Delhi

At Delhi, there are dirty waste water rivulets, “nallahs” crisscrossing all localities and adding to the pollutant load of the river Yamuna. The situation is alarming with today’s count of nallahs standing at more than 22 Nos. These urban drains are nature’s creation and are meant to convey storm / rain water from upstream areas to downstream, finally leading to the river.

Ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, hundreds of students of several schools along with senior citizens cleaned up Poiya Ghat Sunday morning, picking up rags and used polythene bags, to focus attention on river pollution which candidates of various political parties have chosen to ignore.

Brij Khandelwal, programme convener of the Yamuna Foundation and Rivers of the World Foundation, said apart from students involved in the My Clean Agra initiative, a large number of other voluntary groups and organisations were involved in Sunday's programme which specifically targeted the politicians for failing to clean up the cities and the rivers of India.

"No political party has bothered to say a word about how they would save a dying river and rejuvenate it or restore its original glory," said Subhash Jha and Haridutt Sharma of the Yamuna Foundation for Blue Water.

Image and Content Courtesy: Lead The Action.

Image and Content Courtesy: Development Alternatives As part of the Capacity Building Series (2008- 09) Development Alternatives is organising a Training On Participatory Planning and Decision Making using - Geographical Information System (GIS) from 21- 23 April 2009 at the Indian Council of Social Science Research, JNU Institutional Area, Aruna Asaf Ali Marg, New Delhi. Introduction Sustainable development is largely a replication of how people interact with the available natural resource base. Very often, Environmental degradation is due to over population and poor socio-economic conditions. The need for proper monitoring and management has arisen to fulfill the targets of achieving sustainable development.

WaterAid India invites applications from experienced and professionally qualified candidates for the following position, to be based in New Delhi as part of the WaterAid India Country Office. The salary and benefits offered is competitive one of the best in the sector. Admin & IT Officer New Delhi Primarily responsible for the Admin and IT functions for the Delhi office, the position is required to coordinate, support and consolidate Admin and IT support role for the entire programme which includes the country office in Delhi and 4 Regional Offices. The post holder reports to Director Finance and Administration. This being a critical programme support function, the position is expected to demonstrate people friendly attitude, provide timely support and develop well planned work plans and annual calendar of deadlines for key compliance. In performance evaluation of this position, the Line Manager will take inputs from other Units of WAI.

Image and Content Courtesy: Development Alternatives

The nonprofit landscape is changing very fast , are you keeping up?

Given this backdrop, a Joint -Venture by the United Nations mandated University for Peace and TARA Livelihood Academy a unit of Development Alternatives is offering a 1-day intensive professional development short course titled, 'Nonprofit Leadership: Maximizing Impact'. The course will be held on 27^th March, 2009 at Institute of Social Sciences, 8 Nelson Mandela Road, Vasant Kunj , New Delhi. The course fees is Rs 3,500/- which includes all course materials, lunch, tea/coffee breaks and the course certificate.

As a part of World Water Day events, the Ministry of Water Resources is organizing a one-day workshop at New Delhi on 23rd March 2009. The program is as below.

The calendar features images from the VigyanVijay's Eco-water literacy project titled  "Youth for Water". VigyanVijay's Eco-water literacy project titled "Youth for Water", in the progress of awareness to youth of different age groups, has evolved a network of institutions with water elements in the NCR- Delhi region. Among these sites, 12 of them have been selected for conducting Eco-water Trails (walks). At each of these selected sites, various key elements were identified for conducting "Water Trials"to the lead volunteers and teachers with keen interest for taking the messages to youth and the communities they are associated with.

A two day National Workshop on need for policy and legal norms for allowing freshwater flows in Rivers in India on January 3-4, 2009 at Bangalore ended with a unanimous demand that governments must allow continuous, sustained freshwater flows in all perennial rivers of India, whenever, a dam, diversion or hydropower project is planned, constructed or operated. Inaugurating the workshop on the morning of January 3, 2009, Shri L C Jain, former member, planning commission of India (and many other important posts), expressed his pain and anguish on the state of India's Rivers, "It is very disturbing that the acts of commissions and omissions of the authorities have ruthlessly, blindly, heartlessly lead todestruction of almost every major rivers of India. The hearts of the officials and ministers should throb for the millions depending for their needs and livelihoods on the rivers, but it seems that the stones of the South and North block buildings have entered their hearts." Quoting Gandhiji's agenda for the economic independence of India from what he wrote in the Young India on November 29, 1929, Jain said, Land, Water and Air cannot be subject of commerce, but the planners lock up the pain, hunger, malnutrition in the paragraphs of their five year plan documents and do not ensure their inclusion in their actual plans and programmes. He expressed his deep anguish that even the recommendations of the official policies and committees on ensuring freshwater flows in the rivers remain unimplemented.