Inside story

TL;DR: The report highlights the urgency of addressing climate change and its impacts on water resources, particularly in India. It emphasizes the need for adaptation strategies to minimize losses and damages, highlighting the vulnerability of the country's mega cities and Himalayan river system.

Abstract: the The World Water Day in the United in December 1992.World Water Day celebrates water and raises awareness of the 2.2 billion people water. It is about taking action to tackle the global water crisis. A core focus of World Water Day is to support the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal 6: water and sanitation for all by 2030. The theme for 2022 is "Groundwater, Making the Invisible Visible". Groundwater is the largest invisible source of freshwater on earth but often overlooked. It is particularly important for India , the world‟s highest groundwater extractor and its water stress is steadily increasing. In 2004 and 2020 the annual groundwater extraction was 231 BCM and 245 BCM and overexploited assessment unit increased from 839 to 1114. Increasing infestation of geogenic toxicity of arsenic, fluoride, selenium and of late uranium including others in ground water in India are the outcome of large extraction. It is the need of the hour to make the entire spectrum of stakeholders aware on the necessity of large-scale rainwater harvesting and artificial recharge. INC-IAH is befittingly celebrating the event and eminent speakers will join in the webinar to enrich the audience across the country on sustainable management. Besides, INC-IAH is celebrating World water week in various parts of the country to highlight the local issues on groundwater. I request all our esteemed members as also the readers to contribute to the E-Newsletter with new and interesting topics and to take active initiative for membership drive. Soon we will resume the publication of E-Journal on groundwater. I wish you all happy and hale in the forthcoming time and solicit your active cooperation. National Aquifer Mapping and Management plan (NAQUIM) have been carried out in JharsugudaDistrict , Odisha during the year 2019-2020 under the direction of Ministry of Jal Shakti, Government of India. On the basis of collection of existing 16 exploratory tube well data of Central Ground Water Board (CGWB), a toposheet grid/subgrid wise (1:50,000 scale) data gap analysis has been carried out. On the basis of data gap 19 new exploration has been conducted in Jharsuguda District upto a maximum depth of 200mbgl (metre below ground level) depth. Data generation from new exploratoration as well as previous exploration divides Jharsuguda district (Fig.1) into Quaternary unconsolidated formation (10% area), Permo-carboniferous Lower Gondwana as well as Proterozoic semiconsolidated formation (25% area) and Precambrian consolidated formation (65 % area). Good aquifer potentiality has been observed in unconsolidated formation (permeability 14.448 m/day), moderate aquifer potentiality observed in semiconsolidated Gondwana formation (permeability 0.256 to 8.045 m/day) and low aquifer potentiality has been observed in consolidated formation (permeability 0.371 to 7.195m/day). Ground water occurs under water table condition in weathered zone upto an average depth of 20 mbgl (meter below ground level) and water table to confined condition in fracture zone between 20 – 200 mbgl depth. Yield potential is more in weathered zone, moderate in semiconsolidated formation (3-15 lps) and very less in the consolidated formation (0.5-2.5 ls). Overall ground water quality for the whole district is potable UN Inter-governmental Panel on Change Report: Climate Changes 2022 : Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability provides a detailed assessment of climate change impacts, risks, and adaption in cities , where more than half the world‟s population lives. It was approved by 195 governments during two week long virtual plenary session held virtually from February 14 to February 26,2022, based over 34000 references from across the globe, which is second one of the IPCC‟s sixth assessment, identified as 127 Global and Regional Key Risks, states nearly half of humanity living in the danger zone now and many ecosystems are at the point of no return despite efforts to reduce the risks. These risks range from farm, food, water, forest fires, health, transportations system and extinction of species . As many as 270 authors from 67 countries including India compiled the Report after scientifically reviewing 62416 comments. Immediate need is to break fossil fuel dependence how fossil fuels are choking humanity. Human –induced climate change is causing dangerous and wide spread disruptions in nature and affecting the lives of billions of people around the world including India where as mega cities and Himalayan river system are at grave risk. The IPCC for the first time linked mental health to climate change in this Report. It clearly indicated how global warming will increase pressure on resources which may lead to conflicts at different levels. Such indications could be a signal to the world that the fossil fuel dependency and conflict are intertwined .Key Messages of IPCC Report: Adaptation does not prevent all losses and damages, but it is must for minimizing losses. ;Globally, 3.3 to 3.6 billion people live in the areas that are highly vulnerable to climate change; Less than 15% of the land 21% of fresh water and