Non - structural flood management : Cost effective options

It has been an established fact that floods have an intricate relationship with environment degradation which could be appropriately termed as manmade disaster rather than a natural disaster. India being one of the richest in water resources, is continuously suffering form the menace of floods and droughts due to poor management of this rich resource. Inspite of increased allocation of funds of its expenditure on flood protection measures during Eight Five Year Plan, the struggle to deal with the disaster has become more difficult, structural measures have although been successful in providing incidental relief but non-structural and decentralized measures like flood plain zoning, flood proofing predictions and forecasting could prove to be much more cost effective and people participatory than the structural measures. Paper highlights the facts on flood situations in India and measures taken so far by the Government of India. Unplanned, development has been the major cause of floods and poor water resource management in India. Landuse planning has never been integrated into the watershed management and eco-systems for exposed planning of a development programmes. Cost of structural measures have been exorbitant and always evaluated as much larger than the benefits realized over a period of time. Hence, for sustainable future, the paper emphasizes need for decentralized mechanisms of using non-structural measures like flood plain zoning and prediction-systems to take preventive actions. It highlights need for risk assessment through identification and mapping of risk prone areas and distribution of population in resonance with the water resource management programme. (AU)

Organomercury(II) complexes of 6-thioguanine: synthesis, characterization, and biological studies.

Organomercury(II) complexes involving 6-thioguanine, of the type p-XC6H4HgL (Fig. 1) [LH = 6-thioguanine; X = Me, MeO, NO2], have been synthesized and characterized. Conductance measurements indicate that the complexes are nonelectrolytes. From IR and UV studies, it is concluded that 6-thioguanine acts as a bidentate ligand, coordinating through the 6-thione group and deprotonation of N-7. 1H and 13C NMR support the stoichiometry of the complexes. From thermal studies (TG and DSC) various kinetic and thermodynamic parameters for thermal degradation have been enumerated. In addition, the fragmentation pattern of the complexes have been analyzed on the basis of mass spectra. The p-MeC6H4HgL and p-MeOC6H4HgL complexes display significant activity against L1210 leukemia cells.