about a third of the needs of business and industry , according to city data . “ It ’ s like Swiss Cheese underneath ,” the World Bank ’ s Fook said . “ Groundwater extraction is unparalleled for a city of this size . People are digging deeper and deeper , and the ground is collapsing .” The effect is worsened by the sheer weight of Jakarta ’ s urban sprawl . Economic development in recent decades has transformed the city ’ s traditional low-rise silhouette into a thickening forest of high-rise towers . The weight of all those buildings crushes the porous ground underneath .
In the megacities of Southeast Asia including Kolkata the impact of subsidence , due mainly to groundwater extraction , has been greater . Manila is sinking at a rate of around 3.5 inches a year . Ho Chi Minh City , Vietnam , is subsiding 3 inches a year , and Bangkok around an inch .
About Kolkata a report by P . S . Ray , of the National Remote Sensing Centre , who had studied the city ’ s groundwater level through laser mapping stated “ Signatures of subsidence have already been felt in the Rajabazar-Sealdah area ,”.
The phenomenon has been most pronounced in Asia , home to the top five nations in terms of population growth in vulnerable coastal areas . In China , that population rose 29 percent to 162 million during the 20-year period ; in India , the increase was 43 percent to 88 million ; and in Bangladesh , it was 46 percent to 68 million .
( Source : Reuters by Bill Tarrant , The Telegraph 16 th January 2009 )
International Conference on “ Water in Mountain ” The International Conference on “ Water in Mountain ” took place in Oct , 2014 in France . The conference issued an alert to the need to quickly adopt strategies to adapt to the impact of global warming on water resources in the mountains . With the decrease of snow cover and glacier melt , the water regimes of all major rivers coming from mountains are now changing . However , the flow regularity of these rivers is crucial for the supply of drinking water to populations , and for the economic development at the foothills and the plains . India Rivers Week The first India Rivers Week was organized from 24 th to 27th of November 2014 in New Delhi . The event was aimed at bringing together different stakeholders involved in protection and conservation of rivers of India and to deliberate upon the main threats to Rivers , as well as the way forward . The meet , aimed at activists , community groups ,
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Integrated River Basin Management Society