Gokarneswar, Patabhadi, Kulapada, Spinning Mill Chowk, Gridco Colony and Shanti Nagar even during monsoon.
The town, which has a population of about 25,000, requires 3.7 Million Litres Per Day (MLD).
Sources said the drinking water supply in the town was initiated in the late 80’s from Dasmathi Ghat of the Mahanadi river.
However, with the overhead tank failing to meet the water requirement, a new drinking water project was initiated at an estimated cost of Rs five crore and the Chief Minister laid the foundation stone for an overhead tank on February 8, 2013.
It is envisaged to draw water from an intake well at Gokarneswar Ghat and pump it to two overhead tanks for supply after filtration.
First, it took about a year to finalise the tender while the work on the overhead tanks at Patabhadi and MLA Pada is yet to be completed.
To compound the problem, the contractor has left the work halfway.
Similarly, roads have been dug up from Nalin Chowk to Circuit House and Jail Chowk to Patabhadi to lay pipelines of the project.
But the work remains incomplete.

Old brains and new ideas.
The simple answer: We are using old-world brains to solve new-world problems.
This was an era when survival was most important and the fight or flight mechanism was paramount.
We responded to the snap of a twig as signalling an immediate threat.
While man’s brains tended to continue to operate in this survival mode, the world changed drastically.
Populations increased, agriculture and farming came into being, cities evolved, technology blossomed and pollution of lands, oceans and atmospheres became threatening.
All of the world’s major problems proceeded at glacially slow speeds.
Because our human brains continued to develop in survival mode, we failed to keep up with all of the slow changes in society that eventually overwhelmed us.
At this point, you might wonder, “What does all of this have to do with Orangeville?” Orangeville was once a railroad and agricultural town, but this has changed and the town continues to grow.
The present supply of drinking water is adequate, but won’t continue indefinitely.

No out of court settlement or compromise in fight to protect mother Mhadei.
This statement, if it had not been retracted and a fresh one issued, stating that the state would stand firm and that there would be no compromise on the Mhadei issue, would have played into the hands of Maharashtra and specially Karnataka, which has completely been put on the back foot, at the National Water Disputes Tribunal.
The State government has earlier rejected Karnataka’s proposal to have an out of court settlement of Mhadei river water dispute.
He wrote “The adjudication and award of the tribunal can be expedited if the contesting states cooperate with the proceedings and do not hamper regular hearings by filing interlocutory applications.” Karnataka’s stand has been that the farmers of Dharwad, Belagavi districts in North Karnataka have been agitating for months seeking water from the Mhadei river.
In Goa, the river Mhadei covers 1580 sq kms of the catchment area of Mhadei basin while in Karnataka it covers merely 375 sq kms.
There are also another 76 sq kms of catchment area in Maharashtra.
Karnataka, wants to divert 7.56tmc feet of water by constructing nearly six dams, including the Kalasa-Bhandura canal, to meet the drinking water needs of Hubli-Dharwad cities.
The construction of a canal to divert the Kalasa tributary from an eco-sensitive zone to Malaprabha basin is pending before the Tribunal since 2010.
Goa has strongly objected to all the diversion of Mhadei river waters, including the diversions of the Khandepar river.
The Khandepar river is a lifeline of the State as the water treatment plant is on the river at Opa, which supplies drinking water to Tiswadi and Ponda taluka and provides irrigational needs of around 10,000 hectares Goa has also raised environmental and wildlife damages on account of the planned damming and diversion of the tributaries of the Mhadei.

“Egypt now suffers from water scarcity because there are 10 countries that share the Nile river and Egypt is the last on the stream.
Once she finished high school, her parents encouraged her to attend Cairo University, where they had first met.
Mohamed and Bakinam also met at Cairo University, where they were studying civil engineering.
“I was very interested in water, because in Egypt water can be scarce.
When Mohamed told Bakinam’s father that he wanted to marry her, her father said he could not do it until he had a master’s degree.
At the same time, Bakinam was finishing her master’s degree in groundwater from Cairo while she was living in the U.S., contacting her advisers online in Egypt.
We were afraid of the moving process, but since we trusted Dr. Goodall we knew that he will do what is best for us, so we didn’t hesitate to join him.” Now that they successfully defended their dissertations, they will remain working at UVA with Goodall as post-doctoral students, contributing to his research at the Environmental Resilience Institute, which uses collaborative research to address urgent social environmental issues, and the Link Lab, which uses collaboration to explore cyber-physical systems, such as body sensors, smart houses and intelligent transportation systems.
“Mohamed wants to speed up computer models to make them run more quickly for real-time decision support applications, and Bakinam is working on how to make the models more transparent and repeatable so they can be trusted by stakeholders.” Mohamed’s goal is to create a program that takes weather data and forecasts flooding.
Bakinam, who became more proficient in computer science through her Ph.D. studies, has been researching ways of making large metadata hydrologic models reproducible for other researchers and stakeholders.
He said he is very happy with academia in America, where his research can be published and shared with other researchers, who can use it in their work and possibly build on it.

Water district seeks to partner with Mountainair.
The Claunch-Pinto Soil and Water Conservation District (CPSWCD) would like to partner with the Town of Mountainair and the Mountainair Volunteer Fire Department in hosting a community workshop focusing on installing two 5,000-gallon rainwater catchment tanks at the Mountainair Fire Station.
“The fire department currently relies on water from the local domestic system, which can be costly when filling up trucks,” Dee Tarr of CPSWCD said at the regular Mountainair Town Council meeting Wednesday evening.
“Having a supplemental water source would save money for the fire department while providing additional water resources for the community members’ protection.
The additional water resources that would be available to the fire station would also provide a key resource for community members that live within the district, but not within the town.” Although the proposed workshop will be open to the public, the volunteer firefighters are expected to be the larger source of labor on the project.

Gurgaon: Work on new water tank holds promise for DLF Phase-1 residents battling supply shortfall.
The tank, being built near Summer Fields School, will be able to hold 9 lakh litres of water.
The project gives hope to residents, who have been battling with water scarcity, especially in summer.
The tank, being constructed by DLF, will cater to the needs of around 800 residents in blocks D and E of DLF Phase -1.
The tank will take four months to be functional.
“While blocks D and E get water from Huda’s (Haryana urban development authority) main line, residents of blocks A, B, C and F rely on the tank in block B to meet their needs.
The new tank, once set up, will take the load off the Huda and the block B tank,” Sunil Goswami, of DLF phase1, Block E, said.
We have been living a nightmare and had to depend on private tankers to meet our needs.” Rama Rani Rathee, municipal councillor of ward No.
34, said, “This tank will provide enough water for residents during the summer.
Currently, the city’s demand for water is 51% higher than supply, according to a Central Public Health and Environmental Engineering Organisation report released in May, 2016.

Our View: Gila River agreement shows Arizona is ready to deal on water.
Editorial: An agreement among five parties, including Gila River Indian Community and Phoenix, leaves even more water in Lake Mead to prevent drastic cuts.
Scarcity has a way of concentrating the mind.
When the water level at Lake Mead reaches or drops below 1,075 feet above sea level, the federal government will declare a shortage and trigger the first of tiered reductions in water supplies to states.
A generational drought intensified by climate change and massive population growth has put the Colorado Basin states on crisis footing.
If we are to continue to prosper as communities into the distant future, we will need to work together to solve the problem of water scarcity.
The city of Phoenix, the Gila River Indian Community, the state of Arizona, the federal government and the Walton Family Foundation have joined together to forge a plan that will expand the supplies of the Colorado River.
“Today’s agreement and the Community’s ongoing effort to protect the Colorado River carry immense importance for our people and our neighbors across the Southwest,” said Gila River Indian Community Gov.
In turn, the city was able to set aside some of its Colorado River water to be drawn during future shortages.
The ripples of this agreement move beyond the state of Arizona to our Western neighbors, declaring that the people of Arizona are ready to work together to solve one of the great challenges of this American century.

There is lack of clear understanding, appreciation and agreement on the design and administrative aspects of the Kalabagh Dam because there is a trust deficit among the provinces on the construction of the Dam.
Dams are built to meet storage and power generation needs for economic development of the country.
The decisions are based on complex technical and economic considerations and not the support of individuals.
All four provinces must reach a common understanding on its technical aspects, after which political consensus can follow.
Do you agree with the view that instead of building big dams, we should go for small dams?
The Indus River, being a lifeline of Pakistan, currently has Tarbela Dam which was built under the 1960 Indus Basin Treaty while its existing live storage has been reduced to 6.849 MAF due to sedimentation.
This will increase the life span of Tarbela by stopping the sediment coming down to Tarbela and, on the other hand, structures will be built to generate the much-needed cheaper hydel clean energy.
It is said that the rivers in Sindh will go dry if the Kalabagh Dam is built.
Pakistan has not built a large dam for many years.
Pakistan needs dams for not only water storage but for power generation too.