The JSS Academy of Higher Education and Research (JSS AHER), Mysuru, and the University of Plymouth, United Kingdom, are jointly hosting a four-day Indo-U.K. workshop on ‘Safe and Sustainable Technologies and Strategies for Integrated Freshwater Resource Management’.
Organised by JSS AHER’s Department of Water and Health, Faculty of Life Sciences, in association with India UK Water Centre (IUKWC), a joint centre funded by the Ministry of Earth Sciences, Government of India, and UK’s Natural Environment Research Centre (NERC), the workshop got off to a start at JSS Medical College here on Tuesday.
Harry Dixon of the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, UK, inaugurated the event in the presence of JSS AHER V-C H. Basavanagowdappa; P.P. Majumdar, chairman, ICWaR, IISc, Bengaluru; JSS AHER Registrar B. Manjunath; and others.
The workshop aims to further the development of sustainable strategies — urgently needed in India and which also have global impact — to tackle long-term provision of good quality water for drinking and food production. The development of sustainable strategies for fresh water management, understanding of the complex water-food-energy (WFE) nexus for water conservation in the region are the other objectives of the workshop.
It will discuss the centrality of WFE Nexus to sustainable development; water standards, regulation, and pollution mitigation approaches; safe and sustainable technologies and strategies for WFE security and WFE Nexus analysis, technology and policies for sustainable management.
The largest sources of man made water pollution in India are untreated sewage, agriculture run-off and unregulated small-scale industries.
Geographically, certain areas are highly contaminated by pathogens and specific heavy metals such as arsenic or fluoride. Moreover, there needs to be an understanding of the complex nexus which is vital for conservation and sustainable management of surface water.