River Indus

Saturday, July 20, 2013  By:  Baqar Shah

Mouth Arabian Sea

Location Indus River Delta, Pakistan

Length 3,200 km (1,988 mi)

Basin 1,165,000 km2 (449,809 sq mi)

Discharge - average 6,600 m3/s (233,077 cu ft/s)

The Indus River provides key water resources for the economy of Pakistan - especially the Breadbasket of Punjab province, which accounts for most of the nation's agricultural production, and Sindh. The word Punjab means "water of five rivers" and the five rivers are Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi, Beas and Sutlej, all of which finally merge in Indus. The Indus also supports many heavy industries and provides the main supply of potable water in Pakistan.

Source: Wikipedia

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I am constrained to bring some points to the attention of the  authorities concerned on the present condition of the Indus  The rare photo (1912-1914) shows the steam boat carrying passengers on the Indus 100 years ago. Now look at the present state of the river, it banks flooded, undrendged for the past 100 years. The Mississippi river in USA is drenched every four years, hence boats and barges move freely up and down I therefore suggest that we build Artificial Lakes along the banks to reduce flood damage and at the same time water stored will be useful during draughts periods. These Lakes can also be used to save the Marine life including the endangered species the Blind Dolphin  If we fail to action now, I fear that in some years Indus may change its course.

Copyright: agrinfobank.com

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Punjab govt, Canadian firm ink MoU for biogas project

Saturday, July 20, 2013

A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between Punjab government and a renowned Canadian Company High Mark Bio-Gas at Chief Minister’s Office on Friday for setting up bio-gas project.
Chief Executive Officer Evan Chrapko on behalf of High Mark Biogas Company while Secretary Energy Usman Bajwa on behalf of Punjab government signed the MoU.
According to the agreement, High Mark Bio-Gas Company will set up a pilot project of 22 megawatts of biomass gas in Punjab. The project will be completed within a short period of six months.
Besides Chief Minister Punjab Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif, Provincial Energy Minister Sher Ali Khan, Chairman Planning and Development, Secretaries of Energy, Agriculture, Information, Local Government and other concerned officials were also present on the occasion.
Sharif said signing of MoU between High Mark Bio-Gas Company and Punjab government with regard to biogas project was a welcoming step. He said vast opportunities of generating energy through bio-mass and biogas exist in Punjab and the provincial government will fully benefit from these opportunities. He said the experiences of foreign investors and companies would also be benefited in this regard so that energy crisis could be minimised at the earliest.
The chief minister said besides traditional sources, Pakistan Muslim League-N government was also working for generating energy through non-traditional sources. He said non-traditional sources are the cheap source of generating energy which would provide relief to the people.
Sharif said there was great potential of setting up bio-gas projects in Punjab and there was no shortage of fuel for the projects of biogas. He said energy crisis had made the life of common man miserable and the government was working on war footing for coping with this problem. The CM said Canadian Company will also carry out the process of mapping of waste used in biogas which will help in collecting authenticated data.
Sharif said that after the success of first pilot project, new projects of biogas would be started. Earlier, Chief Executive of Canadian High Mark Bio-Gas Company, Evan Chrapko met Shahbaz Sharif at Chief Minister’s Office. Muhammad Umar Ghaznavi was also present on the occasion.

Source: Daily Times

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Chenab, Jhelum likely to attain medium to high flood levels

Saturday, July 20, 2013 By M RAFIQUE GORAYA

The Flood Forecasting Centre has cautioned that the River Chenab at Marala and River Jhelum at Mangla may attain medium to high flood level on Saturday and Sunday. Nullahs of River Ravi & Chenab may also attain medium to high flood level after 36-hours.
It said moderate to heavy thunder showers with very heavy thunder showers at one or two places is expected over the upper catchments of River Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi & Sutlej along-with Gujranwala, Rawalpindi & Lahore Divisions. Thunder showers of moderate intensity may also occur over Sargodha and Faisalabad Divisions & Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The wet spell may increase during next 48 hours.
SYNOPTIC SITUATION Seasonal low lies over Northwest Balochistan and adjoining areas with its trough extending Southeast wards. Monsoon currents are reaching into upper parts of the country. A fresh western disturbance is likely to approah upper parts f the country during next 48 hours.
WEATHER FORECAST FOR SATURDAY Wide spread thunder showers of moderate to heavy intensity with very heavy intensity at one or two places is expected over upper catchments of the river Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi & Sutlej along with Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Gujranwala & Lahore divisions. Fairly wide spread thunder showers of moderate intensity is likely to occur over Sargodha, Faisalabad, Sahiwal divisions & Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Isolated thunder showers would occur over Mirpurkhas, Hyderabad, Karachi, Kalat, Naseerabad, Sibbi and Zhob divisions, whereas weather will remain hot & humid in other parts of the country in next 48 hours.
Widespread rain-thundershower (with isolated heavy falls) associated with gusty winds is expected in Kashmir, Hazara, Islamabad/Rawalpindi, Gujranwala, Sahiwal Lahore divisions and isolated places of Lower Sindh during next 24 hours. Weather remained hot & humid in most parts of the country. However, rain-thundershower occurred at a few places of Rawalpindi, Sahiwal divisions & Kashmir
HOTTEST PLACES PAST 24 HOURS Dalbandin 45°C, Nokkundi & Chillas 44°C, Sibbi, Bhakkar & Gilgit 43°C.

Source: Business Recorder

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Major GM food company Monsanto 'pulls out of Europe'

By Christopher Hope, Senior Political Correspondent

Monsanto, one of the world's biggest and best known genetically modified crops companies, is effectively pulling out of Europe, The Daily Telegraph can disclose.

The news is a major blow to the nascent British GM industry which ministers have been championing this year as fears grow about food security.

Monsanto, whose name is synonymous with GM crops, confirmed that it is withdrawing all of its EU applications for approval for new crops.

The decision is understood to affect as many as 10 applications for approval for new GM crops. It is understood that Monsanto is pulling all of its applications for crops in frustration at delays over clearing existing crops at EU level.

It does not affect clearance for an existing crop grown from GM seeds in Portugal and Spain.

Monsanto currently sells only one biotech seed product in Europe — a biotech corn which is modified to be resistant to a destructive pest called the European corn borer. It accounts for less than one per cent of the corn grown in the EU.

A company source pointed to the fact that the EU has not approved a new GM crop for cultivation since 1998, adding that it "currently has suspended the progression of cultivation files towards decisions for political reasons".

The source added: "As the EU today is effectively a conventional seed market we have been progressively de-emphasising cultivation of biotech crops in Europe.

"Amongst other things, this means we are no longer seeking approval to commercialise biotech seeds in the EU. We intend to withdraw pending regulatory applications for commercial cultivation of new biotech crops in the EU."

A Monsanto spokesman told The Daily Telegraph: "Monsanto´s business in Europe is very strong and growing. In order to better serve farmers in Europe we will be investing several hundred million dollars in Europe over a decade to expand our conventional seed production and breeding.

"In parallel, biotech crops are highly successful in the rest of the world. In order to fully support both of these success stories, we will no longer be pursuing approvals for cultivation of new biotech crops in Europe.

"Instead, we will focus on enabling imports of biotech crops into the EU and the growth of our current business there."

Monsanto is planning to invest hundreds million dollars in Europe through the end of the decade including €225 million ($300 million) in corn production plant expansions that are already under way in France, Hungary,

Romania and Turkey, creating more than 150 new full-time jobs and many more seasonal jobs.

The news comes just as the Government, led by Environment secretary Owen Paterson and Science minister David Willetts, lead a major push to persuade Britons to eat more GM food.

Source: The Telegraph

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