A part of the Water Resources Management series, this book is divided in three sections. The section on Nepal discusses how its water resources could be utilized to benefit people of the Ganga basin. The section on India talks about the development and management of water resources at the beginning of the third millennium. The section on Bangladesh talks about how water resources management is a major challenge in the country.
Few people actively engaged in India's water sector would deny that the Indian subcontinent faces serious problems in the sustainable use and management of water resources. Water resources in India have been subjected to tremendous pressures from increasing population, urbanization, industrialization, and modern agricultural methods. The inadequate access to clean drinking water, increase in water related disasters such as floods and droughts, vulnerability to climate change and competition for the resource amongst different sectors and the region poses immense pressures for sustainability of water systems and humanity. Water Security in India addresses these issues head on, analyzing the challenges that contemporary India faces if it is to create a water-secure world, and providing a hopeful, though guarded, road-map to a future in which India's life-giving and life-sustaining fresh water resources are safe, clean, plentiful, and available to all, secured for the people in a peaceful and ecologically sustainable manner.
From a MacArthur "Genius," a bold new perspective on the history of Asia, highlighting the long quest to tame its waters Asia's history has been shaped by her waters. In Unruly Waters, historian Sunil Amrith reimagines Asia's history through the stories of its rains, rivers, coasts, and seas -- and of the weather-watchers and engineers, mapmakers and farmers who have sought to control them. Looking out from India, he shows how dreams and fears of water shaped visions of political independence and economic development, provoked efforts to reshape nature through dams and pumps, and unleashed powerful tensions within and between nations. Today, Asian nations are racing to construct hundreds of dams in the Himalayas, with dire environmental impacts; hundreds of millions crowd into coastal cities threatened by cyclones and storm surges. In an age of climate change, Unruly Waters is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand Asia's past and its future.
This book deals with the development of irrigation in the subcontinent since the beginning of settled agriculture, and its possible connections with the occurrence of salinity and alkalinity in irrigated lands.
This book presents a systematic study of transboundary, regional and local water conflicts and resistance across several river basins in South Asia. Addressing hydro-socio-economic aspects in competing water sharing and transfer agreements, as well as conflicting regimes of legal plurality, property rights and policy implementation, it discusses themes such as rights over land and natural resources; resettlement of dam-displaced people; urban–rural conflicts over water allocation; peri-urbanisation, land use conflicts and water security; tradeoffs and constraints in restoration of ecological flows in rivers; resilience against water conflicts in a river basin; and irrigation projects and sustainability of water resources. Bringing together experts, professionals, lawyers, government and the civil society, the volume analyses water conflicts at local, regional and transboundary scales; reviews current debates with case studies; and outlines emerging challenges in water policy, law, governance and institutions in South Asia. It also offers alternative tools and frameworks of water sharing mechanisms, conflict resolution, dialogue, and models of cooperation and collaboration for key stakeholders towards possible solutions for effective, equitable and strategic water management. This book will be useful to scholars and researchers of development studies, environment studies, water studies, public policy, political science, international relations, conflict resolution, political economy, economics, sociology and social anthropology, environmental law, governance and South Asian studies. It will also benefit practitioners, water policy thinktanks and associations, policymakers, diplomats and NGOs.
River Basin Ecohydrology in the Indian Sub-Continent: Sustainable Strategies and Sustenance provides a multidisciplinary approach that focuses on conservation strategies, water quality management in the eco-regions, catchment management practices, estuaries, preservation of in-stream habitat populations, and natural /bioengineering techniques for the sustainable management of ecological resources in the Indian sub-continent. The book provides a unique platform for readers from branches of science and technology, including engineering sciences, agricultural sciences, biogeochemical sciences, hydrogeochemistry, toxicological sciences, social sciences, environmental policy, and governance, etc. to exchange ideas and information at multiple levels on sustainable water management, degradation of marine quality and indicators of ecological degradation. The book's contributors provide impressive and comprehensive information on different management strategies for sustainable restoration of aquatic ecological systems covering vital aspects of hydrogeochemical and geoenvironmental parameters. This book aims to provide a "platform" for scientists and environmental researchers/planners to discuss the environmental degradation, spatial heterogeneity on water quality and aquatic species, methodological approaches on sustainable management of biodiversity, etc. - Presents an extensive collection of eco-hydrological changes in the river basin driven by both nature and anthropological factors - Provides state of the art modeling, data analysis methodologies for complex socio – ecological complexity applied in the Indian Sub-Continent - Includes specific cases of ecohydrology in the river basin, especially from the Indian Sub-Continent
India is endowed with varied topographical features, such as high mountains, extensive plateaus, and wide plains traversed by mighty rivers. Divided into four sections this book provides a comprehensive overview of water resources of India. A detailed treatment of all major river basins is provided. This is followed by a discussion on major uses of water in India. Finally, the closing chapters discuss views on water management policy for India.
From the fifth to the nineteenth centuries, the people of western India built stone cisterns to collect the water of the monsoon rains and keep it accessible for the remaining dry months of the year. These magnificent structures-known as stepwells or stepped ponds-are much more than utilitarian reservoirs. Their lattice-like walls, carved columns, decorated towers, and intricate sculpture make them exceptional architecture., while their very presence tells much about the region's ecology and history. For these past 500 years, stepwells have been an integral part of western Indian communities as sites for drinking, washing, and bathing, as well as for colorful festivals and sacred rituals. Steps to Water traces the fascinating history of stepwells, from their Hindu origins, to their zenith during Muslim rule, and eventual decline under British occupation. It also reflects on their current use, preservation, and place in Indian communities. In stunning color and quadtone photographs and drawings, Steps to Water reveals the depth of the stepwells' beauty and their intricate details, and serves as a lens on these fascinating cultural and architectural monuments.
This books documents the salient characters of the tectonic evolution of the Indian subcontinent. It showcases the well investigated subcontinent of Gondwana. The book is linked to an updated geological and tectonic map of this region on 1:12,000,000 in scale. The Indian subcontinent displays almost uninterrupted and unique the geological history since about Eo-Archean (~3800 Ma) to recent, with the development of many Proterozoic deformed and metamorphosed fold belts around Archean nuclei, and enormously thick undeformed platform deposits. After their stabilization during late Proterozoic, the subcontinent underwent Paleozoic rifting and deposition of coal-bearing thick sequences, followed by enormously-thick outpouring of Deccan volcanics as a consequence of huge mantle plume. The youngest event in its evolution is the Cenozoic Himalayan Orogenic Mountains, spanning the area between Nanga Parbat and Namcha Barwah; a part of which extends both in Pakistan and Myanmar.
