News and Articles

How soil and water conservation transformed the lives of people in a remote village - The case of Gulliyada village in Talavadi block of Erode district, Tamil Nadu

Soil and water conservation are necessary to make agriculture self sufficient, sustainable and viable especially in hilly regions that are hard pressed for these resources. MYRADA (Mysore Resettlement and Development Agency), as an institution, is involved in a big way in various activities that engage local people in planning for the development of their area in the three southern states. In Erode district of Tamil Nadu, the Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK) has been instrumental in bringing about a marked change in the topography of the region.

Seetha Gopalakrishnan

Posted on 09 May, 2012 04:12 PM

Author: Seetha Gopalakrishnan

MYRADA and the Krishi Vigyan Kendra in Erode district, Tamil Nadu

Privatisation of urban water supply in Khandwa, Madhya Pradesh - An update from Manthan Adyayan Kendra

Khandwa is a medium-sized town located in western Madhya Pradesh. The 'Khandwa water supply augmentation project' has been awarded to Vishwa Utilities Pvt. Ltd., a Hyderabad based company under the Urban Infrastructure Development Scheme for Small and Medium Towns (UIDSSMT) on a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) basis for water supply augmentation to the town, for the next 25 years. The project has been under execution since October 2009. The private party would supply water to the town @ Rs 11.95 per KL. The raw water for this would be pumped from a reservoir 51 km, away from the town. This report by Gaurav Dwivedi and Rehmat, Manthan Adhyayan Kendra deals with the privatisation of urban water supply in the town.

Gaurav Dwivedi

Rehmat

Posted on 09 May, 2012 09:53 AM

Startling conditionalities

Teesta, Tipaimukh and riverlinking: Danger to Bangladesh-India relations – A paper in Economic and Political Weekly

This paper in the Economic and Political Weekly (EPW) by Dr. Imtiaz Ahmed, University of Dhaka deals with the Supreme Court’s verdict directing the Government of India to implement the interlinking of rivers. The article opines that the judgement seems to have overlooked the regional and international implications of what the Indian Court strangely considers “the rivers of the country”.

Imtiaz Ahmed

Posted on 06 May, 2012 11:25 AM

Bangladesh shares 54 rivers with India. Any unilateral action by India on any of its international rivers will degrade its relations with its neighbours while also adversely affecting its ecology, economy and society. Bangladesh being a riverine and a lower riparian country remains sensitive to matters of water, whether inland or maritime.

The state and fate of Himalayan glaciers - A paper published in the magazine Science

This paper published in the magazine Science highlights the importance of the Himalayan glaciers, the current uncertainties in relation to the status of glaciers, their implications for water resources in the region and the prevailing public and scientific debate around them. Current evidence indicates that most Himalayan glaciers are losing mass at rates similar to glaciers elsewhere, except for emerging indications of stability or mass gain in the Karakoram.

Posted on 05 May, 2012 06:21 PM

The paper argues that there is a poor understanding of the processes affecting the Himalayan glaciers in the context of the diversity of climatic conditions and the extremes of topographical relief within the region, making projections speculative, which can have a significant impact on the future of water resources in the area. It is thus important to have more information on the status of the glaciers in the Himalayan region.

Effects of industrial and agricultural activities on properties of groundwater - A paper published in the Bulletin of Environment, Pharmacology & Life Sciences

This paper published in the journal Bulletin of Environment, Pharmacology & Life Sciences describes the findings of a study that was carried out to check the effects of industrial and agricultural activities on the groundwater properties in terms of heavy metal concentration. Polluted groundwater is defined as groundwater that has higher concentrations of dissolved or suspended elements than the maximum permissible concentrations fixed by national or international standards for drinking, industrial or agricultural purposes. Sometimes natural groundwater pollution may also occur because of the presence of the respective substances above the prescribed limits.

Sukhdev Kundu

Posted on 05 May, 2012 03:24 PM

The main sources of groundwater contamination are industrial, municipal and agricultural wastes (both solid and liquid), rocks, sludge and slimes, refuse, pesticides, herbicides, effluents from livestock and poultry farms. Many pollutants are even able to penetrate into groundwater aquifers.

Septic tanks or death tanks! We need to improve sanitation facilities to eradicate the inhuman practice of manual scavenging

Today India is looking at permanent membership in the UN, and is already a prominent member of several international organisations like SAARC and BRICS.Many big MNC’s have already made their homes in India and many are in the process to do so. India is also achieving great heights in industries and in the defence sector.
By looking at these developments we can say that indeed India is progressing at a very fast pace! But to an extent it is a artificial or illusion.
Still India is thousand years behind if we compare it with the developments of western countries , A country which is in 21st century is still bound by the shackles of caste & religious atrocities, honour killings , manual scavenging for thousands of years, then how can we say that this country is developing in a true sense?

Gagandeep

Posted on 05 May, 2012 03:18 PM

Author : Gagandeep

“We have to end the biggest dehumanising activity called manual scavenging”

Occupational health hazards in sewage and sanitary workers - A paper published in the Indian Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine

This paper published in the Indian Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine sheds light on the occupational health hazards among sewage and sanitary workers. The paper informs that manual scavenging still persists in our country and the situation of the manual scavengers has continued to remain unchanged, despite the fact that the Employment of Manual Scavengers and Construction of Dry Latrines (Prohibition) Act, 1993, is in enforcement. This Act provides for the prohibition of the employment of manual scavengers as well as construction or continuance of dry latrines and for the regulation of construction and maintenance of water-seal latrines for assuring the dignity of the individual.

Rajnarayan R. Tiwari

Posted on 04 May, 2012 03:59 PM

Working conditions of the sanitory workers have found to remain unchanged over the years and pose a considerable risk to the dignity and health of the workers.

Fluorosis mitigation in Dhar, Madhya Pradesh: Experiences of monitoring fluoride levels in drinking water and human urine, and implementing mitigation measures

Vasudha Vikas Sansthan with the help of Water Aid and with the technical support of Peoples’ Science Institute undertook fluoride testing and fluorosis mitigation programme in Tirala, Dharampuri and Umarban blocks of Dhar district in Madhya Pradesh. The program began on November 5th, 2008. The data generated and major results of the research undertaken under the programme is presented in this report.

Anil Gautam

Posted on 04 May, 2012 08:48 AM

Background:

62 million people in India, including 6 million children suffer from fluorosis. The root cause of this is excessive fluoride (>1.5mg/l) in groundwater, as is found in 20 states across India.

Objectives:

The Supreme Court and its directions on Interlinking of Rivers (ILR): India and her people will be greatly benefited by its implementation

The Supreme Court has recently given direction to Government of India to implement Inter Linking of Rivers (ILR) within a time frame as it brings many benefits to our people. Many feel that ILR has some inherent problems including reluctance of the States. But Supreme Court wants the net working of rivers (NWR). This article by J Prabudoss looks into the issue.

J. Prabudoss

Posted on 03 May, 2012 07:03 PM

Author : J. Prabudoss

Viability of Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) projects in India: Study of Chanju CDM project in Chamba district,Himachal Pradesh

The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) is introduced by US government as flexibility mechanisms under Kyoto Protocol and allows developed countries to meet their emission reduction commitments by promoting clean development in developing countries. As a policy mandate, it aims to design project-based mechanisms to reduce emissions. These reductions are produced and then subtracted against a hypothetical baseline of emissions which are predicted to occur in the absence of a particular CDM project. India as a signatory of this protocol have been registered 2313 projects up to August 2010, out of these, 64 projects are of hydro power generation and Chanju power project of 36 MW is one of the CDM project in India. Dr Mohinder Kumar Slariya in this article showcases the primary data research based view point, which he presented in the "International Scientific Conference" at Hohenheim University, Germany.

Dr. Mohinder Slariya; Post-doc Fellow

University of Turku

Finland

Posted on 03 May, 2012 06:30 PM

The present paper is an attempt of the researcher to make a comparative analysis between the expected benefits received by the executing agency under CDM and the actual benefits people are expected to receive from Chanju-I Hydro Electric Project.

Subscribe to News and Articles