People and Organisations

Dam' safety and management!
A recent accident that killed 24 students in Himachal Pradesh has pointed fingers yet again to the much neglected area of dam safety. More than assigning blame, it's time we assigned responsibility. Posted on 24 Jun, 2014 09:10 PM

Twenty four students were washed away in the Beas river in Himachal Pradesh earlier this month. The students, all from an engineering college in Hyderabad, were picknicking in the river on their way back from the tourist town of Manali. While cooling their heels in the knee deep water and clicking photographs, they missed the rising wall of water that engulfed them in minutes.

Dam induced terror (Source: Matu Jan Sangathan)
The way ahead to reviving the Ganga
The newly formed Ministry must take into account the entire canvas of river science before it creates another action plan to rejuvenate the Ganga. Posted on 17 Jun, 2014 09:15 PM

Scene one, pertaining to promises to clean and revive the Ganga is over. The country is now watching the more complex and challenging scene two unfold. The challenge is for those who are directly involved in fulfilling the promise made by India's fifteenth Prime Minister, Narendra Modi.

Ganga near Gadmukteshwar
Doomed by displacement
The Hirakud dam in Odisha was supposed to control flooding and bring people water and power. Instead, it has taken away their livelihoods and only brought them hardship and misery. Posted on 11 Jun, 2014 09:07 PM

The Hirakud Dam project is the oldest of its kind in India. The dam was built across the Mahanadi river about 15 kms upstream of Sambalpur in the state of Odisha. It is the first major multipurpose river valley project in post-independent India and also one of its longest.

Hirakud, India's oldest dam
Women water managers of Chopriali
Galvanised by the formation of a Mahila Mangal Dal and by some training, these women in a small village in Uttarakhand design, construct and manage their own water sources and structures. Posted on 04 Jun, 2014 01:21 PM

"We did everything ourselves", said the ebuillent Bhuvaneshwari Devi. "We took the cement up, carried the sand, everything! And we even told them where to place the tank"! She went on to narrate how the women's group of which she is a member, taught the men of the village that siting a tank in the stream will place it in danger of being washed away.

The tanks and canals that form the supply system
What is your water footprint?
How much water does it cost to make a product? Will calculating this cost or the 'corporate water footprint' help make businesses more water sustainable? Posted on 31 May, 2014 12:11 PM

“When the well is dry, we know the worth of water.” ― Benjamin Franklin

Global water footprint
Sunshine water in Uttarakhand
Churerdhar, a tiny mountain village, used solar energy to solve its drinking water problems. Posted on 21 May, 2014 10:50 AM

Churerdhar, a mountain village in Uttarakhand suffered from a lack of safe potable water. Here, hand pumps used to dry up in the summer and a natural spring 1.5 km away from the cluster of homes that housed 300 people, was the only other source of water. That was its plight in 2002. 

Existing water sources 

Sunshine water for Chureddhar Village, Uttarakhand
The hundredth farmer
In a situation where 99 out of 100 farmers would've been stumped, Soban Singh waters his fields and inspires his fellow farmers using a tiny bit of seepage and a massive amount of perseverance. Posted on 20 May, 2014 11:22 PM

I remember a farm pond that I once visited in Maharashtra. It shone like a square sapphire in that dry land, securely held by tall earth embankments. On the other side of one of those embankments was a parched and dying field. When I asked the farmer why it wasn't irrigated, he asked me to give him a pump.

Carefully mulched and fed by drip irrigation
Open Happiness' or open a can of worms?
Nandlal Master has been waging a decade-long struggle against the many injustices carried out by the Coca Cola factory in Mehdiganj, Uttar Pradesh. Listen to his story. Posted on 16 May, 2014 08:11 PM

1999 was an interesting real estate year for Mehdiganj village in Uttar Pradesh. Someone began buying up land adjoining a soft drink factory owned by the Parle Company. They also began buying land from the farmers except the farmers had no idea as to whom they were selling the land to. As the boundary wall rose up, problems arose too.

Nandlal Master - fighting Coca Cola since 2002
More crop per drop in the predicted weak monsoons
The monsoon is often regarded as the driver of Indian agriculture. What farmers need are simple solutions to reduce their vulnerability to the fickle rains. Posted on 15 May, 2014 03:28 PM

Water and agriculture are closely linked in our country where 60% our net sown area is rain-fed. Indian agriculture is undoubtedly dependent on the monsoon where good rains have meant enhanced agricultural production, and a weak or bad monsoon has lowered production thereby impacting the economy.

Water and agriculture ( Source: Wikipedia)
Small steps to win the big battle against water scarcity
Communities across India have created many initiatives to tackle water scarcity. While costing lesser than govt programmes, these measures have also created a bigger local impact. Posted on 11 May, 2014 09:29 PM

The recent World Water Development Report by the United Nations has projected that India's demand for water is likely to surpass availability by 2050.

Every drop counts (Vinoth Chandar via Flickr)
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