The Hindu - Delhi 12.08.2009
A new centre for water resource management soon
Staff Reporter
NEW DELHI: The newly established Delhi Technological University, formerly Delhi College of Engineering, will soon have a Centre for Water Resource Management.
The new centre will be attached with the Department of Civil Engineering at DTU and will be set up with support and cooperation of UNESCO. This was one of the conclusions of a three-day international workshop on “Climate Change and Water Resources in South Asia” that ended here on Monday. The workshop was jointly organised by UNESCO, DTU, University of Columbia and the National Rain-fed Area Authority of the Union Government.
Three focus areas
The new centre at DTU will have three focus areas: low-cost water re-cycling, re-use and water treatment technologies; promoting awareness among the masses to conserve water; and research on water resource management and issues related to water security.
“We will also focus on the impact of climate change on depletion of water resources. The new centre will work in cooperation with other universities and institutes in India and will also have some collaborative arrangement with institutions abroad,” said DTU Vice-Chancellor P. B. Sharma.
DTU has already been running a post-graduate programme in the area of hydraulics and flood control and this will form the basis for development of future courses on water resource management.
“The research and development at DTU in the area of water system reliability and water quality modelling is already in progress and the future thrust will be aligned towards the objectives of the proposed centre,” informed Prof. Sharma.Another outcome of the workshop: a South Asian network on climate change and water resources would be launched with UNESCO as its secretariat.
The Vice-Chancellor also said that the new centre would support the Delhi Government’s ongoing programme of cleaning the Yamuna.
