News and Articles

These two documents from the KSPCB website, provide monthly water quality status data, for the rivers Tungabhadra, Cauvery and Kabini, monitored between January to June 2007, at various points along the rivers.

The data recorded are Temperature, pH, Dissolved Oxygen (DO), Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD), Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) and Faecal Coliform.

Love for green: Healing the hills with trees - Work of Sachidanand Bharti in Uttarakhand

From Tubaah (NDTV Network) website (November 26, 2008).

Sachidanand Bharti is known as the treeman in Uttarakhand, where he has been dedicatedly planting trees since the last 25 years. Hills in Uttarakhand were once barren, but now they are lush green, all due to his efforts. Bharti is a school teacher by profession but his real calling is as a climate crusader.

The mutton bearing lands of the nation are in trouble.

Guest Post by: Kurush Canteenwala

It is the week after Holi and we are sitting in Netsinh, 8 kilometers from Ramgadh, 65 kilometres from Jaisalmer City, in Jaisalmer District. Derawar Singh is throwing a daavat for the new tractor that he has purchased, and bakra has been cut for the occasion. Netsinh has a population of 250 families, all of whom are pashupalans, ‘animal caretakers’ and they have been in this location for at least 12 generations. One Net Singh, a common ancestor to most of the village, settled here. Amidst the half day long festivities, the conversation revolves around the growing evidence that they are in the midst of both, an ‘akaal’ and a deadly outbreak of disease. The numbers of bhed-bakri that are dropping dead has not been seen by the elders amongst them in 30 years.

The momentum for a better Global drinking Water Environment is increasing.

One way to achieve this Mission is to reduce the global High energy wasteful costs in producing Plastic Bottles, then transporting these products (so-called mineral,spring, volcanic Water) daily to Supermarkets, Newsagents & Corner stores.

This paper refers to the recent plans by the Government of India to undertake artificial recharge of groundwater in over-exploited areas of the country to meet the demands for water and raises certain fundamental questions about the methods used for analysing the hydrological and economic impacts of the interventions.

The paper discusses the evolution of Participatory Irrigation Management (PIM) in India, following the felt need for better irrigation management to prevent water scarcity in many regions in the country.

The irrigation sector was identified as a priority area in the various policy reforms that took place in the water sector in the country.These reforms emphasised the importance of involving end users/farmers in the operation and management of irrigation conveyance systems. 

This led to the establishment of the Farmers Managed Irrigation Systems (FAMIS), which aimed at improving the overall efficiency of the irrigation system, generate a sense of ownership among farmers and to improve the irrigation revenue recovery rate. This laid the seeds for Participatory Irrigation Management (PIM) in India.

Dear Users of IWP,

Content Courtesy: AlertNet

Activists from the Climate Revolution initiative in India have discovered a crucial tool in their battle to hold the government accountable on its climate policies: the country's landmark Right to Information (RTI) Act.

Read more about Climate Revolution's work on RTI on their website here.

In this paper, the authors examine the current debates around India's water crisis and its implications for food security in the country. The paper takes a critical look at the recent official assessments of groundwater exploitation in India in the context of these debates.

The paper proposes that there is a need to make a qualitative assessment of the magnitude of food security and water management challenges facing the country. It argues that two important factors drive the agricultural growth and food production in India. These include access and availability of arable land and water resources, which need to be examined and analysed with particular reference to their regional variations, to get a true understanding of the situation.

Sustainable Sugarcane Initiative (SSI) is an approach to the cultivation of sugarcane, that can reduce inputs - water, chemical fertilizers, seed material and farm space - while improving sugarcane production significantly. It also reduces crop duration and provides a longer period of the cane crushing season to the sugar industry.

This farm-based approach (as opposed to crop-based) also gives farmers options to grow intercrops, such as pulses to improve their income. Most importantly, SSI reduces the overall pressure on water resources and contributes to recovery of ecosystems. It conserves soil moisture, thereby allowing for growing of dryland crops in the same region.

SSI is inspired from the successful approach of System of Rice Intensification (SRI) paddy cultivation, which like SSI, originated from farmers and civil society to improve agricultural productivity while reducing pressure on natural resources.