Demand and Consumption

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November 8, 2020 The National Hydrology Project has created a national platform for water data and is working to enhance the technical capacities of agencies dealing with water resources management.
Breakthrough cloud computing facilities and remote sensing applications have helped showthe filling pattern of a water body (tank or reservoir) through freely available satellite imagery at an interval of five days.  (Image: Maithan dam, Wikimedia Commons)
December 13, 2019 A study highlights the need to scale down the export of rice, maize, buffalo meat and other items to conserve groundwater in India.
A farmer uses a hosepipe to irrigate crops at her farm in Nilgiris mountains, Tamil Nadu (Image: Hamish John Appleby for IWMI, Flickr Commons, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
December 2, 2019 Water stewardship is an approach predicated on the concept that water is a shared resource and so water risks are also shared risks that everyone in a catchment will face
Picture credit: Romit Sen
November 18, 2019 Bangalore's water utility is understaffed, under financed and unable to service the city's water needs.
Image credit: Citizen Matters
October 25, 2019 Groundwater use has doubled in Pune. Comprehensive mapping of groundwater resources and better management and governance is the need of the hour.
Groundwater, an exploited resource (Image Source: India Water Portal)
October 24, 2019 While ice stupas have been hailed as sustainable solutions to the water problems of Ladakh’s villages, the locals think otherwise.
Ice Stupas near Phyang monastery (Image Courtsey: Sumita Roy Dutta, Wikimedia Commons)
Gujarat tops NITI Aayog’s water index for second time
India’s water crisis likely to worsen as demand projected to exceed supply by 2050, says report Posted on 09 Sep, 2019 08:53 AM

NITI Aayog, the Government of India’s policy think tank, recently released the second edition of the Composite Water Management Index to enable effective water management in Indian states. It warns that the country will lose 6% of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by 2050 because of a water crisis.

With water outages, shortages and availability, one sees these pots in every home, village, by the rainbow-hued hundred in shops, and even in precarious bundles balanced on the bikes of travelling wallah pot-sale vendors in Chennai. (Image: McKay Savage, CC BY 2.0)
Experts say cold desert regions need special attention
Desertification at high altitudes increasing due to melting of glaciers, causing concern and a push to devise preventive adapation strategies. Posted on 06 Sep, 2019 10:38 AM

Greater Noida, September 5 (India Science Wire): Degradation of land, which leads to the process of desertification, is not limited to arid and semi-arid areas but is also visible in high altitude regions that get very little rainfall and are known as cold deserts.

A view of cold desert in Ladakh (Photo: Annu Anand)
Water Talk Series at TISS, Mumbai on 7th September 2019
A one day event on "The Discourse of Flood and Drought in India - The Question of Life, Livelihood and Ecology."
Posted on 04 Sep, 2019 02:30 PM

Team Malhar, students of Water Policy and Governance (WPG) and alumni of Tata Institute of Social Science, Mumbai in partnership with RRA Network proudly present the third annual session of "WATER TALK SERIES" on 7th September, 2019 at TISS, Mumbai

Dams, in distress?
It is time water policies in India acknowledge that many large dams have aged and can no longer be looked upon as the only path to water security. Posted on 03 Sep, 2019 11:15 AM

India is reeling from a severe water crisis. Large parts of the country are experiencing water-stress worsened by the ever increasing demand for water due to population growth, rapid urbanisation, changing lifestyles and consumption patterns, inef?cient use of water and climate change.

Hirakud, India's oldest dam (Image Source: India Water Portal on Flickr)
Water in Pune’s urban quagmire
A study develops a peri-urban and rurban water and sanitation index for Pune. Posted on 02 Sep, 2019 12:01 PM

Drinking water programs in India treat urban and rural areas separately, generally neglecting the special characteristics of settlements referred to as peri-urban – those on the outskirts or peripheries of urban areas, or “rurban” settlements i.e. rural areas with urban facilities.

A street in the city of Poonah [Pune] in 1871 (Image: Lester John Frederick, Wikimedia Commons)
Beyond the death toll: The everyday violence of Assam’s floods
Mitul Baruah from Ashoka University narrates personal experiences of people affected by floods in Majuli, Assam. Posted on 19 Aug, 2019 12:53 PM

Floods are an annual phenomenon in Assam. They are as integral to the state as the Brahmaputra River is, and each monsoon, we are reminded that Assam exists (or is drowning). As I write this piece, Assam is slowly recovering from the first wave of flood this monsoon.

Floods in Majuli Assam. Photo credit: Mitul Baruah
P Sainath: The water crisis is not caused by drought
Magsaysay award winner & founder-editor of PARI, P Sainath analyses India's water scarcity, the agrarian crisis & farmer suicides, before asking: what can we do about it? Posted on 13 Aug, 2019 11:47 AM

P Sainath has been documenting stories from rural India for over three decades now.

Picture: The semi-arid regions of the Moyar-Bhavani River basin in Tamil Nadu. Picture credit: Prathigna Poonacha, Tanvi Deshpande; Indian Institute for Human Settlements from India Water Portal on Flickr. Picture used for representational purposes only
Government undertakes 3D mapping of aquifers in all villages
Policy matters this week Posted on 07 Aug, 2019 11:07 PM

Government to 3D map aquifers in all villages

Groundwater drops to alarming levels. Illustration credit: KN Balraj. Source: India Water Portal on Flickr
"Digging recharge wells is the only way Bengaluru won’t run out of water"
A million recharge wells for Bangalore Posted on 07 Aug, 2019 02:29 PM

Vishwanath Srikantaiah, popularly known as the 'Rainman', has been in the news recently for his ambitious project to build one million recharge wells in Bengaluru. Given the dire situation we find ourselves in vis-à-vis water, the initiative could not have come at a better time.

Ramakrishna Bovi is a traditional well-digger in Bengaluru. Image credit: Citizen Matters
All work and some play
Collective action games trigger conversations around the nature of the invisible and immeasurable common pool resource - groundwater. Posted on 02 Aug, 2019 12:11 PM

India is, by far, the world’s largest groundwater economy. India’s annual withdrawal of fresh groundwater (253 Billion Cubic Metres in 2013) amounts to one fourth of the global total and is more than that of China and the US combined. Over 80% of water extracted is used in agriculture. The share of tubewells in net irrigated area rose from a mere 1% in 1960-61 to over 40% in 2013-14.

Villagers in Magradeh, Madhya Pradesh watching neighbouring farmers play a game. Image credit: Water Practitioners Network
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