News and Articles

'Alliance for 5 Life Sustaining Elements' ( ALSE), is a group of 6 senior NGOs (list  is available in the concept note) who are working in the rural development sector since 2 to 3 decades in Andhra Pradesh, have collective

We thank Sevabharati Karnataka, www.sevabharatikarnata.org from where we have picked up these files.

Environment Support Group (ESG), an NGO based in Bangalore draws attention to a landfill at Mavallipura village near Bangalore International airport which is being managed by a private operator.

Its been three weeks since I moved into my new rented apartment. It's a classic situation in which I am caught up in. I am a consultant working on "SUSTAINABLE WATER solutions", but I hardly have control on a leaky tap in my bath room. This leaky tap can fill up a bucket of water in a period of 2 hours. The capacity of my bucket will be around 30 liters.

 Climate Change has already arrived in India.  The recent flooding in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka is portentuous of the times to come.  As climate change accelerates, so will the unpredictability and intensity of the rainfall, giving rise to s

Prakash Kumar, an ecological sanitation consultant with UNICEF/Stockholm Institute provides an update on some recent work on ecological sanitation in India:

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1. We are in the process of supporting I I T Delhi for nutrient recovery project for developing complete process for converting liquid urine in to the crystalline form.
2. We are in the final stage of supporting SCOPE for demonstration of ecosan toilet in a govt. middle school at Musiri, Trichy.
3. Comprehensive evaluation of Tamilnadu ecosan project will be taken up shortly.
4. Last batch of training of CCDU officials have been completed . This year total 5 batches got training on ecosan.

  What’s With The Climate? Original article

https://www.downtoearth.org.in/full6.asp?foldername=20091015&filename=croc&sec_id=10&sid=1

Friends,

This being a water related portal, most of you reading this will be aware of how important is water to one. In recent days, you all might be seeing that there has been devastating floods and huge amount of destruction caused by Rain. It was really very painful for all of us to see the situation over in northern karnataka wherein people have lost almost everything - Houses and crops. For a farmer, water is everything. Without this, he cant even imagine his life.

Just imagine a farmer for whom water is something like a GOD suddenly becoming destructive. This is what has happened in many villages of northern Karnataka. Whole of Onion, sugarcane crops is completely blown away due to heavy rains.

We, a team of Volunteers from Aastha went to Ramdurga Taluk of Belgaum district to do our bit to all those who have been hit by heavy rains and floods. With the support of our Keane colleagues, we were able to collect huge amount of old clothes and donation. With the donation we received, we purachased, sarees, utensils, dhothi, towels, blankets, biscuits and with the assistance of Taluk tahsildar and local Village heads, we were able to support more than 200 families.

But, there were so many children crying out of hunger which made our hearts heavier than ever.

In the name of floods and heavy rain, it has made so many people homeless!!

 Biome Solutions, a Bangalore-based company working on sustainable architecture and buildings visited some flood affected areas in Guntur to observe the situation and see the suitability of applying "Ecological Sanitation", a new approach to sanitation. (Search on India Water Portal for "Ecological sanitation" for more information on this). Their report  after their travels can be seen below.

A point of interest is the picture of a flooded toilet. Pit toilets which are the norm in rural areas have the disadvantage that during floods the pit below the toilet (where the human waste accumulates over time) gets flooded and the toilet becomes unusable. The faecal matter can come out of the toilet pan and create a real mess which needs to be cleaned up. 

Read their report at: 

http://biomesolutions.blogspot.com/2009/10/visit-to-flood-affected-areas-in-guntur.html