-The Times of India NEW DELHI: After a dry June, monsoon has made a great start in July. Average countrywide rainfall in the first 11 days of the month has been 24% above normal, which has helped reduce the overall Monsoon Deficit to almost a third, from 33% at the end of June to 12%. In what should boost sowing of kharif crops, all regions of the country, except the south, have...
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Declare drought-hit districts immediately, say farmer associations
-The Hindu Business Line About 85 per cent of the India has experienced “deficiency” or “large deficiency” in rainfall this monsoon season An umbrella body of farmer groups on Saturday urged the government to declare districts which are under severe water stress as ‘drought-hit’ immediately and not wait till the end of the monsoon season as is the usual practice. “There must not be any delay in the declaration of drought. Instead of...
More »How severe is the water crisis in Maharashtra? What measures has the government taken? -Sandeep A Ashar
-The Indian Express Record number of tankers are sole source of water in large parts of state. Behind the crisis, late monsoon following a deficit year, depleting groundwater in 279 talukas, under 10% live storage in 13 key reservoirs. Maharashtra is facing a water emergency of unprecedented proportions. Following years of drought, the rivers’ currents have ebbed, water in dams and reservoirs has depleted and over-exploitation of groundwater has raised concerns...
More »A policy drought
-The Hindu Business Line Distracted by elections, the country’s alarming water crisis has been overlooked As India’s water crisis gets visibly worse with every passing summer, it is clear that the bureaucracy and policymakers are not working to find immediate and long-term solutions. This time, the apathy seems to have worsened due to the ongoing elections. In Maharashtra and Kerala, for instance, the administrations have taken refuge in the ‘model code of...
More »Saurashtra woes: Policy change on check dams leads to water deficit -Shagun Kapil
-Down to Earth In the 1990s, non-profits and farmers themselves built check dams; today, the government does it, without proper research or site selection Fifty-four-year old Dineshbhai Babariya has just harvested a 20 quintal cotton crop, his second harvest in the last one year in his four bigha (1.6 acre) farm in the Jasapar village of Gujarat’s Saurashtra region. August 2018 was the last time the village in Rajkot district received around 228...
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