Amity Institute of Environmental Sciences, Amity University Uttar Pradesh organized a five-day, activity-based, value-added Programme on “Groundwater Crisis, Water Security and Fostering Resilience towards Climate Change”, in collaboration with the National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG), New Delhi from 15 to 22 March, 2022 on Virtual platform. The Programme is being organized to also celebrate World Water Day, observed on 22nd of March, internationally.
The aim of the Programme is to provide an opportunity for academicians, researchers, practitioners, policy makers and research scholars to share and discuss ideas and practices across a range of empirical, theoretical, practical, technical and applied approaches to deal with the water crisis, climate change and climate triggered disasters.
During the Inaugural Session, Chief Guest, Shri G Asok Kumar, Director General-National Mission for Clean Ganga, GOI, averred, “Water should be properly channelized as there is no scarcity of water but water management is poor. Due to increased urbanization, the quality of water has been impacted adversely and today, it is difficult to find clean water for domestic and industrial purposes. Also, with the increase in population, the demand for water has increased drastically. The need of the hour is to find solutions to the problem of water pollution and “Namami Gange” Project aims to work in this direction, with an aim to accomplish the objectives of effective abatement of pollution, conservation and rejuvenation of National River Ganga.” Advising the students of Amity, he further added, “The students of Amity should conserve as much water as possible in the campus, roof-top rain water harvesting and other methods can be adopted for this purpose. India is the largest extractor of ground water therefore we must adopt various methods and techniques to conserve water.”
Highlighting the importance of Water Conservation and Management, the Guest of Honor, Dr. M. Ariz Ahammed IAS, Principal Secretary to Government of Assam, Transformation and Development Department, Assam Secretariat, Dispur, Assam, stated, “There is an urgent need for making and implementing State Water Budget today as it would help in providing a forecast of revenues and expenditures, measuring actual operations against the forecast. It would also help in serving as a single point of coordination between departments, to control resources, evaluate and recognize the performance and to provide visibility and accountability. The programme organized by Amity is highly significant as, through this programme, we can explore how to use the knowledge and the research findings to address the problems of water crisis and climate change and identify opportunities and discuss recent strategies for mitigating and managing the water bodies.”
Addressing the gathering on this occasion,
Prof. (Dr.) Balvinder Shukla, Vice Chancellor, Amity University Uttar Pradesh (AUUP), averred, “The aim of this Programme is to provide a platform where highly ambitious minds will get an opportunity to show the understanding of Human Environment Systems, Climate Change Research, Responses, and Thresholds in the Earth System. The programme also provides a platform to present the work done by the Scientists and Research Scholars from all over the country to discuss and exchange their views, in the field of water management.”
Emphasizing on the significance of the five -day programme, Prof. D. K. Bandyopadhyay, Mentor, Amity Institute of Environmental Sciences, Amity University Uttar Pradesh, India, stated, “Climate change, global warming, air and water pollution are major environmental issues which the world is facing today. The five-day programme will increase awareness about water storage, retention and management and will help in identifying the various water resources and the importance of groundwater for the survival of human beings.”
During the five-day programme, technical sessions on various topics, including, “Surface and Groundwater Assessment, monitoring, pollution, management, and remediation”, “Environmental and Socio-economic impacts and health implications of Surface and Groundwater scarcity, climate change and the natural disasters”, “Effect of Climate Change on Groundwater, Water Related Disasters and Hydrological Changes” and “Sustainable and technical solutions for management of surface and ground water resources of the country”, will be held, amongst others. Several Competitions including Poster making, Sketching, Model making, will also be conducted during the five-day Programme.