Priya Desai

Maharashtra is reeling under a drought – one of the worst in the last 40 years. The state declared drought in 125 out of 358 talukas during kharif 2012-13, and then declared water scarcity in 3,905 villages in rabi 2012-13.

The Catch Every Drop campaign, which created awareness about water conservation, spun off a few other events in Bangalore. Save Our Lakes, which focused on protecting B

From the serious to the absurd, water has featured across a breadth of movies, both in Hollywood and Bollywood.

The first thing that struck me when I reached the venue of the Nirmal Bharat Yatra in Indore, Madhya Pradesh was the vibrant colours that brought the entire event to life, even before visitors started streaming in.

The Nirmal Bharat Yatra, also called the The Great WASH Yatra is a multichannel, mega-campaign that harnesses the positive power of Cricket and Bollywood to promote awareness and enact behavioural change around sanitation and hygie

 Residents of L&T South City and Brigade Millenium in JP Nagar, Bangalore formed a citizen initiative to save the neighbouring Puttenahalli Lake from becoming a dumping ground for construction debris and waste. A team from India Water Portal visited the lake in June 2011 to see the progress and challenges faced by such citizen initiatives.

Guest post by Priya Desai

Background

This was organised by the Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE). Held on May 26th 2011, we were joined by around 150 to 200 student volunteers from various higher educational institutions in Kerala, such as the Kerala University of Fisheries and Ocean Studies, St. Albert's College in Ernakulam, School of Applied Life Sciences in Chuttippara and the School of Environmental Sciences, Mahatma Gandhi University.

Overview

It is surprising that fluoride was found even in surface water bodies like ponds, because fluoride is generally found in deep aquifers. Fluoride is a naturally occurring mineral in the deeper layers of rock beneath the earth's surface, so it was unusual to find it at such high levels even in surface water sources, leading to the conclusion that intensive agriculture in the area has spread the fluoride to the surface.