Local millets will save the mountains from water crisis
Local millets will save the mountains from water crisis
Dehradun, Nov 14
Experts believe that ‘jowar’, ‘bajra’ and ‘mandua’ are the best options to deal with water crisis in the hilly areas as they shared their views on the current challenges of water management at a national workshop on water management strategies organized at Graphic Era Deemed University,here today.
In the workshop, Vice Chancellor Dr. Narpinder Singh of the university said that three to five thousand liters of water is used to produce one kilogram of sugarcane and rice. Along with agriculture, the demand for water is increasing in various sectors, for which it is necessary that traditional systems of water conservation be connected with today’s new technologies such as satellite data, real time monitoring, desalinization and smart irrigation. He called upon the students to keep the rivers, lakes and other sources of water clean.
Dr. Deepak Kumar of GB Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar, while emphasizing the need to test water quality at a large scale, said that arsenic, fluoride, nitrate and iron are the commonly found contaminants in water. These substances cause serious problems like cancer, typhoid, cholera. He gave information about air sparging, phyto remediation, bio remediation and permeable reactive barrier technology for cleaning water.
In the conference, National Institute of Hydrology, Roorkee, Scientist Dr. Shakti Suyavanshi threw light on ancient water conservation systems like ‘Chultun’ of Mayan civilization, ‘Lothal’ of Indus Valley, ‘Bawdi’ of Rajasthan, ‘Jackwell’ of Andaman Nicobar and ‘Ramtek’ of Maharashtra. Dr. Kritika Kothari of IIT Roorkee said that along with efficient irrigation systems, techniques like remote sensing, crop based data monitoring, UAV monitoring can be used to deal with the challenge of crop production in mountains. She shared information about the research done on various crops.
The national conference was organized by Indian Water Resources Society, student chapter, Dehradun in collaboration with Department of Civil Engineering. HOD Dr. K.K. Gupta, Dr. Ajay Gairola, Program Coordinator Dr. Nitin Mishra, Organizing Secretary Dr. Praveen Kumar, Dr. Sanjeev Kumar, Dr. Deepshikha Shukla, teachers and students were present in the conference.
