News and Articles

This document by WaterAid India, India highlights the poor water and sanitation situation in the urban slums in India, in the context of rapid urbanisation and the increase in the number of slums and slum dwellers in the cities.

Credits to: Ground Report India April-2010-Edition

Hindus have always believed that water from India's Ganges River has extraordinary powers. The Indian emperor Akbar called it the "water of immortality" and always traveled with a supply. The British East India Co. used only Ganges water on its ships during the three-month journey back to England, because it stayed "sweet and fresh."
Indians have always claimed it prevents diseases, but are the claims wives' tales or do they have scientific substance?

This brief report highlights the findings of an evaluation study conducted by WaterAid, India of the Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC), a national programme in India that ensures sanitation facilities in rural areas to eradicate open defecation. The study was conducted in the five states of Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Tripura, Karnataka and Haryana. This document highlights the findings of the evaluation study in the state of Bihar.

The paper reviews contentious issues related to water governance in the Narmada river basin like the riparian rights of States over apportionment of the use of the waters for large dam-centered canal irrigation and hydro-electric power development and the later disputes around the appropriateness of this model of development given the tremendous environmental and social costs associated with it.

This technical review paper puts forward robust watershed modeling options as an instrument of participative governance in the water sector, where there is common agreement among stakeholders on assessment of resource and on the manner in which it is to be utilized. Reasonably validated estimates are developed based on existing data and different scenarios are explored. The models offer a scope of assessing the potential changes in watershed hydrology and water availability due to watershed development projects, and can be used as a basis for planning and monitoring.

Guest post by Pranab, Sucharita & Priyabrat
Odisha State Center

With summer scorch intensifying, pinch of water woes and conflicts are becoming more painful in Odisha this year. While pollution continues to be the concern, scarcity and quality of drinking water across Odisha, both from rural and urban landscapes have become the major water news in vernacular media. With news of more and more tube wells going defunct/ drying up, water-supply systems becoming ineffective and quality of surface and ground water plummeting with metal and biological pollution, this issue of Water Feeder attempts to reiterate the urgency of thinking and action towards alternate management of our water resources. It also underlines grimmer months ahead, with summer intensifying further and hydrological year approaching its end.

Cap-Net is an international network for capacity building in Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM). It includes a partnership of autonomous international, regional and national institutions and networks committed to capacity building in the water sector.

The Cap-Net website has a number of resources on water management issues and includes:

This presentation deals with the projects implemented by Paharpur Business Centre and Software Technology Incubator Park (PBC-STIP), New Delhi towards reduction in potable water consumption through its projects on water closet replacement, waterless urinal and sensor tap.

The other potable water savings projects of PBC-STIP include dish washer (GE make), soap free water for gardening, use of native plant species, drip irrigation, hydroponics culture for growing plants and use of conductivity meter. Its initiative in water conservation runs across all verticals and it engages with the supply chain to sensitize them on water issues.

The presentation deals with Mahindra and Mahindra’s (M&M) work on optimal utilization of groundwater resources in its vehicle manufacturing plant at Zaheerabad, Andhra Pradesh. M&M had taken help from ICRISAT and Groundwater Department of GoAP to study the hydro-geology and topography of the estate and prepare ground water maps.

A time bound master plan of water augmentation was worked out to undertake activities like rainwater harvesting pits, new locations for borewells/ openwells/ percolation tanks, planting of less water intensive trees, re-usage and re-cycling of wastewater, rainwater channels to recharge the under ground water reservoirs and installation of drip irrigation.

This presentation describes the vision and strategy of PepsiCo, Roha, Maharashtra and its initiatives in the area of water conservation. The plant with three filling lines (bottling and canning) has tried to achieve positive water balance through water savings at plant level, water initiatives at community level and by promoting water conservation measures in agriculture.