News and Articles

Digital tools to tackle water scarcity
FRANK Water and Arup launch the WASH Connect mobile app and WASH Basins Toolkit to empower local government and communities to jointly manage water resources. Posted on 30 Jun, 2020 08:57 AM

India has the highest population of any country in the world without access to safe drinking water and adequate sanitation. According to WaterAid and the World Health Organisation (WHO), 163 million people still lack access to safe water and millions still defecate in the open.

About 200,000 people die each year in India from diseases related to unclean water (Image: FRANK Water)
NWP 2020: How is India’s youth reimagining its water future?
IYWN submits its recommendations to the NWP working committee in June 2020. Posted on 29 Jun, 2020 03:23 PM

Water, for India, has profound impacts on the health and wellbeing of our citizens; perhaps more so, considering how intertwined it is with various facets of our life, be they social, economic, gender-based, political, or even religious.

IYWN pushes for water equity and sustainability in NWP 2020 (Image: Barefoot Photographers of Tilonia, Flickr Commons, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
Boosting rural livelihoods using agriculture and MGNREGA amidst Covid-19
Strengthening farm and non-farm livelihoods can pave the way for food and nutritional security. Posted on 28 Jun, 2020 10:13 AM

As the Covid-19 pandemic was leaving deep scars around the globe, it forced governments to take measures to protect citizens and ensure food security for its people. In India, initially, it looked as if the remote rural areas would skirt the pandemic.

MGNREGA can play an important role in integration of migrant labour in the rural economy (Image: Ashutosh Nanda)
Impact of the pandemic on the endemic
Japanese Encephalitis and Acute Encephalitis Syndrome could spread in the shadow of the pandemic. Posted on 25 Jun, 2020 03:08 PM

While the pandemic Covid-19 has completely taken over the health infrastructure in the country and all eyes were on it, the annual havoc created by Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES), popularly known as Chamki Bukhar is already making news in districts of Bihar.

Will our fragile health care systems and infrastructure be able to deal with the burden of diseases like Japanese Encephalitis? (Image: Gorakhpur Environmental Action Group)
UP tops in providing employment under MGNREGS
Policy matters this week Posted on 25 Jun, 2020 07:38 AM

UP emerges as the top state in the country to give employment under MGNREGS

MGNREGS helps to reduce rural distress in times of Covid-19 (Source: IWP Flickr photos)
India to have more rains, floods and warm days in the coming century: Report
News this week Posted on 25 Jun, 2020 07:28 AM

India's first climate change assessment report warns of heavy rains, more floods and warmers days

Country is going to face more rains, floods and warm days in the coming century (Source: IWP Flickr photos)
Protecting mangroves, to deal with cyclones
Mangroves not only help India economically by protecting coastal assets during cyclones, but also help by protecting people in densely populated coastal areas. Posted on 23 Jun, 2020 04:36 PM

Coastal flooding is rising in India and recent evidence shows that as high as 36 million Indians will be at the risk of chronic flooding by 2050.

Mangroves of the Sundarbans. (Source: Nature Environment & Wildlife Society - NEWS)
Flood threat looms amid Covid-19 in Bihar
Can Bihar deal with the double whammy of Covid-19 and the annual floods? Posted on 23 Jun, 2020 03:09 PM

Bihar’s annual floods are right around the corner and there is a fear that the flood hazard will collide with the Covid-19 pandemic and amplify it in a manner that emergency responses to both will get disrupted. The state’s strategy to mitigate the effects of flooding needs to be updated in light of the deadly pandemic.

An aerial view of flood affected areas in Kosi river, Bihar on August 28, 2008 (Image: Publi.Resource.Org; Flickr Commons (CC BY 2.0))
Draft EIA 2020 Notification- A critical review
A statement that carries out a detailed and critical review of the extant EIA governance system since 1994 in the country, with a specific reference to the draft EIA 2020 notification. Posted on 22 Jun, 2020 07:27 PM

The Steering Committee (SC) of the Forum for Policy Dialogues on Water Conflicts in India (Water Conflict Forum in short) has carried out a detailed and critical review of the extant Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) governance system since 1994 in the country, with specific reference to the draft EIA 2020 notification which is up for public comments. 

Landfills are a threat to the environment. (IWP Flickr photos; photo used for representation only)
Elected women leaders of gram panchayats: Critical roles in Covid-19 response
Women leaders of gram panchayats have ideated and executed solutions innovatively and instinctively on dealing with Covid-19 pandemic. Posted on 17 Jun, 2020 01:33 PM

Radha Devi, the sarpanch of Bhadsiya, Nagaur tehsil, Rajasthan dissuaded the principal of the government school from forcing girl students to fetch water for mid-day meal preparation during school hours and sent these girls back to their classrooms.

Women are emerging as effective leaders who can play constructive roles in containing the Covid-19 spread (Image: UN Women/Gaganjit Singh; CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
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