News and Articles

Living rivers, dying rivers: Rivers in the Western Ghats
The sixth lecture in the series titled "Living Rivers, Dying Rivers" was delivered by Parineeta Dandekar and Pandurang Hegde. Posted on 10 Feb, 2012 04:12 PM

River stories from Maharashtra: Many morals to learn 

Parineeta Dandekar’s presentation began with an account of some statistics related to Maharashtra, the third largest state in India. Regarding the state of water resources in Maharashtra, she noted that of the five river basin systems, 55 percent of the dependable yield is available in the four river basins (Krishna, Godavari, Tapi and Narmada) east of the Western Ghats. These four river basins comprise 92 percent of the cultivable land and more than 60 percent of the population in rural areas. 45 percent of the state's water resources are from west flowing rivers which are mainly monsoon specific rivers emanating from the Western Ghats and draining into the Arabian Sea.

With 1821 large dams and more in the offing, Maharashtra has the maximum dams in the country (35.7%). However, the proportion of gross irrigated area vis a vis the gross cropped area at 17.8 percent is much lower than the national average of 44.6 percent. The contradictions from the state, which is home to the highest number of dams, were discussed. In nearly 70 percent of the state’s villages (around 27,600 villages), water is either not available within 500 metres distance, or within 15 metres below ground level or when available is not potable (World Bank, Promoting Agricultural Growth in Maharashtra, Volume 1, 2003).

Dandekar discussed the World Bank funded Maharashtra Water Sector Improvement Project (MWSIP) initiated in 2005 whose main components were establishment, operationalisation and capacity building of Maharashtra Water Resources Regulatory Authority (MWRRA); establishment of river basin agencies in Maharashtra; and restructuring and capacity building of the Water Resources Department. The MWRRA Act (2005) has been amended, taking out the clause for equitable water distribution, and granting the Cabinet the rights to have the last say about water entitlements. This has led to a diversion of water for irrigation from the vulnerable, suicide-prone Vidarbha region to thermal power plants. According to Prayas, “entitlements of more than 1500 MCM have been changed from agriculture to industries and cities”.

 

Free flowing stretch of river Seetha Nadi in the Western Ghats (Source: SANDRP)
Lift irrigation - Methods and practices: A manual by Mihir Maitra (AFPRO)
This book was published by AFPRO in order to provide guidance to technical staff members of grassroots organisations working in rural development, particularly in the field of agriculture. Posted on 09 Feb, 2012 12:07 PM

Accordingly, the book is written as a technical manual that remains accessible to people seeking to gain necessary expertise in the planning, design, installation and maintenance of lift irrigation systems (LIS). Cover page of Lift irrigation: methods and practices

Safe water dissemination workshop by PATH held on January 19-20, 2012 at New Delhi
PATH organized a Dissemination Workshop of its Safe Water Project at India Habitat Centre, New Delhi on January 19-20, 2012. Posted on 07 Feb, 2012 10:15 PM

Guest post: Amita Bhaduri

Through the Safe Water Project, it is seeking complementary solutions to sustainability and scale-up by exploring the potential for commercial enterprises to produce, distribute, sell, and maintain Household Water Treatment and Storage (HWTS) consumer products to low-income populations. The workshop shared learnings and tools from PATH’s Safe Water Project and presented the experiences of other organizations that are leveraging market-based approaches to achieve a sustainable public health impact.

WASH

Water quality monitoring of lakes in and around Bangalore city
This report by the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) both in Kannada and English highlights the deteriorating condition of the lakes in and around Bangalore city. Posted on 07 Feb, 2012 03:05 PM

It describes the efforts undertaken by the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board to launch a programme to monitor the water quality of some of the lakes in Bangalore so as to focus the attention of concerned governmental organisations to take up remedial measures to safe guard the water bodies of the "Garden City". 

The sources of pollution in lakes are mainly identified as:

Solar and wind based freshwater, saltwater and brackish water purification systems
This article presents how Trunz water systems has converted the vision of a simple self-sufficient water treatment system into practice. Posted on 05 Feb, 2012 07:12 PM

Article Courtesy: Trunz Water Systems

Alternative National Water Policy: Ramaswamy Iyer's response to comments by Rahul Banerjee and Chetan Pandit in EPW
Ramaswamy Iyer responds to comments in EPW by Rahul Banerjee and Chetan Pandit on his alternative National Water Policy Posted on 04 Feb, 2012 06:44 PM

Guest post: Ramaswamy R Iyer

This is in response to the comments made by Rahul Banerjee (“National Water Policy”, 13 August 2011) and Chetan Pandit (“Alternative National Water Policy: A Critique”, 10 September 2011) on my article “National Water Policy: An Alternative Draft for Consideration” (25 June 2011).

Epigrammatic Style

River basin planning for Ganga : Lessons from Murray-Darling Basin Authority
A report by Amita on the round table meeting held at India International Centre, New Delhi on the topic of river basin planning for Ganga on February 1, 2012. Posted on 02 Feb, 2012 09:15 PM

This interactive session with NGOs working on water and river issues was held in continuation of the “Living rivers, dying rivers” series at the request of AusAid. The meeting was chaired by Prof. Ramaswamy R. Iyer, Honorary Professor, Centre for Policy Research and an author of books and articles on water while the lead speaker Dr.

Community monitoring in water and sanitation projects - A facilitators manual by PRIA
This manual published by Society for Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA) aims at creating a basic understanding of the concept, principles and steps of community monitoring. Posted on 02 Feb, 2012 11:59 AM

This manual is based on the work that PRIA was involved in that included facilitating the process of social development and monitoring, and for guiding the process of developing models for community monitoring linked to community action, for child survival and development in six project sites in India.

This manual is divided into three key sections:

Planning as commoning - Transformation of a Bangalore lake - Paper published in the EPW
This paper in EPW deals with the transformation of a lake in Bangalore. Posted on 02 Feb, 2012 11:30 AM

This paper published in the Economic and Political Weekly argues that the transformation of human settlements over time can affect the relationship between communities and commons when, for example, social geographies change from rural to urban, or from traditional systems of management to modern bureaucratic systems.

Draft National Policy 2012 seems to help only vested interests, not the farmers or the environment says SANDRP
National water policies are extremely important legal and institutional tools as they reflect the basic intent and direction that the government is planning to take regarding water resources. Posted on 01 Feb, 2012 09:18 PM

Source: SANDRP