For a green planet

Last week IIT Roorkee hosted Indo-Italian Workshop on impact of climate change in the region::

P.S. Chauhan

A three-day Indo-Italian workshop on 'Impact of climate change and anthropogenic activities on soil and water resources' was held at IIT Roorkee. The workshop was organised by the department of hydrology in association with the institute of environmental geology and geo engineering Rome, Italy, the Italian embassy, New Delhi and the ministry of water resources, New Delhi. The patron of the organising committee of the workshop and director of the IIT, Roorkee, Dr. S.C. Saxena said that the objective of the workshop was to evaluate the current status and progress achieved so far in handling multi disciplinary issues within the framework of global and national policies of climate change. The researchers representing research institutes under the Italian Research Council and academic institutes of Italy and the researchers and policy makers of the Indian government organizations and the experts from the educational research institutions, including the Indian Institute Of Science, Bengaluru, the ministry of water resources and the various IITs took part in the deliberations.

Inaugurating the workshop G. Mohan Kumar, the additional secretary, the ministry of water resources, govt. of India shared information about the policy frame work of govt. of India to assess and combat the issue of impact of climate change. Professor R.D. Singh, the director of the National Institute Of Hydrology, Roorkee, who delivered the valedictory address, said that anthropogenic activities such as agriculture, urbanisation, deforestation etc., were leading to wide spread deterioration in soil structure resulting in reduced rates of infiltration and consequent increase and runoff in the form of floods and decreasing ground water.

The experts said that one of the most important and immediate impact of global warming would be the changes in local and regional water availability and its quality, since the climate system is interactive with the hydrological cycle. "The impact of climate changes, in turn, will influence the water supply system, food production, power generation, soil erosion and deposition and eco-system conservation. These effects need to be evaluated as early as possible because of the great socio economic importance of water and other natural resources," said the experts. The workshop recommended that a major thrust should be to put on R&D activities in various identified areas related to climate change and its impact on soil and water resources. The workshop also recommended to promote team efforts in collaborative research at national and international levels. The workshop passed a resolution to set up a joint Indo-Italian forum or centre having focus on water, climate change and human and institutional capacity building duly recognized under the prevailing norms of both the Indian and Italian governments. Another resolution emphasized on knowledge sharing on topics of mutual interest and initiate the process of establishment of Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between selected institutions. It was also resolved that activities like the present workshop be undertaken on a regular basis under the umbrella of the government support of both the countries.