As Tropical Cyclone Mahasen travels north-east through the Bay of Bengal, humanitarian agency World Vision is prepared to mount a relief response across vulnerable areas in Bangladesh, Myanmar, India and Sri Lanka. The cyclone’s current path anticipates landfall in Bangladesh this Friday.

The highest impact, tidal surge and rainfall predictions are predicted to hit Chittagong and Cox Bazaar areas in Bangladesh but could also threaten at least 8.2 million people, many of them children, living along the coastlines of northeast India. Myanmar and Sri Lanka.

TNN | May 11, 2013, 07.22 AM IST

PANAJI/MARGAO: At the peak of summer and as some parts of the state suffer from irregular water supply, PWD claims the situation is under control.

The current total availability of water is 546 million litres daily (MLD), which the department claims is sufficient to meet the water (domestic) requirement of the state. "We are comfortably placed except for a few places having water problems," a PWD official told TOI.

Manjiri Damle, TNN | May 7, 2013, 02.39 PM IST

PUNE: The state government has increased the spending limit of members of legislative assembly on measures to help the scarcity hit areas. Now the people's representatives can spend upto Rs 25 lakh on relief measures. Each MLA receives Rs 2 crore to be spent on development of his or her constituency. There has been a growing demand from the MLAs to release these funds for some development works in their constituencies.

TNN | May 7, 2013, 01.43 AM IST

NAGPUR: Actor Salman Khan has donated money to purchase 2,500 water tanks with storage capacity of 2000 litres each to the drought hit districts of Maharashtra. The first batch of 400 tanks will be dispatched from the manufacturer at Nagpur to Beed, Osmanabad, Jalna and Nanded district on Tuesday.

Nikhil Deshmukh, TNN | May 5, 2013, 05.11 PM IST

PUNE: The rising temperature and shrinking water stocks in Marathwada region has forced the authorities to increase water supply by tankers.

As many as 1,875 tankers are supplying drinking water to 1,646 villages and 749 hamlets in Marathwada. A week back, 1,413 villages and 743 hamlets were receiving drinking water from 1,733 tankers. Now 142 additional tankers have been deployed for supplying drinking water to 1,646 villages and 749 hamlets, stated the report of the Marathwada divisional commissionerate.

This report covers the period 1 January to 31 December 2012

Overview

Key messages

• Assisting the victims of natural disasters, India being highly vulnerable to cyclones, floods, earthquakes and droughts remains a priority.

• Alleviating the emergency needs arising from three protracted crises:
Jammu & Kashmir, the North-Eastern States, and Naxal-affected areas in central India, with a special emphasis on protection, health and nutrition remains a must.

Julie Mariappan, TNN | Apr 21, 2013, 04.38 AM IST

CHENNAI: This is a situation the city has been dreading all along. The Cholavaram reservoir, one of the four main sources of water for Chennai, is almost dry and the water level has hit dead storage. Fearing that whatever water left in the reservoir will be lost to evapouration, officials are using pumps to draw water and store it in the Red Hills reservoir, seven km away.

TNN | Apr 16, 2013, 02.56 AM IST

PUNE: Member of Parliament Supriya Sule on Monday said only 7% of the total water in dams was being used for industrial purposes, leaving the rest for drinking and agriculture purposes.

She said there was a deliberate attempt from a section of society to create an impression that water meant for drinking purpose was being diverted to industries by the state government.