Political

This presentation by Zarine Jamshedji and Shivakumar Shrikant Ranbhor from MMM College of Architecture

In this presentation Sakshi Jain,  Vastukala Academy and Suruchi Shah, TVB School of Habitat Studies, New Delhi highlighted the grim water situation in Delhi and have designed a groundwater recharge system which collects rooftop rainwater from settlements around an identified site and recharges it into the ground through adequate filter media.

Water is collected from rooftops and paved ground surfaces and after adequate filtering is recharged into the ground through recharge pits and trenches. Grey water from the dining hall is also filtered and recharged.

The industry that currently does not treat or recycle any water. The treatment tank occupies less than 3 m2 floor area and the entire system costs less than Rs 1,00,000 to implement.

In this presentation Debadutta Parida and Shivani Satpathy of CET Bhubaneshwar have taken up a 8.3 acre existing site in Rourkela with housing and residential use and an artificial pond to preserve groundwater, increase the water table level, prevent soil erosion and flooding.

Image and Content Courtesy: WaterAid

WaterAid India's WaterDrops newsletter is published quarterly. WaterDrops is an effort to showcase WaterAid India's work, ideas, issues and concerns with its partners, civil society organisations, international NGOs, UN agencies and other important players in the water and sanitation sector. The latest issue of WaterDrops focusses on issues of inclusion, including articles on Social exclusion in drinking water and sanitation, Caste based discrimination, Water as a tool for social control and Inclusive approaches in Bihar. The latest issue can be downloaded here: WaterDrops Issue - 12

Forwarded to the Portal by: Josh Paglia, SIWI

The UNDP Water Governance Facility (WGF) at the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI) is a unique initiative that supports developing countries in their efforts to strengthen water governance and reduce poverty through policy support and advisory services. The latest newsletter from the Water Governance Facility provides updates on activities initiated & much more.

Some highlights are: WGF in Action: From the World Water Forum

At the 5th World Water Forum, 15-22 March, Istanbul, WGF participated in several events. At the seminar Beyond Water Bribes: How to build a corruption-resistant water sector Dr. HÃ¥kan Tropp gave a key note presentation Corruption: The Missing Link in Water Governance. WGF also co-authored parts of the World Water Development Report, 2009: Water in a Changing World, and attended its launch 16 March.

Forwarded to the Portal by:Priyanka Kohli, ALC Image and Content Courtesy: ALC Access Livelihoods Consulting India Pvt. Ltd. is a development management organisation comprising a group of self motivated and passionate consultants with prime focus on enabling the promotion of Sustainable livelihoods for poor. ALC India organises as well as conducts Capacity building programmes for various organisations. ALC has published the Capacity Building programme Calendar for the financial year 2009-2010. The annual training calendar can be accessed here:ALC Annual Training Calendar

Forwarded to the Portal by: Deepa Gupta , IYCN One of the central features of JNNURM is community participation. Mandatory reform conditions such as Community Participation Law, to enable constitution of Area Sabhas within municipal wards and Public Disclosure Law are testimony to this fact. However, our experience shows community participation in various aspects of implementing JNNURM needs much greater attention than just the passage of laws for community participation. It is being increasingly realized that communities have little capacity to participate. Objective of the Fund: The primary objective of the fund is to catalyse community participation by supporting the building of community assets. In the long run, this should lead to increased community participation in the city's functioning thus enabling them to develop a sense of ownership on community assets and take on responsibilities for community-based exercises.

Guest Post by: Himanshu Thakkar, SANDRP

You may recall that following an appeal by SANDRP before the Central Information Commission, CIC had in January 2009 asked India Met Dept to review their policy and put up district wise monthly rainfall data for at least five years on its website. The relevant order of CIC can be seen here: CIC to IMD Review Info Policy and relevant Press Release from SANDRP can be seen at: CIC Directs IMD to Review Information Policy Now, IMD has put up the requested data on its website, see: http://imd.gov.in/section/hydro/distrainfall/districtrain.html IMD tells us that they are still in the process of collecting, collating the data and data of more districts would be uploaded as they are ready. We have also suggested to IMD to also provide annual figures (total of the monthly data) so that people get quick picture about the same. We also notice that links for some of the districts (e.g. Nalgonda in AP) are not working. Let us know if you have other feedback. We would like to thank all those who have also submitted their comments on the India Water Portal, supporting our position, the comments were submitted to IMD and CIC.