treatment
costs.
pollution
in
Cities
their
can
avoid
watersheds
by
encouraging better farming practices.
RIVERS OF INDIA
Narmada the daughter of Lord Shiva
Part-6
McDonald and Shemie estimate that on
In continuation of the Geology of the
average, a 10 percent reduction in both
valley (refer News Letter no.49), it is to
sediment and nutrient loads can provide
State that the major rock formations
a 5 percent reduction in treatment costs
delimiting the Narmada Valley are
for the world’s largest cities. Their
organically linked to the activities in the
global survey found that one in four
Indian plate and are thus much older
cities would profit by pursuing one or
than the Himalayas. The Vindhyan is
more
strategies.
regarded as being 1400 m.y. , the
Worldwide, water utilities could save up
Satpura about 1000 m.y. old. The
to $890 million a year.
extensive Deccan Traps, which partly
conservation
overlie the Vindhyan and Satpuras, with
Their research also shows that working
closely with ranchers and farmers has
the potential to be more cost-effective.
For instance, pursuing better farming
practices
on
just
0.2
percent
of
farmlands in urban watersheds could
improve water quality for 600 million
people. The study has already caught
city managers’ attention. After it came
out last fall, the mayor of a heavily
industrialized Chinese city of 15 million
asked the Conservancy for an in-depth
analysis of how it could protect its water
supply. Unfortunately Indian Cities are
still ignorant or not concern about this
an age of 80-50 m.y. are comparatively
young. The Narmada is the only river in
India which flows along a rift valley
which is made up of a Graben with two
normal faults-the Narmada North and
Narmada south faults, running parallel to
its course. Narmada and Tapti are
geologically 150 m.y. older than the
river Ganga(Unni,1996).
The Narmada basin represents a highly
complex hydrological system. The river
is fed by 41 principal tributaries, 22 of
them joining her on the left bank, and 19
on the right bank. Estimates of the
average annual water flow of the river
study.
7
Integrated River Basin Management Society