Shimla: Emphasizing on the importance of water, Central Water Commission today celebrated World Water Day-2011 and Water Resources Day-2011 by organizing a spot painting competition having the themes of ‘urban water challenges; water conservation; and water & climate change.
The theme for celebrating this year was ‘water and urbanization – urban water challenges’.
Speaking on the occasion P Dorje Gyamba director Central Water Commissiion, Shimla said that the need of the hour was for conservation of water and making an efficient and judicious use of it.
The gathering was also addressed by Manmohan Singh, director Indian Meteorology Department.
Other than giving prizes and certificates to the winners of the painting competition, CWC also organized an exhibition at a school for mass awareness among the students about the water resources and the country’s requirements.
World Meteorological Day
World Meteorological Day is celebrated every year worldwide by Meteorological Community with a different theme on 23rd Mar to create awareness among the general public as well as scientific community. This year, the theme of the World Meteorological Day is “Climate for Youâ€.
Earth’s unique climate system nurtures and pro¬tects us. At the same time, it is never constant and has always been changing in space and time. Sometimes it is bountiful, sometimes it puts us through constraints and sometimes we are faced with disastrous hazards.
Generations of accumulated knowledge and wisdom have helped us to survive and prosper by using climate as a resource and managing climate as a risk. It is our common undertaking to understand how the climate system works, to protect the planet for future generations and to adapt to its changing nature.
Natural resources such as forests, oceans and arable land have been overexploited. The atmosphere became a dumping ground for waste greenhouse gases (GHG). These trends continue to this day and have even accelerated.
Modern society has relied more on technology to control or modify nature to suit lifestyles rather than live in harmony with nature. Gradually, the balance between humans and nature, evidenced by a stable climate, started to change.
Over the past three decades, the rise in temperature, increase in the number and severity of extreme events, drying rivers, melting glaciers and the decline of biodiversity have been visible signs of a changing climate. Nature has been reacting, bringing the interaction between people and climate full circle.
Monsoon rainfalls of Himachal during the past 110 years are showing the decreasing trends. July and Angst months are showing decreasing rainfall trends, however, June and September months showing little rising trends in the rainfall.
Year by year, the maximum temperatures are also breaking the previous records.
As Editor, Ravinder Makhaik leads a team of media professionals at Hill Post.
Spanning a career of over two decades in mass communication, as a Documentary Filmmaker, TV journalist, Print Media journalist and with Online & Social Media, he brings with him a vast experience. He lives in Shimla.
Himachal should start metering Water as there is lot of wastage. Even if you charge small amount People will try not to waste it. Drinking water supplied at big cost is used for irrigation. Government should encourage Villages to build own Micro Dams and source water from them.