Citizens' Rights and Duties

Featured Articles
July 7, 2022 PMAY needs policy commitment to rehabilitate slums in small and medium cities of Gujarat
Need for legal framework for land rights in small and medium cities of Gujarat under PMAY (Image: Homes in the City)
December 6, 2019 A report by the India Rivers Forum highlights the need to focus further than the main stem of the Ganga river.
Distant snow clad mountains, the smaller hills and the Ganga river (Image: Srimoyee Banerjee, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0)
November 21, 2019 A report by NIUA brings to light the chinks in Jaipur's sewage system and suggests some solutions.
Routine check done by the sewage treatment plant staff in Delawas, Jaipur. The plant is part of the ADB best practices projects list. (Image: Asian Development Bank, Flickr Commons)
November 18, 2019 Bangalore's water utility is understaffed, under financed and unable to service the city's water needs.
Image credit: Citizen Matters
November 15, 2019 On World Toilet Day, we bring to light the labour of India’s sewer workers - those who do the unclean work that a Clean India relies on.
Photo credit: Sharada Prasad
Deadly chemicals from detergents end up in rivers
India needs to come up with a regulation on use of toxic chemicals in detergents. Posted on 06 Oct, 2019 10:18 AM

It’s ironic that detergents, which are meant for cleaning, flow into water bodies and pollute them with chemicals.

Nonylphenol, a toxic chemical found in detergents is known to enter the water bodies and even the food chain, where it bio-accumulates and can pose serious environmental and health risks (Image: Toxics Link)
Monsoon withdrawal delayed; more extreme weather events the new trend
News this week Posted on 02 Oct, 2019 11:01 AM

Monsoon’s withdrawal likely to begin around October 10: IMD

Image used for representational purposes only. Image source: India Water Portal on Flickr
River as a cultural mosaic
A dialogue that highlights the cultural essence of rivers Posted on 02 Oct, 2019 10:41 AM

"River conversations are critical to re-evaluate histories, reconnect civilisations, cultures and peoples, ideas and regions and open streams of thought for a future with exciting possibilities," says Kishalay Bhattacharjee, Associate Professor and Vice Dean, Jindal School of Journalism and Communication who has conceptualized a new series of quarterly river conv

Yamuna near Taj Mahal (Image: Flickr Commons, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
Solving the energy conundrum
Some lessons for transition to small scale solar energy in rural areas from the work of MAJLIS, a collective of dalit and adivasi women in Madhya Pradesh. Posted on 30 Sep, 2019 08:10 PM

Access to electricity is a key metric in development. In rural areas, getting on to the grid is a major step forward, improving literacy rates, agricultural productivity and overall household income. However, providing access to power derived from traditional sources like coal, diesel and hydropower, are proving unsustainable in the short and long term.

There has to be a policy shift for decentralised off grid or distributed generation catering to small communities. (Image: MAJLIS)
The Water Future Conference in Bangalore: Towards a Sustainable Water Future
The recently concluded 4 day conference in Bangalore looked at the current state of global water resource challenges & future pathways to achieve the SDGs, while ensuring equity in access to all. Posted on 30 Sep, 2019 12:38 PM

The Water Future Conference in Bangalore last week, saw many from the scientific community, academia, research, civil society and the media come together to discuss the state of water resources across the world and in India, as well as future pathways and scenarios, and different technological a

Charles Vorosmarty, Chair, COMPASS Initiative, Water Future at the opening plenary on advanced water system assessments to address water security challenges of the 21st century.
Applying ethics to water management, to ensure equity in access to all
A workshop in Bangalore explored water ethics and how it can be applied to water management. Posted on 26 Sep, 2019 03:57 PM

At a workshop on Water Ethics leading up to the Water Future Conference in Bangalore in September 2019, the idea of, and the need for an ethical framework for water management and legislation was discussed.

From left to right - Siddharth Krishnan (ATREE), David Groenfeldt (Water Culture Institute), Sara Ahmed (University of Cambridge), Veena Srinivasan (ATREE), KJ Joy (SOPPECOM)
India’s deepening water crisis
Making false doomsday claims of a water crisis could support problematic mega solutions, which could lead to more problems. Posted on 25 Sep, 2019 02:50 PM

The last few months have seen much debate and discussion on the fast approaching Day Zero, with claims that taps in 21 major Indian cities will dry up.

India's demand for water will exceed supply by a factor of two by 2030, as per a NITI Aayog report (Image: Vinoth Chandar, Flickr Commons (CC BY 2.0))
Zila Swachh Bharat Preraks - India's sanitation warriors
Tata Trusts, through its Tata Water Mission initiated the ZSBP program to help the Swachh Bharat mission achieve its goals. Posted on 24 Sep, 2019 11:45 AM

In 2014, the Government of India launched the Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) to accelerate efforts in achieving universal sanitation coverage. The issue of access to safe drinking water and sanitation facilities also became a major Sustainable Development Goal (SDG-6) when the United Nation set 17 global goals in 2015 under the 2030 Agenda.

For Akshant Nagar, 23, schoolchildren turned out to be the biggest driving force in helping to make Pipariya block in Hoshangabad district of Madhya Pradesh become open defecation free (ODF) in just seven months. Image credit: Tata Trusts
How to restrict crops to geographically sustainable areas: The case of arecanut in Tumkur
Arecanut farmers in Karnataka are reeling from dipping groundwater levels and infrequent water supply for irrigation. In this article, some solutions are proposed. Posted on 13 Sep, 2019 12:19 PM

Arecanut is generally grown in the Malnad area of Karnataka, which receives high rainfall. However, it is also grown in dry land areas of Tumkur district, also in Karnataka, using groundwater.

Young arecanut trees grown in drylands of Tumkur region (Gubbi Taluk, Hodalur Village) Pic Credit: Chandana Eswar
Thousands ignored while Sardar Sarovar dam fills to capacity
News this week Posted on 10 Sep, 2019 02:50 PM

Sardar Sarovar dam fills up while ignoring thousands in submergence area

Sardar Sarovar Dam via Wikimedia Commons
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