Contamination, Pollution and Quality

Featured Articles
December 16, 2022
Water Quality Management Course - Not just a training program
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
Creating jobs while managing air quality
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
Rivers of Bengaluru: A map-infographic reflects the rivers’ state
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
Himalayan lakes can potentially become long-term sinks of microplastics
Study looks at microplastic types in lakes of Ladakh
(Vinay Goel, Wikimedia Commons)
August 19, 2022
Polluted water, hitchhiking microbes and the hidden threat of cholera in India
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
India’s rivers in trouble due to high fertilizer load and heavy monsoons
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)
More power, but no water security to MP and Gujarat
News this week: Upcoming elections pose risk to water security of MP and Gujarat; No action taken by MoEF against illegal Garudeshwar dam in Gujarat; Karur's farmers to exercise NOTA.
Swati Bansal
Posted on 22 Apr, 2014 11:10 PM

More power, but no water security to MP and Gujarat, observes SANDRP
Sardar Sarovar Dam in Gujarat (Source: Wikimedia)
Goa-Karnataka dispute over Kalasa-Banduri project resolved
Policy matters this week: Tribunal resolves Goa-Karnataka dispute over water project; TN protests Karnataka's water scheme in Cauvery basin; Resolve Delhi-Haryana water dispute: HC to Centre.
Swati Bansal
Posted on 22 Apr, 2014 11:07 PM

Tribunal's order over Kalasa-Banduri Project brings respite to Goa and Karnataka
Mahadayi River in Goa (Source: Wikipedia)
Water woes of a different kind
Southwest Punjab negotiates deep waters as excess canal irrigation turns crop fields into fish farms.
Manu Moudgil
Posted on 19 Apr, 2014 01:03 AM

'Rabba Rabba Meeh Barsa, Saadi Kothi Daane Paa' (Make it rain God, so our homes remain filled with grains)”, is a popular song taught to children in Punjab. Not all of Punjab. In Southwest Punjab, farmers are praying for the monsoon to fail! 
Waterlogged fields in Udeekaran village
Gujarat among the most water-starved states in India:UN
News this week: Groundwater depletion makes Gujarat a water-starved state, says UN; Surat units all set to use recycled water; SANDRP urges Maharashtra CM to withdraw irrigation projects.
Swati Bansal
Posted on 15 Apr, 2014 09:10 PM

Gujarat among the most water-starved states in India: UN
Water scarcity in Gujarat (Source: WebGovernments)
Indian Railways gets notice for supplying poor quality water
Policy matters this week: Delhi HC issues notice to Indian Railways for supplying poor quality water; DJB ends the free water policy on April 1; Rajasthan govt plans to set up 1,000 RO plants.
Swati Bansal
Posted on 06 Apr, 2014 06:13 PM

HC issues notice to Indian Railways over poor quality water
Bottled water at railways (Source:India Rail Info)
Water privatisation, a failed model?
JUSCO, India's largest water supply developer, has failed to provide water connections in many parts of India. Water must be treated as a non-commercial entity if there is to be equity in access.
Makarand Purohit
Posted on 05 Apr, 2014 03:12 PM

Since water reforms were introduced in India in the 1990s, water privatisation has been propagated as a panacea to the sector's problems. 
JUSCO disconnected Nirmal Basti's water connection
Alternative farming method in Karnal
No-till agriculture, an alternative farming method, which helps prevent soil depletion as well as uses water efficiently, is being used successfully by farmers in Haryana.
Amita Bhaduri
Posted on 05 Apr, 2014 01:24 PM

Kalwaheri is a village of over thousand households comprising mostly of small farmers and landless people tucked away in Karnal, Haryana. The district, once the birth place of the Green Revolution, is now far from green.
Seed-fertilizer drill in use at Kalwaheri village
Fishing for shrimp in Haryana’s farmlands
Saline waters left Rohtak's farmlands fallow. After some research by local organisations, the farmers who were into agriculture, could soon move into aquaculture!
Amita Bhaduri
Posted on 05 Apr, 2014 01:08 PM

Mile after mile of saline lands line the Delhi-Rohtak-Bhiwani stretch of the highway. Here, the land wasn't always saline, it became that way thanks to canal irrigation. Farmers have used extensive surface water, which has led to an increase in groundwater levels. This leads to the twin problem of waterlogging and salinity.
Tiger shrimp production at Rohtak; Source: CIFE
Abolish manual scavenging: SC
Policy matters this month: SC directs all states to abolish manual scavenging; MoEF reduces ESA in its new draft notification on Western Ghats; Maharashtra all set to clean its rivers.
Swati Bansal
Posted on 31 Mar, 2014 11:14 PM

Abolish manual scavenging: SC
A manual scavenger in Chennai (Namathu Blogspot)
Deepor beel: Entangled in a net of dangers
Banning fishing in the beel has not only affected the sustenance of the Keot fishing community in Guwahati but it is also threatening the beel's very existence.
Usha Dewani
Posted on 25 Mar, 2014 08:52 PM

“Posua botah”, he said. “The wind is blowing from the west now so we cannot take you to the beel to show you how we catch fish. This wind cleans the water and we won’t get fish. 'Bhatial botah', when the wind blows from the east, the water turns muddy and the fish come up to the surface to breathe. That’s the best time to fish”, he explained.
Deepor Beel awaits a fresh gush of life
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