Bangalore

The conference was held in Bangalore on 30th June 2009 at the ITC Windsor. With cities expanding, the need for drinking water is exponentially increasing. The municipal systems are stressed to breaking limits and more and more people are turning to bottled water. And this is the case not only in urban but in rural areas as well. Today, the bottled water industry is at 1000 crores and is visualised to expand more! In this context the Confederation of Indian Industries organised a seminar on the Packaged Water Industry on 30th June, 2009 to discuss the scope of the market, the standards of quality and the methods of disposing the waste produced due to the industry. The source for most of the drinking water in our country remains ground water. This contributes to 80% of drinking water in rural areas and 50% in urban areas. However, claimed Mr. T.M. Hunse, Regional Director of the Central Ground Water Board, the excessive usage of Groundwater is the direct cause of dry wells and the depleting levels of groundwater in the country. However, the need for bottled water cannot be denied. Despite conflicts between communities and bottled water plants, many of the country’s poor are at the mercy of the municipal supplies which are erratic and unreliable, he said. Bottled water provides an alternative way to access clean and healthy water. At the same time, it absolves the government of its duty and ends up leaving farmers high and dry. He placed full responsibility on the bottled water plants to ensure people safe water (especially when the groundwater is polluted) and work towards conscientiously using the existing groundwater supply in an egalitarian manner.

Arghyam’s Grants Team is inviting applications from dedicated and talented students for their internship programme. Positions are open for data analysis, water writing and documentation. Both these positions are for 2 months. Only Bangalore based candidates or candidates willing to relocate to Bangalore for the duration of this project need apply.

Arghyam's Grants Team is inviting applications from dedicated and talented students for their internship programme. Intern (Data and Analysis)

The Consortium for DEWATS Dissemination (CDD) Society is a not-for-profit organisation working in the field of decentralised basic need services across India. Decentralised solutions for wastewater treatment, water and energy supply, solid waste management and urban sanitation planning are successfully promoted for the past ten years.

CDD aims to create a knowledge base for up-scaling decentralised basic need services through its capacity building approach. CDD Society, in partnership with Bremen Overseas Research and Development Association (BORDA), Germany and Rajiv Gandhi Rural Housing Corporation Limited (RGRHCL) is organising a 6 days training programme on decentralised wastewater treatment systems (DEWATS) from 17^th August to 22^nd August, 2009 in Bangalore. The training aims to impart skills required for planning, implementing and managing DEWATS to the participants.

(Jointly organised by Bangalore Environment Trust and ARGHYAM) On 4 July 2009 at 1430h at the RAMAN RESEARCH INSTITUTE Accor

Image and Content Courtesy:ESG India This workshop for teachers organized at the ESG Office, from 9th, to11th July 2009will provide the opportunity to find new skills and share what has worked and what needs to change. This is a workshop for enthusiastic teachers, and coordinators and facilitators of education programmes with a passion for educating and motivating kids. It aims to help young professionals develop their skills and knowledge so they can inspire children and others more effectively.

The purpose of the workshop is to demonstrate to the teachers and educators how the outdoors can be utilized to introduce, strengthen, and emphasize concepts of the environmental education curriculum. Through classroom sessions, games and field studies, we will explore the curriculum, teaching techniques, and classroom activities that can help kids learn about the wonders of nature and their environment. During the workshop we will help identify some simple methods and techniques for teaching environmental education in the outdoors and the workshop will also familiarize the participants with some of the environmental issues of Bengaluru.

Mr. S.S. Ranganathan, author of this guest post, is a retired senior executive of Ion Exchange and currently a consultant based in Bangalore.

He can be reached at: ss.ranganathan@gmail.com , +91-9343734229

WATER SECURITY FOR THE RESIDENTS OF APARTMENTS & GATED COMMUNITIES -  S.S.Ranganathan

Ashok Leyland, India's second largest commercial vehicle manufacturer, has worked on both technical process water use reductions and water related project area CSR initiatives.

Forwarded to the Portal by: Arun Tharakan

"90 % of the Plumbing industry workforce in India not professionally trained" "Lack of professionally trained plumbers a major drawback for country's construction sector"

The lack of plumbing infrastructure and a trained, certified workforce has long plagued the citizens of India, for whom 7.5 percent of deaths each year can be directly attributed to water and sanitation issues. In response, International Association of Plumbing and Mechanical Engineers(IAPMO) is working with the Indian Plumbing Association (IPA) and its training arm, the Indian Institute of Plumbing (IIP), to help the nation make big strides forward in both areas of need. IAPMO- Having already jointly developed the Uniform Plumbing Code-India (UPC-I), an extensive code of plumbing practice (published in February 2008) that will serve the construction sector in India for years to come, the organizations subsequently turned their focus to education and training. The ambitious Plumbing Education to Employment Program-PEEP is a comprehensive industry focused program with structured courses of study to develop plumbing design engineers, plumbing construction managers/supervisors and plumbing installers/repairers.

Arghyam Trust based in Bangalore, (www.arghyam.org) focuses solely on water and sanitation with an emphasis on domestic water. We are looking to employ a young dynamic person to be a core member of a new Research & Developmentgroup.