Amita Bhaduri

Amita Bhaduri
Companies finally disclose their water-related risks
Will climate change cause greater water-related risks to companies? 29 Indian companies and hundreds of global companies find out.
Posted on 24 Apr, 2014 03:17 PM

Businesses increasingly face water risks in the context of climate change. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), India will face changes in rainfall patterns, increase in frequency and severity of extreme weather events along with droughts and flood.

Industrial pollution, Image: Ganesh Dhamodkar
Alternative farming method in Karnal
No-till agriculture, an alternative farming method, which helps prevent soil depletion as well as uses water efficiently, is being used successfully by farmers in Haryana.
Posted on 05 Apr, 2014 01:24 PM

Kalwaheri is a village of over thousand households comprising mostly of small farmers and landless people tucked away in Karnal, Haryana. The district, once the birth place of the Green Revolution, is now far from green.

 Seed-fertilizer drill in use at Kalwaheri village
Fishing for shrimp in Haryana’s farmlands
Saline waters left Rohtak's farmlands fallow. After some research by local organisations, the farmers who were into agriculture, could soon move into aquaculture!
Posted on 05 Apr, 2014 01:08 PM

Mile after mile of saline lands line the Delhi-Rohtak-Bhiwani stretch of the highway. Here, the land wasn't always saline, it became that way thanks to canal irrigation. Farmers have used extensive surface water, which has led to an increase in groundwater levels. This leads to the twin problem of waterlogging and salinity.

Tiger shrimp production at Rohtak; Source: CIFE
The water-energy nexus
Meerut celebrated World Water Day with speakers talking about the connection between the two topics.
Posted on 31 Mar, 2014 10:20 PM

The theme of this year’s World Water Day was “energy-water nexus”. It was almost as if the topic was chosen keeping Western Uttar Pradesh in mind because the conflict between water and energy users in agriculture and industry has heightened here in the recent past.

Rise of tubewells in western UP (Source: DTE)
Fatehabad - Another Fukushima?
Nuclear plants are usually located near oceans or rivers in order to have access to ample water for cooling but not the plant at Fatehabad. It is India's largest and could be its most dangerous too.
Posted on 25 Mar, 2014 08:14 PM

National Highway 10 passes through Badophal, a village in Fatehabad district of Haryana. The highway is lined by a tiny market and a point where several jeeps start and terminate. These jeeps are headed to Gorakhpur village, some 15 kms away via Kajal Heri, another village en route.

Gorakhpur nuclear power plant site
Floods despite dams
In his bi-lingual booklet titled 'Floods despite dams' ('Barh to phir bhi aayegi'), Dinesh Mishra explodes the myth of embankments and hopes that the issue of floods will be widely debated.
Posted on 23 Mar, 2014 10:42 PM

Floods in Bihar have acquired menacing proportions following the embanking of its rivers, which has led to severe dislocations in the society. Estimates suggest that 70% of the population in north Bihar lives under the recurring threat of flood devastation (1). The 2013 floods affected more than 5.9 million people in 3768 villages (2).

Floods disrupt life in Bihar
A village becomes water secure
Implementing rooftop rainwater harvesting, treating the catchment and building a community water tank are some reasons why Patkhori village is starting to sail through its water crisis.
Posted on 23 Mar, 2014 10:12 PM

Mewat, a historical region comprising of the present Mewat district of Haryana and parts of Alwar, Bharatpur and Dholpur districts of Rajasthan, lies in a semi-arid belt. It experiences variable rainfall annually and receives, on average, 336 mm to 540 mm, as per the Mewat Development Agency.

Water scarcity in Mewat
A multi-pronged approach to improve livelihoods in MP
Out-migration of residents and inefficient agricultural practices in Baldeogarh, MP have been partially resolved by an NGO's intervention, which focused on conserving water.
Posted on 17 Mar, 2014 03:46 PM

A little less than 40 km away from the district headquarters of Tikamgarh in northern Madhya Pradesh lies a watershed, which is an area of land where all of the water that is under it or drains off of it goes into the same place (US Environmental Protection Agency).

Farmer looks at the water conservation efforts
Technology and public awareness to combat climate change
Using community radio, messages about adapting to climate change and methods to do it were communicated to farmers in Bundelkhand.
Posted on 16 Mar, 2014 10:30 PM

In Jhansi, Bundelkhand farmers experience great uncertainties in agriculture due to erratic rainfall. Covering 13 districts of southwest Uttar Pradesh and Northern Madhya Pradesh with a population of approximately 21 million, Bundelkhand is a typical semi-arid region.  Around 83% of the area is rural and more than one third of the households are considered to be below the poverty line.

Crops appropriate to deal with climate change
Krishi Vigyan Kendra to the rescue!
To combat the water shortage caused by irregular rainfall as well as crop rotation patterns, the village of Nidhan in Madhya Pradesh implemented options suggested by the local Krishi Vigyan Kendra.
Posted on 07 Mar, 2014 10:27 AM

Nidhan is about 30 km away from its district headquarter Morena, Madhya Pradesh. The village receives an annual average rainfall of 450 mm concentrated in the months of July and August. While much of the village depends on rainfed agriculture, the main source of irrigation in the rabi (winter) season is borewells.

The farmer got bumper crop of pigeon pea
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