Amita Bhaduri

Amita Bhaduri
Toilets need water, women suffer under ODF drive
Toilets in households have only increased the drudgery of village women as they have to fetch water from faraway sources for toilet use.
Posted on 12 Jun, 2018 01:28 PM

Rajasthan is all geared up for the open defecation free (ODF) status well before the national deadline of October 2, 2019. According to the assistant engineer of the nagar parishad, Resha Singh, 4.75 lakh toilets have been constructed since October 2, 2014 in Alwar district which is about to be declared ODF.

Village women collect water for toilet use. (Photo by India Water Portal)
Alwar homes, farms and factories fight for water
Water conflict in Rajasthan’s Alwar district is not just between upstream and downstream users; it is also between users with domestic, agricultural and industrial needs.
Posted on 07 Jun, 2018 11:46 AM

Lewari, a village located around 17 km from Alwar in Rajasthan, is the site of a water conflict these days. “The production of Jayanti jaljeera, haazme ka lalantop drink (a digestive drink) has left our village parched,” says Nanak Singh, a resident.

Operation of sluice outlet of Siliserh lake is marked by chaos and conflict among various interest groups.
Will boats float on Yamuna?
Yamuna water taxi project could cut down the travel time and congestion on Delhi roads. But does the river have enough water for it?
Posted on 23 May, 2018 11:38 AM

Here's some good news for the people of Delhi. If the Centre is to be believed, Delhi is going the Kochi way and Yamuna waters will keep the traffic burden off the road much like Kochi’s backwaters and rivers.

Yamuna in Delhi (Image: Wikimedia commons)
Palwal puts Game Theory to practice
How 'super village challenge' in Palwal district set the benchmark for the speedy development of villages.
Posted on 21 May, 2018 09:27 PM

At just 24 years of age, Abhinav Vats has learnt a lot as the chief minister’s Good Governance Associate (CMGGA) posted in Palwal district of Haryana. An economics graduate from Delhi University, he worked as a research analyst with McKinsey and Company at Gurgaon for two-and-a-half years before deciding to be a CMGGA.

Women participate enthusiastically in the ‘Palwal super village challenge’ for last mile delivery of rural development schemes. (Pic courtesy: Abhinav Vats)
Disappearing waters of The Himalayas
A photo exhibition focuses on the changing lifestyles of local communities in the Himalayas with changes in their environment.
Posted on 14 May, 2018 12:01 PM

Delhi’s Jor Bagh metro station is the site of an ongoing photographic exhibition with thought-provoking images and narratives exploring escalating water crises Indian and Nepal Himalayas face.

The photograph titled 'Nainital: Changing landscape in the Himalayas'. Image: Toby Smith, Pani-Pahar series
Corporate hand in sustainable WASH
While Swachh Bharat Mission is focused on improving sanitation in the country, an ODF India remains a distant dream. Can corporate contribution ease the sanitation challenges India faces?
Posted on 07 May, 2018 11:34 AM

Despite making sanitation a national priority with Swachh Bharat Mission, 50 percent of India defecated in the open till 2014. The goal to make India open defecation free by 2019 seemed ambitious. The government provided funding but it also sought active participation from the corporate sector.

Without behaviour change, toilet infrastructure created will remain only structures that will never be used. (Image: India Water Portal)
Sewage management: Govt’s elephant in the room
Swachh Bharat Mission: Could the most ambitious cleanliness campaign in Indian history also be the most expensive failure?
Posted on 06 May, 2018 11:25 AM

India’s sanitation crisis involves huge cost. Transforming the country’s sanitation and waste management by 2019 is tall order.

Sewage treatment plant in Kavoor, Mangalore installed under the Karnataka Urban Development and Coastal Environmental Management Project. (Image: Asian Development Bank)
Down in the dumps: Delhi’s waste pickers’ saga
A study by Action India provides insight into Delhi’s recycling nightmare and its unacknowledged waste pickers.
Posted on 10 Apr, 2018 04:05 PM

Eight-year-old Meera (name changed) got ill after eating filthy food remains from a dump at Mansarovar park in Delhi. Children like her work in filthy environments, rummaging through hazardous waste with bare hands and feet. They play in these dumping ground strewn with syringes, scrap iron, rotting waste, solid and liquid household waste.  

Waste pickers face harrowing occupational hazards and are exposed to toxins in the absence of protective gear. (Image: Ted Mathys, 2009)
Mangar Bani: NCR's green patch calls for help
With the threat of urbanisation looming large, the sacred grove of Mangar Bani begs for attention.
Posted on 27 Mar, 2018 02:39 PM

According to the local legend, Mangar Bani, a green patch between Faridabad and Gurgaon, was home to a Baba (a holy man), Gudariya Das Maharaj around 500 years ago. Popular among the local Gujjar herdsmen, the dominant community of the area, the Baba asked them to treat this forest as a sacred grove, the forested abode of a local deity.

Mangar Bani, with its trees, plants, birds and animals, is an ecological hotspot but it is finding it hard to keep builders and land grabbers at bay. (Image: Pradip Krishen, Facebook)
Centre fails to see the wood for the trees
The latest FSI report says India is getting greener. A closer look at the story behind the numbers says otherwise.
Posted on 13 Mar, 2018 03:38 PM

As per the biennial State of Forest Report (SFR) 2017 by the Forest Survey of India (FSI), the total forest and tree cover in India increased during the period 2015 to 2017 by 0.94 percent. The increase in the forest cover has been of the order of 6,778 sq km and that of tree cover was about 1,243 sq km.  

India’s forest cover stands at 21.54 percent while its dense forest cover is about 12.26 percent, as per the State of Forest Report, 2017. (Image: Tridib Choudhury, Wikimedia commons, CC BY SA-4.0)
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