Karnataka

The recent floods in North Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh have caused widespread devastation.Government and civil society organisations have responded quickly and relief work is going on on a wide scale. There will be a high degree of activity in relief and  rehabilitation for the next 6 months for sure.

The proceedings of the Consultation on “Emerging Water Regulatory Frameworks and Related Reforms in Water Governance in Karnataka” that was held on 02 September 2009 at Bangalore. Please do send us your comments.

In continuation with our efforts within Karnataka we have taken up two initiatives:

1. Review of the ongoing reform processes in Urban Water Governance, with a special focus on the establishment of the Karnataka Urban Water Supply and Sanitation Council.
2. Preparation of a general reader on water governance in the form of a booklet with a special focus on regulatory reforms in Karnataka, available both in Karnataka and Kannada (targeted at non-academic audiences such as NGO's and CSO's).

Background:  Water Literacy Foundation (WLF) is a Citizen Sector Organization is carrying out pioneering work in Rain Water Harvesting in Urban,Industrial,Rural area and is recognized widely in Social networks.  WLF is actively participating in governmental and private projects that harvest water for rural and urban needs.

NATIONAL CONFERENCE ON URBAN WATER MANAGEMENT: CHALLENGES AND OPTIONS
13-15th December 2009, Bangalore, India

A National Conference on Urban Water Management: Challenges and Option is being organised on 13-15th December, 2009 in Bangalore.

In 2008-2009 Arghyam conducted an extensive household survey of water and sanitation in rural Karnataka, covering 17,200 households and 172 Gram Panchayats.

A map of the affected areas can be seen at this URL

http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/(db900SID)/LPAA-7WKB6S/picture/0.84?OpenElement&FieldElemFormat=gif

and is also attached to this blog entry

The below is a brief summary of the events:

OVERALL SITUATION

Heavy rains due to depression in the Bay of Bengal and low pressure from the Arabian Sea from Sep tember 29 to October 2 have caused flash floods in north Karnataka and the Rayalaseema region of Andhra Pradesh, affecting nearly two million people and claiming 210 lives. In Karnataka, 15 districts are affected and 161 people have nearly tw millionperished. In Andhra Pradesh, five districts were hit by the flash flood and 49 people have lost their lives. However, of the two million, 1.4 million people affected are from Andhra Pradesh.

Oxfam India has sent teams to survey and gauge the situation in flood affected areas. They point out that as these are mostly arid areas, they are particularly ill-prepared to deal with floods.

Read the full article here:  http://bit.ly/OME0a

SPARSH is a new initiative of Engineer – Golden Jubilee Edition which aims at developing a rural region linking it with a team of NGOs and sponsors realizing an economically feasible and sustainable idea. In this effort. the students of National Institute of Technology Karanataka, Surathkal have identified a village called Munda about 7 km from the campus.

Conservation and Management of Urban Lakes
Brainstorming Session on Conservation & Management of Urban Lakes 26th Sept 09

WE have a farm in Bangalore North, Hennur Road, with a number of borewells that have been unsuccesful or dried up. About 5 years back we built a dam across a Nalla (Natural erosion)in the farm, to collect rain water. The size of the Nalla is 300x20 ft approx with a water depth of over 7ft in good rainfall time. This year for the first time, thank God, it has not dried up.