The recent floods have not only caused loss to human lives and infrastructure but the water lost was also worth to irrigate 40 million acre of land. Following excerpt gives the details:

Pakistan lost water worth Rs240 billion due to lack of dams and water reservoirs in the country.

Chairman Fauji Fertilizer Company talking to media men said a quantity of water needed for irrigating 40 million acres land has been wasted. He said Rs6 billion worth of water is required for irrigating 1 million acres land.

According to economic experts, due to absence of political harmony the country not only faced worst ever floods but also failed to store water worth Rs240 billion.

The Water and Power Ministry has received an appalling 15.6 percent of total budgetary allocation for the first quarter of the current year, an amount that flagrantly disregards the critical contribution of this ministry to not only national output, but also to serious issues of households-related to water and power deficiency in the country.

The Finance Ministry provided Rs 2.8 billion during the first quarter (July-September) of 2009-10 financial year to the Water and Power Ministry as against the total committed quarterly allocation, amounting to Rs 17.85 billion. During three-day PSDP review meeting held recently, the Finance Ministry gave top priority to the Ministries of Petroleum and Natural Resources, Pakistan Nuclear Regulatory Authority (PNRA), Ports and Shipping, Communication, Population, Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) and Health Ministry.

The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources received 85 percent of the budgetary allocations, amounting to Rs 170 million as against the request of Rs 200 million in the first quarter.

The Finance Ministry gave second priority to Pakistan Nuclear Regulatory Authority (PNRA), which received 75.1 percent of the committed funds, amounting to Rs 82.5 million as against the committed amount of Rs 109.8 million in the first quarter. The Ministry of Ports and Shipping received 72.2 percent fund releases, amounting to Rs 16 million as against the requirement of Rs 22 million in the first quarter.

Via Business Recorder

Daily Times reports that Ministry of Science and Technology(S & T) is to complete surveys for windmill farm sites. The S&T Ministry received Rs 4.1 billion in budget. Here are the details.

To attract public private investment in the power-producing sector, the government has asked the Ministry of Science and Technology (S&T) to complete the survey report of 24 sites in Northern Areas for the establishment of windmill farms.

The Ministry of S&T has to complete the survey report during the fiscal year 2009-10 so that work on these sites could be initiated soon, the Annual Plan 2009-10 revealed. The government is determined to overcome electricity shortfall by December 2009 so that economic activities might get momentum to optimal level.

The plan further revealed that growing level of investment in research and development was generally correlated with improved gross domestic product (GDP). For the fiscal year 2009-10, the government has allocated Rs 4.1 billion in public sector development programme for S&T sector projects. Out of which, an amount of Rs 3.3 billion had been earmarked for the Ministry of S&T and Rs 0.8 billion for the S&T projects of Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission.

Pakistan Council for Renewable Energy Technologies (PCRET): The council would provide indigenous technological support to the local industry to develop and promote renewable energy products of international quality. PCRET would start production of solar cells and modules up to 80kw annual capacity.

Read more after the break about the different research organizations and their spending plans.

Pakistan Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (PCSIR): Under HRD programme PCSIR had planned to sent abroad 15 scientists for PhD in different fields of S&T for scientific research and development (R&D) organisations. Infrastructure development through BMR of existing PCSIR laboratories would be undertaken, workshops and pilot plant facilities would be strengthened. Machinery and state of the art laboratory equipments for R&D activities shall be purchased and commissioned under different development projects. A nursery will be established for the cultivation of medicinal plants at Balochistan.

Council for Works and Housing Research (CWHR): It would be strengthened by upgrading its infrastructure, improving manpower strength and establishing laboratories so that demand oriented R&D could be undertaken to reduce imports of construction inputs in the country. CWHR intended to establish pilot plant for the production of activated clay from locally available bentonite.

Pakistan National Accreditation Council (PNAC): The PNAC would establish a Centre for Accreditation and Standards Training (CAST). The centre would create awareness to the industry, industrial policymakers, academia, service providers, exporters, consumers etc about the benefit of adopting quality improvements practices by arranging seminars in-house as well as at the premises of different stakeholders in major cities of the country.

Pakistan Science Foundation (PSF): Science clubs would be established in 100 high schools all across the country. Five science centres would be established in different cities of the country to supplement the teaching of biological and physical sciences in schools and colleges.

Pakistan Council for Research in Water Resources (PCRWR): During 2009-10 PCRWR would execute 14 R&D projects based on the construction of 11 water quality laboratories at different sites, impart training to 1,000 officials from water supply agencies through 40 training courses, install 40 high efficient irrigation systems and lift irrigation system in NWFP and Northern Areas.

Pakistan Council for Science and Technology (PCST): The organisation would conduct National Innovation Survey for enhancing national productivity and national competitive performance.

Pakistan Technology Board (PTB): Centre for Biofuel Studies, Technology Facilitation Centre and Industrial Management Cell were envisaged. The Technology Foresight Exercise for the facilitation of the strategist and policy planner would be completed during 2009-10.

National Institute of Electronics (NIE): It would plan to get an accreditation for the testing lab from national/international bodies. Complete and customised solutions for small, medium scale organisations would be provided. Latest state of the art machinery and equipment would be inducted in NIE to give a boost to its R&D efforts.

COMSATS Institute of Information Technology (CIIT): It would strengthen the Department of Biomedical Material Sciences at COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, Lahore, which would result in formation of Ceramic Lab, Polymer Lab, Biological Lab, Characterisation Lab etc.

The Centre for Applied Molecular Biology (CAMB): The centre would perform R&D on transformation of plant expression vector containing RNA in two sugarcane varieties HSF-240 and HSF-242 and plant bioassay and molecular detection of transgenic plants. In DNA typing of selected genetically superior cattle and buffalo, PCR would be done for amplification of target genomic DNA regions of the milk proteins. Data analysis would be done to identify sequence changes in functional region of major milk protein genes.

You may think that data centers can be located wherever real estate is cheap. Tech Review writes about the value of water to conserve electricity and improve efficiency. Check out the placement of data centers in very particular geographic locations.

In addition to bandwidth, data centers need electricity. Lots of it. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates that U.S. servers and data centers were responsible for a total of 1.5 percent of America’s electricity consumption in 2006 (about 61 billion kilowatt-hours), at a cost of $4.5 billion, and that their consumption will double by 2011. Not surprisingly, data-center owners have searched out sources of cheap electricity in the hydroelectric dams that dot the Rockies and the Northwest. Washington and Oregon, America’s top two hydroelectric-­producing states, have electricity costs 20 to 30 percent lower than the national average. As a result, small towns in places like the Columbia River basin are enjoying a data-center gold rush, often helped by local authorities who are willing to provide owners with fiber-optic connections to the rest of the world.