News and Articles

Wastewater treatment plant - Need for an affordable solution for recycling wastewater
Water is a precious resource and has become precious commodity now. On going Industrialization, population & urbanization pose pressure on water availability. Posted on 01 Feb, 2011 01:20 PM

 Utility value of world’s freshwater resources like lakes and rivers are diminishing rapidly due to over exploitation & pollution. Groundwater, an alternative to surface water is also a natural victim. The rate of ground water drawing versus its re-charge has already disturbed the natural aquifer equations.

Revised composition of working group on rural domestic water and sanitation for the Twelfth Five-Year Plan (2012-2017)
Planning Commission has recently revised the composition of the Working Group on Rural Domestic Water & Sanitation for the Twelfth Five-Year Plan (2012-2017). Posted on 31 Jan, 2011 01:21 PM


A copy of the revised composition order is enclosed.

The need for creating a River Act - Anupam Saraph
Dr Rajendra Singh has repeatedly pointed out to few of us working with him that India does not have a River Act. Posted on 28 Jan, 2011 06:30 PM

Rivers, streams and lakes are the vital link in the water cycle that ensure that life as we know it can continue to flourish on earth. Unfortunately, as Dr Rajendra Singh points out, there is no river in India that has been spared from encroachment and pollution. The massive Ganga Action Plan has failed to clean the Ganges.

Our Oceans - A plastic soup - Earth Institute
"Humanity’s plastic footprint is probably more dangerous than its carbon footprint,” said Captain Charles Moore, who, in 1997, discovered the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Posted on 28 Jan, 2011 05:07 PM


Photo credit: cesarharada.com

Ensuring sustainable drinking water security in rural areas - PIB Release
The major thrust of the rural water supply programmes is to ensure provision of adequate drinking water supply to the rural communities. Posted on 28 Jan, 2011 04:40 PM

 Hitherto the role of the government was that of a service provider, with minimum involvement of the community in the planning process and the implementation activities. With the increase in demand due to public aspirations and decrease of availability of safe water it was considered essential to involve the community in the programme.

To achieve this, there was a paradigm shift and the Framework for implementation of National Rural Drinking Water Programme was revised in 2009. The Department appropriately addressed the soft issues related to facilitating the  active participation of PRIs in the process of planning, implementation and operation of schemes to achieve the goal of long term sustainability. It also ensured that the community gets continuous support and handholding so that they are empowered to take up the role of planning and implementing the systems also in addition to operating and maintaining them.

Eradication of manual scavenging - Recent PIB Releases
Manual scavenging is a dehumanizing and degrading practice and rehabilitation of manual scavengers is an issue of human dignity Posted on 28 Jan, 2011 04:17 PM

 The Union Minister of Social Justice & Empowerment Shri Mukul Wasnik recently inaugurated the two-day Consultation Meeting on Eradication of Manual Scavenging and Rehabilitation of Manual Scavengers.Speaking on the occasion, he called upon the States to work towards eradicating the shameful practice of manual scavenging by the end of the 11th plan. He regretted that despite various efforts made by the Central Government and the States, the practice of manual scavenging still exist in some parts of the country. The meeting was organized by the Ministries of Social Justice & Empowerment, Urban Poverty Alleviation and Urban Development.

Shri Wasnik said that we must address rehabilitation of manual scavengers to our utmost capacity.

Using media to address water issue in Rajasthan - Video Volunteers
A Video Trainer for Video Volunteers, Tara Misra spent a year at the Jal Chitran - the Community Video Unit (CVU) in Jodhpur, Rajasthan. Posted on 28 Jan, 2011 12:00 PM

During her yearlong stay, Tara trained at least twenty people into video production some of whom have succeeded in finding work in the local market as photographers, cameramen and wedding video makers. In this blog she gives a vivid account of the CVU, its producers and their work.

Regenerating natural resources and rural livelihoods in rainfed areas of India: A civil society consultation by WASSAN to discuss priorities for the twelfth five year plan
civil society consultation was held on “Regenerating natural resources and rural livelihoods in rainfed areas of India” by WASSAN at Hyderabad in December 2010, defining broad contours of twelfth plan with a focus on rural livelihoods the thrust area being policy framework, funding support, institutional arrangements Posted on 26 Jan, 2011 09:13 PM

Rainfed AgricultureA civil society consultation was held on “Regenerating natural resources and rural livelihoods in rainfed areas of India” by WASSAN at Hyderabad in December 2010 to discuss priorities for the twelfth five year plan. The Planning Commission, Government of India has been steering the process of development in India by conceptualizing five year plans and had sought inputs from civil society organizations, activists groups, networks of CBOs / NGOs, donors and others for preparing an approach paper for twelfth plan.

The objective of the consultation workshop was to contribute to the process of defining broad contours of twelfth plan with a focus on rural livelihoods the thrust area being policy framework, funding support, institutional arrangements etc., by -

  • Consolidating the lessons from good practices in promoting and protecting rural livelihoods in the country, that could be integrated in twelfth five year plan.
  • Systematically articulating issues and concerns (bottlenecks) in promoting and protecting rural livelihoods, which could be addressed in the twelfth five year plan.

Flaws in CWC database on Athirappilly project over Chalakudy river, Kerala revealed through RTI by Chalakudy River Protection Forum
The attached RTI filed to the Central Water Commission (CWC) regarding the river flow data of the Chalakudy river, reveals flaws in the river flow database. Posted on 25 Jan, 2011 04:36 PM

 

Performance audit of Accelerated Irrigation Benefit Programme (AIBP) by CAG (2010)
This report deals with the Comptroller and Auditor General of India's (CAG's) performance audit of Accelerated Irrigation Benefit Programme (AIBP) in 2010 Posted on 23 Jan, 2011 07:29 PM

The audit was conducted as a follow up audit of the earlier report on AIBP (No 15 of 2004) to assess whether the performance of AIBP had improved, and also whether the key issues highlighted in the earlier report had been appropriately addressed.

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