Amita Bhaduri

Amita Bhaduri
Unpacking the water and sanitation budget
While sanitation has been prioritized in the country’s policy agenda through the launch of the Swachh Bharat Mission, has it been matched with a sufficient budgetary outlay?
Posted on 30 Mar, 2015 07:50 AM

What does slashed funding for the water and sanitation sector in this year’s budget mean? Is the government’s claim that the states will get more money because of the latest Finance Commission recommendation, spot on? Sona Mitra and Kanika Kaul of the Centre for Budget and Governance Accountability (CGBA) shed light on these at the All India Convention on the Right to Sanitation.

Handwashing at a Karnataka school
A hard look at the strategy of fighting open defecation
Does reducing open defecation have any significant improvement in health outcomes? Sumeet Patil of NEERMAN discusses this in an interview with India Water Portal.
Posted on 05 Mar, 2015 10:31 PM

With over 620 million defecating in the open in India, do we need a new approach to curb this practice? The force of habit is such that even households with toilets have around forty percent of adults defecating in the open. But, does curbing open defecation necessarily lead to significant improvements in child health outcomes like diarrhoea, anaemia, parasite infection and growth?

School sanitation at Mysore
Porous pavements to save concrete jungles!
Cities may not be able to lessen their 'concrete footprint', which prevents groundwater from entering the soil but maybe more city spaces can use porous surfacing to deal with this problem.
Posted on 08 Jan, 2015 10:20 PM

Despite its shrinking greens, Delhi has significant tree diversity. Pradip Krishen, a naturalist, author and filmmaker, identifies around 250 tree species in the concrete jungle, in his book titled ‘Trees of Delhi’ published in 2007. But these trees do not have the breathing room they need as the Public Works Department's (PWD) pavement tiling projects enclose trees completely in concrete.

Porous tiles act as flood absorbers in the city
The Chalakudy river system wins
Latha Anantha was awarded the Bhagirath Prayas Samman for spearheading the campaign to save the Chalakudy river in Kerala, at the recently concluded India Rivers Week.
Posted on 15 Dec, 2014 06:32 PM

Latha Anantha of the Chalakudy Puzha Samrakshana Samiti (Chalakudy River Protection Forum) was awarded the Bhagirath Prayas Samman at the recently concluded India Rivers Week for her commendable work on safeguarding the integrity of the Chalakudy river in Kerala.

Latha Anantha (Source: Latha)
To link or not to link: A debate
An open debate on interlinking of rivers moderated by Ramaswamy Iyer with Himanshu Thakkar and Brij Gopal as panelists was held as a part of the India Rivers Week at New Delhi.
Posted on 15 Dec, 2014 02:48 PM

The essence of a river is its ebb and flow but won't taming of the fresh free-flowing rivers by building massive dams pose a threat to our rivers and the communities that live by them? 

Simen - a 'surplus' river in Brahmaputra basin
Local weather stations greatly improve local crop production
Area- and crop-customised agro-advisories in Sangamner taluka of Ahmednagar, Maharashtra, have helped farmers deal with weather-based events and minimise their related losses.
Posted on 19 Nov, 2014 05:06 PM

“In gram crops to control gram-pod borers, use pheromone traps”. While a statement like that most likely won't make sense to average people, it does to the farming community in the Sangamner taluka of Ahmednagar, Maharashtra. They have been trained to make sense of the agro-advisory provided by Vasundhara Sewaks.

Onion seeds in farms (Source: WOTR)
Well revival effort sees many other benefits
A community drive to revive wells in Mokhla talab near Udaipur results in water security for longer periods of time as well as making leaders out of women.
Posted on 05 Sep, 2014 12:59 PM

The name of a place can tell one much about its history. Take Mokla talab, a village 62 km southeast of Udaipur for example. Mokla means sufficient in Rajasthani and talab means pond. The village was named after its overflowing talab. But what happens when the talaab is overflowing no more?

Well lining has improved water availability
People of a semi-arid Rajasthan village battle Coca Cola
The story isn't new. It is about Coca Cola exploiting groundwater resources at its bottling plant in Kaladera. What will hopefully be new is how the story finally ends.
Posted on 27 Jul, 2014 10:23 PM

Kaladera, a small village about 40 km from Jaipur has always been known for its chaubandi (mud resist printing) and natural dyeing but it has been getting a lot of attention since 1999. No, it's not because of the handicraft but because of Coca Cola, which set up a bottling plant there.

Borewells go deep in Kaladera, Rajasthan
Tribals of Tawa reservoir left leader-less
Sunil Bhai, who fought for the rights of the tribals and other displaced people of the Tawa reservoir in Hoshangabad, Madhya Pradesh, is no more but the initiative he kick started remains. Posted on 07 May, 2014 11:19 AM

Tawa reservoir in Hoshangabad, Madhya Pradesh, irrigates several thousand hectares of land. It is here that Sunil Gupta, popularly known as Sunil Bhai, rose to prominence in 1995 when he led the struggle of the tribals displaced by the reservoir.

Sunil Bhai; Source: Samarendra
"The Earth has enough to fulfill your needs, but not your greed"
Face painting, poster making and debating, among other events, were held at Gargi Girls School in Meerut to mark and celebrate Earth Day 2014. Posted on 02 May, 2014 11:31 PM

Young Eco-Club members of Gargi Girls School, Meerut celebrated Earth Day on April 22, 2014 with two-days of festivities.

Gagri Girls School celebrates Earth Day
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