Contamination, Pollution and Quality

Featured Articles
December 16, 2022 In this article, we will understand how the WQM course is continuing to influence the needs of learners that come from diverse backgrounds. The course model also offers core insights to many others who would like to engage in a virtual training program.
During a WQM course, a field team member from INREM facilitating a demonstration
September 9, 2022 Highlights from a new report released by iFOREST
An old coal-fired power plant has been dumping vast quantities of ash out in the open for many years. (Image: Lundrim Aliu/ World Bank; CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
September 5, 2022 In an attempt to present a perspective on how rivers are used and abused, a map of the Bengaluru rivers illustrate how waste flows through natural river corridors, polluting the rivers and altering their status.
Vrishabhavathi river flow at Thagachguppe Bridge, Kumbalgodu (Image Source: Paani.Earth)
August 27, 2022 Study looks at microplastic types in lakes of Ladakh
(Vinay Goel, Wikimedia Commons)
August 19, 2022 Better access to clean water coupled with health education to bring about changes in behaviour are critical to prevent exposure to dangerous cholera bacteria that lurk in untreated waters.
The hidden threat of cholera in India (Image Source: IWP Flickr photos)
August 11, 2022 This could lead to water quality crisis reinforcing the need for basin-specific management strategies
Around the world, more than a fifth of nitrogen released by human activity ends up in aquatic ecosystems (Image: Wikimedia Commons)
Telangana’s groundwater crisis
A study from Telangana finds faulty power subsidy policies of the state and the resultant increase in tube wells with electric pumps as reasons for depleting groundwater levels. Posted on 15 Feb, 2017 06:50 PM

According to the data released by the Food and Agricultural Organisation’s AQUASTAT in 2010, at 250 billion m³ per year, India is one of the countries that uses groundwater the most. As high as 80 percent of its water is used for irrigation of which 65 percent is groundwater.

Declining groundwater levels and the impending crisis. (Source: India Water Portal)
Over 66 thousand habitations arsenic hit: Centre
News this week Posted on 13 Feb, 2017 09:08 PM

Arsenic present in drinking water at many habitations: Centre

People fight for their rights to clean and safe drinking water. (Source: IWP Flickr photos)
What WatSan got from the budget
Budget 2017-18: Which social sector schemes and ministries got major shares of the pie? An analysis. Posted on 09 Feb, 2017 12:26 PM

The much-anticipated budget this year treads largely on the path set last year with the rural sector receiving more allocation than its urban counterpart.

Water pots lined up for filling. (Source: McKay Savage, Wikimedia Commons)
Cleanliness broom: A village keeps its water clean
Sangrun village near Pune sets an example to all upstream villages by keeping its rivers pollution free. Posted on 07 Feb, 2017 10:36 PM

Located about 27 km from the city of Pune, Sangrun in Haveli taluka is a unique village. Situated in the rocky terrains of the Sahaydri hills, the village is at the confluence of three rivers--Mose, Ambi and Mutha--often referred to by the villagers as the Triveni Sangam or a place where three rivers unite.

Women get together for the cleaning drive at Sangrun. (Source: India Water Portal)
Wetlands in Uttarakhand degraded: WWF
News this week Posted on 06 Feb, 2017 08:02 PM

Negligence behind the degradation of Uttarakhand wetlands: WWF

Renuka lake in Uttarakhand. (Source: IWP Flickr Photos)
The search for a shelter
The sorry state of urban slums are testimony to poorly implemented policies for the rehabilitation of migrants. Posted on 01 Feb, 2017 08:46 PM

In the last few decades, India has seen an increasing number of people migrating from rural areas to urban cities in search of work and better living. These migrants often get employed in the informal sector as construction workers, vendors, domestic servants, etc. They also live in informal settlements, generally known as slums.

Residents struggle for a pot of drinking water at Bhuri Tekri, Indore.
Opposition to Teesta Stage IV hydel project
News this week Posted on 30 Jan, 2017 04:20 PM

People of Sikkim stand against Teesta hydel project

The people of the northeast India protest against dams. (Source: SANDRP)
No man's land
The state of the poromboke lands in Chennai signifies the deteriorating nature of its ecology. Saving them is important not just to preserve a tradition but also to safeguard growing urban spaces. Posted on 18 Jan, 2017 09:39 PM

From its rather benign origins connoting a type of land classification, the term poromboke has transformed into something grotesque over the years. This term had been in use since the Cholas denoting stretches of land reserved for shared communal use which cannot be bought or sold.

The Ennore creek choked by fly ash. (Screen grab from the Chennai poromboke paadal)
State of rivers goes south
Rivers turn muck in many stretches in south India calling for action before they dry up completely. Posted on 14 Jan, 2017 05:40 PM

At a time when the government’s attention is steered towards the concerns of the northern rivers like the Ganga and the Yamuna, it is seldom that the polluted rivers of the south India come up for discussion.

Water-borne litter in Salem, Tamil Nadu. (Source: Parvathisri, Wikimedia Commons)
Closing the loop
A village near Bengaluru sets an example of reusing wastewater by innovatively using the reject water from a community RO plant to eliminate fluoride contamination. Posted on 09 Jan, 2017 03:58 PM

With a total population of 1200, Sonnahallipura village in Hoskote taluk of Bangalore Rural district has 250 homes. This village was chosen by the Rotary Club of Bangalore, Indiranagar to start a micro-credit programme for 10 women’s self-help groups (SHG) and a low-cost sanitary napkin manufacturing unit.  

The RO plant in Sonnahallipura village.
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