Of all the water that exists on our planet, around 97% is salt water. Of the 3% or so of fresh water available, almost half of it remains frozen in glaciers, ice caps, or deep underground aquifers. Yes – just around 1.5% is available for our use, making every drop count. Further, with continuing population growth and industrial growth, demand continues to escalate in a supply-constrained domain.
Introduction
Water is a fundamental element of life – described in India’s Vedic heritage as one of the five elements that comprise the entire universe (and its occupants across different planets); the other four being earth, fire, air, and space. With rapid growth in population, industrialization, and economic prosperity in many population centers of our globe, water is becoming a scarcer resource by the day.
Global warming is placing a further enormous strain on water resources and their availability. It all adds up to a potential scenario where water scarcity becomes a source of inter-city, inter-state, and inter-country conflicts. Water conservation and management have become a crying need. Mr. Malhotra has translated his more than six decades of illustrious career (with some of the most prestigious leadership roles) spanning three continents and dozens of Indian States into a treatise for humanity.
The book is not just a compilation of his lifetime of down-to-ground firsthand experiences, but also a practitioner’s guide providing a plethora of best practices covering the entire spectrum of challenges in the water domain. Everyone involved in real-life action to meet the challenges head-on would find ready-made answers to aid their work with authentic engineering depth and easy-to-use instructions. WHEELS is pleased to feature this great work so that all players in the water conservation and management domain can accelerate the effectiveness and execution of their work and enable generational sustainability of this most precious life resource.
Mr Raj Kumar Malhotra
WHEELS is privileged to have access to a foremost authority on the Water domain, Mr. Raj K Malhotra. At our request, he has captured his 70+ years of wisdom, experience, and innovations in an upcoming book.
Born on 02 January 1929, Mr. R. K. Malhotra graduated in Civil Engineering with Honors in 1952 and joined the Punjab Irrigation Department in December 1952 on the world-famous Bhakra Nangal Project. He was associated with the construction of a 225 m high straight gravity concrete dam which ranked amongst the highest dams in the world. Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first Prime Minister described this project as: “Bhakra Nangal Project is something tremendous, something stupendous, something which shakes you up when you see it. Bhakra, the new temple of resurgent India, is the symbol of India’s progress.”
Presently, Mr. Malhotra is actively involved in the Bank-funded DRIP (Dam Rehabilitation & Improvement Projects) in India. He reviews the Project Screening Templates and Bid Documents of various dam projects proposed to be rehabilitated and furnishes his technical comments and suggestions to the World Bank on the final remedial measures to be adopted for the rehabilitation of respective dams and appurtenant works.
Mr. Malhotra’s 9 technical papers concerning the important / critical works executed by him during his professional career in the Government organizations have been published in the International Journals. He has been a member of various Technical Committees and also participated in several International Seminars.
Availability: Book is available here on Amazon India. For any bulk orders or special requests (such as reprint of specific sections), please contact madhur@wheelsglobal.org.
Brief Guidance on Usage:
◊ NGOs: As India embarks on ambitious goal of restoring hundreds of water bodies (and associated interventions in the catchment areas) and in each of 770+ districts, sound engineering practices that align with particular topography & terrain, water sources, and usage are critical to achieving expected longevity of the interventions. Chapters F-H provides detailed instructions for all field entities involved in these efforts.
◊ Education & Research institutions: Those involved in research will find great complement in this practitioners guide, and thus improving the likelihood of implementability of their new innovations.
◊ Government officials: Often many projects face post-deployment struggles related to quality surprises, design inadequacies, implementation entity accountability, and community ownership. A simple but transformational innovation of ‘OK Card’ described in Chapter F will be of huge help in addressing these challenges. Government entities involved in tackling erosion, recharge of groundwater and surface water bodies, variety of irrigation systems, RCC water structures, canals and bridges, quality control, and grouting would find many relevant chapters to leverage.
◊ Public at-large: Many sections of the society have vested interest in preserving a thriving water ecosystem for their communities. This book will make it easy for them to engage right entities and right approaches for initial interventions as well as ongoing maintenance.
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