Rivers

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres warned that major Himalayan rivers like the Indus, the Ganges and Brahmaputra, all hugely important for India, could see reductions in their flows as glaciers and ice sheets recede over the coming decades due to global warming. "Glaciers are critical to all life on earth. Over centuries, they carved out the landmasses we call home. Today, they cover 10 per cent of our world. Glaciers are also the world's water towers," Guterres said in his remarks to an event on the International Year of Glaciers' Preservation Wednesday. Guterres voiced concern that human activity is driving the planet's temperature to dangerous new levels and "melting glaciers are the canary in the coalmine". Antarctica is losing an average of 150 billion tons of ice mass every year while the Greenland ice cap is melting even faster losing 270 billion tonnes per year. In Asia, 10 major rivers originate in the Himalaya region, supplying freshwater to 1.3 billion people living

A US-French satellite that will map almost all of the world's oceans, lakes and rivers rocketed into orbit Friday. The predawn launch aboard a SpaceX rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California capped a highly successful year for NASA. Nicknamed SWOT short for Surface Water and Ocean Topography the satellite is needed more than ever as climate change worsens droughts, flooding and coastal erosion, according to scientists. "We're going to be able to see things that we could just not see before ... and really understand where water is at any given time, said Benjamin Hamlington at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. About the size of an SUV, the satellite will measure the height of water on more than 90 per cent of Earth's surface, allowing scientists to track the flow and identify potential high-risk areas. It will also survey millions of lakes as well as 1.3 million miles (2.1 million kilometres) of rivers, from headwater to mouth. The satellite w

Prime Minister Modi and his visiting counterpart Sheikh Hasina say bilateral cooperation between nations growing

Ahead of Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's visit to India, a minister-level meeting of the Bangladesh-India Joint Rivers Commission is scheduled on August 25, sources said. No official comment has been made by the government but sources said water-sharing treaties of the Teesta and other rivers may be discussed in the meeting. Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is expected to travel to India on September 5 on a three-day visit during which defence cooperation and regional stability are likely to be the focus of the talks with her Indian counterpart Narendra Modi, an official said on Monday. The Teesta river dispute is an important point of bilateral talks between India and Bangladesh, as the latter has sought a fair and equitable distribution of Teesta waters from India. The two countries signed an agreement in 2011 to share surface waters at the Farakka Barrage near their mutual border. However, the proposed deal was called off after repeated objections by West Bengal

Andhra Pradesh is on the brink of a worst flood after a gap of 36 years as river Godavari has been turning ferocious by the hour, threatening to inundate tens of villages

The Centre has approved the West Bengal government's Rs 1,500-crore 'Ghatal masterplan', a mega project to dredge riverbeds and strengthen embankments of at least 10 major rivers in the state

Water level in all rivers and tributaries in J&K rose sharply due to incessant rainfall during the last 48 hours as authorities closed schools in six districts to avoid any mishap

Lack of cooperation over shared water results in an annual loss of over $14.2 billion in the trans-boundary Ganga-Brahmaputra-Meghana (GBM) basin, a new report has said

The fourth in a series of weekly articles on the new National Water Policy

Modi urged people to celebrate the 'river festival" on the occasion of "World River Day" on Sunday to connect with the traditions which are associated with rivers for centuries in our country

According to the reports of the Central Water Commission, Ganga is flowing just two meters below the warning point.

Addressing a webinar, Jal Shakti Ministry secretary U P Singh said lessons have been learnt while undertaking the Namami Gange Mission and these are being applied to other river basins in the country

We must understand that the issue of river flow is really about the politics of power

Large structural changes to river channels can lead to unforeseen and dangerous hydrological, social and ecological consequences

Many rivers have become dumping grounds for waste

Ganga continues to flow above the danger mark in Fafamu, Chhatnag, Mirzapur, Varanasi, Ghazipur and Ballia

It noted that the Environment Ministry utilized only Rs 37.35 crore out of the allocated Rs 66.73 crore upto December 2015 during 2015-16