workshop held on Youth for Climate Change

Hyderabad: On the occasion of World Water Day and World Meteorological Day the workshop held on "Youth for Climate Change" From March 22 to 26, was inaugurated by Prof A Venugopal Reddy, Vice chancellor JNTUH as Chief Guest, at Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University Hyderabad (JNTUH). Sriram Vedire, Adviser, Ministry of Water Resources Govt. of India and Past Chairman, Rajasthan River Basin & Water Resources Planning Authority , and S D Ranga Reddy, Chief Engineer-Central water commission, Hyderabad have graced the occasion as guests- of Honor addressed the gathering.

Prof A Venugoal Reddy addresses the gathering and emphasised on various aspects of changing climate and emphasised on the need to understand the deep relationship between the climate change and environment, water resources and others. As the main aim of this workshop is to identify the critical issues regarding the impact, mitigation and adaptation issues, Prof Reddy said that there is a lot of scope for the young students to nurture and mould their future in environmental related fields and jobs.

Speaking on the occasion, D Ranga Reddy, Chief Engineer Central Water Commission spoke on irrigation projects of the State Govt which are in execution. He made a detailed understating of the irrigation projects, river basin management, and river basin management boards and their functionalities. In view of the climate change scenarios, he presented a detailed statistics about the inflows in to the river basin.

Sriram Vedire, Adviser, Ministry of Water Resources Govt. of India and Past Chairman, Rajasthan River Basin & Water Resources Planning Authority, has delivered inaugural key note address. He talked about the pollution of the environment, with reference to Air, water and direct impacts on agriculture. He stressed up on the failure at the implementation of monitoring mechanism of the environmental policies and laws. He also talked about the impact of Musi river pollution on horticulture crops, which are grown in and around Hyderabad.

An extensive and detailed presentation was made about the Rajasthan watersheds under his guidance and leadership. Thought rainfall of Rajasthan is very less, the state government with good practices, has improved green cover and water resources i.e surface and groundwater resources. Conservation of Soil Moisture as one of the important aspect in watershed management.

HE gave a detailed presentation on Mukhya Mantri Jal Swavlamban Abhiyan, Making villages self-sufficient in water & creating "Islands of Excellence", which was Launched across 295 Blocks of 33 districts, with People's participation. He highlighted the importance of watershed approach, for Construction of low cost water harvesting structures, using GIS technology.

Prof B Venkateswar Rao, Director IST, said about the various programs offered by the institute and activities. Prof G Narasimha, NSS programme Coordinator, spoke about various activities of NSS unit and commitment of NSS volunteers and students for safeguarding Environment.

Dr T Vijayalakshmi, coordinator of the workshop spoke the 5day workshop and the activities that are planned for making the students as good researchers, entrepreneurs for combating climate change. She said number competitions are planned for students for active involvement.