Environment Flows and Assessment Workshop

Union Minister for Jal Shakti inaugurated the International Workshop on Environment Flows.

Highlights

• The Minister released the Guidance Document on Environment Flow Assessment. It is the first of its kind.
• The workshop aims at answering the following questions
  • What is the overall aim for environment flows assessment in India?
  • What are the long term and short-term goals to implement environment flows according to overall aims and targets?
• The workshop brings together the Indian and European experiences.
• National and International experts from Germany, UK, Africa, Bhutan, Poland, Netherlands and South Africa are participating in the workshop

Significance

According to the IUCN,

• Environmental flow is the water provided within the river, wetland or coastal zone to maintain ecosystems and their benefits.
• It is a tool for allocating water among multiple, competing uses in a river basin or watershed.
• The Environmental Flows provide the means for integrated management of river flows to meet the needs of the people, industry, agriculture, energy and ecosystems.

For instance, River Ganga

• Supports 400 million people
• It provides unique ecosystem to the India’s National Aquatic animal Gangetic Dolphins, turtles and gharials

Month: Current Affairs - October, 2019