Research Papers

Resuscitating a failed idea - Notes from Bihar – A paper in Economic and Political Weekly

This article questions the logic behind the implementing of the river interlinking project by using dams, embankments and canals, which have failed in Bihar to control floods

Dinesh Kumar Mishra

Posted on 07 May, 2012 11:36 AM

This article by Dinesh Kumar Mishra, Convenor of the Barh Mukti Abhiyan (movement for freedom from floods), Bihar in the Economic and Political Weekly states that the idea of a national interlinking of rivers needs to base itself on the past six decades’ experience of river and flood control measures.

Exploring the spatial associations between census based socioeconomic conditions and remotely sensed environmental metrics in Assam, North East India – A study by Gary R Watmough

Gary R Watmough’s PhD explored the spatial associations between socioeconomic variables like female literacy and employment in the non-agricultural sector derived from a subset of the 2001 Indian National Census and environmental metrics. The study was based on freely available remotely sensed satellite sensor data - Landsat Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) in Assam.

Gary R Watmough

Posted on 23 Apr, 2012 01:50 PM

Past studies have found associations between land and poverty, however these studies are usually focused on small areas using ground based studies.

Interlinking of rivers project: A disquieting judgement - Ramaswamy Iyer's perspective in the EPW on the recent Supreme Court decision

The Supreme Court judgement of 27 February 2012 directed the executive government to implement the river inter-linking project through a special committee which will take precedence over all other administrative bodies. In this article, first published in the Economic and Political Weekly, Ramaswamy Iyer explains why this backing of a 'potentially disastrous' project is disturbing. The article then calls for a reconsideration of this judgement.

Ramaswamy Iyer

Posted on 20 Apr, 2012 10:52 PM

1. Introduction
Two writ petitions were filed in 2002 on the subject of interlinking. The judgement finally passed in 2012 directs the implementation of this project. This judgement is disturbing for the following reasons:

Quantitative data on water quality: A compilation of papers that present physico-chemical analyses of various water sources in India

This post presents five papers that were recently published on the physico-chemical properties of water. These papers present the water quality data and analyse these figures. Locations in Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Assam and Gujarat are studied. Download the papers by clicking on the titles.

Kohinoor Arts Commerce and Science College Khuldabad

Posted on 24 Feb, 2012 08:31 AM

Assessment of physico-chemical quality of groundwater in rural area nearby Sagar city, Madhya Pradesh

This paper presents the results of forty groundwater samples collected from June 2007 to July 2010 in Gambhira and Baheria villages in Madhya Pradesh. The authors conclude that the ground water quality is degraded due to anthropogenic causes.

Once upon a lake: A report on the current status of the lakes of Mahadevpura constituency, Bengaluru with recommendations for restoration

Lakes of Mahadevpura constituency, Bengaluru- current status, changes in distribution and recommendations for restoration' by Harini Nagendra, Ramesh Sivaram, and S Subramanya presents the current status of the lake and canal system in Bengaluru’s Mahadevpura constituency, with details of individual lakes as well as recommendations for the restoration of these lakes as well as the entire system. This report has been shared with the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike, under which the management of these lakes is consolidated, to inform planning at a constituency and ward level.

Harini Nagendra

Ramesh Sivaram

S Subramanya

Posted on 23 Feb, 2012 05:55 PM

Map of the lakes in Bengaluru, source: ATREE

Trends in private sector participation in the Indian water sector: A critical review - A Water and Sanitation Programme publication

This report published by the Water and Sanitation Programme (WSP) involves a study that involved a review of PPPs in the urban water supply sector since the 1990s, explores the trends emerging in the sector and analyses the factors that have facilitated or impeded the development and implementation of PPPs in the sector.

Water and Sanitation Program (WSP)

Posted on 23 Feb, 2012 05:54 PM

The study also analyses the direction in which the sector is heading with respect to private sector participation. Since most PPPs are at early stages of operation, this study focuses only on learnings from PPP design and transaction. This study does not seek to assess the operating or financial performance of PPPs.

Climate variability and change in the Himalayas: Community perceptions and responses - An ICIMOD study

This document by the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) presents the findings of a study that was designed to investigate the impact of climate and socioeconomic change on the vulnerability and livelihoods of mountain people and their coping and adaptation strategies. ICIMOD conducted a community-based vulnerability and adaptive capacity assessment in four different areas that included Uttarakhand in northwestern India (two districts), Nepal (two districts), Eastern Bhutan (two districts), and North East India (one district in Assam and one in Meghalaya). The overall aim was to contribute to enhancing the resilience of vulnerable mountain communities in the Hindu-Kush Himalayan (HKH) region to change.

Amanda Manandhar Gurung

Brigitte Hoermann

Dhrupad Choudhury

Mirjam Macchi

Posted on 22 Feb, 2012 05:30 PM

The general objectives of the assessments were:

Prevalence of dental fluorosis and associated risk factors in school children from Kanyakumari district, Tamil Nadu - Paper published in the Indian Journal of Dental Research

This paper published in the Indian Journal of Dental Research describes the findings of a study that aimed at assessing the oral health status of 11-15 year old school children from Kanyakumari district. The survey focused on determining the prevalence and severity of dental fluorosis along with assessing the various risk factors involved. Nearly 12 million of the 85 million tons of fluoride deposits are found in India. It is therefore not surprising that dental fluorosis is endemic in 15 states of India. The highest rates of endemicity have been reported from Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Karnataka, Punjab and Tamil Nadu.

Ashwath Narayanan

Clement Roger

Jagan Kumar Baskaradoss

Posted on 22 Feb, 2012 01:51 PM

A total of 1800 children from all the nine blocks of Kanyakumari district from 6th to 10th standard were examined using type III examination. Dental fluorosis was present 15.8% of the study population and varied from as low as 1.4% to as high as 29.4% in different areas. There was a significant difference in dental fluorosis levels between rural and urban residents.

How valuable are environmental health interventions? - Evaluation of water and sanitation programmes in India - Paper published in the Bulletin of the World Health Organisation

This paper published in the Bulletin of the World Health Organisation presents the findings of a valuation study that estimated the economic value of the average “treatment effect” of a community demand driven water and sanitation programme. The study employed a unique combination of propensity-score “pre-matching” and large panel data to estimate the economic impacts of a multi-dimensional environmental health programme.

Christine Poulos

Jui Chen Yangb

Subhrendu K Pattanayak

Sumeet Patil

Posted on 21 Feb, 2012 06:11 PM

The paper informs that a number of epidemiological studies on the benefits of water and sanitation interventions have shown that diarrhoea can be reduced by 30–50%.

Rural water access: Governance and contestation in a semi-arid watershed in Udaipur, Rajasthan: A paper in EPW

Recent policy has encouraged a shift towards community management of water infrastructure through the creation of decentralised institutions.This also implies a shift from large to small structures and institutions. This however presumes the existence of a homogeneous 'community', and does not necessarily acknowledge the effect of various separate groups within such a community on these institutions. This paper published in Economic and Political Weekly (EPW) examines the impacts of this shift towards decentralised irrigation management on different groups residing in six villages in Rajasthan.

Lalitha Kamath

NC Narayanan

Posted on 21 Feb, 2012 05:19 PM

Study area

This study is carried out in micro-watershed No.19, which comprises six villages in Jhadol tehsil of Udaipur district in Rajasthan. A minor irrigation project completed in 1980 serves these six villages

Rainfall, storage levels in reservoir and groundwater use

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