Governance

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November 6, 2022 In 2020, 559 million children were affected by four to five heatwaves a year; numbers could increase four-fold by 2050, as per a report by UNICEF
Heat-related mortality is four times higher among children under 1 year of age than in persons aged 1–44 years (Image: Taqver, Wikimedia Commons)
October 22, 2022 Role of MGNREGA in the year after the 2020 lockdown: Survey findings from Bihar, Karnataka, Maharashtra, and Madhya Pradesh
MGNREGA provided income support or security to vulnerable households during the pandemic (Image: UN Women)
October 14, 2022 Arthan organizes a fireside chat to highlight the need for more data talent for social impact
There is a need to integrate data science into the existing education system (Image: Mohamed Mahmoud Hassan, Public Domain Pictures)
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)
July 14, 2022 The river is faced with the dual problem of flood plain encroachment and growing levels of water pollution
Illegal transverse check dams (Badhals) built on Ichamati near a village in Basirhat (Image: Prithviraj Nath @ TheWaterChronicles)
July 10, 2022 People in India fleeing disasters like drought more likely to have experienced trafficking or modern slavery than those fleeing floods or cyclones
The country's climate change assessment suggests things are only going to get worse (Image: Saurav Karmakar, India Water Portal Flickr)
India set to become water scarce in 10 years
News this week Posted on 04 Aug, 2015 10:20 PM

India set to become water scarce in 10 years time: Govt tells Parliament

Water scarcity: A reality in 2025? (Source: Wikipedia)
Groundwater: It's not a source, it’s a resource
Nawraj Pradhan from ICIMOD explains how they are looking at the challenge of drying springs in the Kailash landscape from different angles -- ecological, cultural and physiographic. Posted on 02 Aug, 2015 08:11 AM

Springs play an important role in the daily lives of thousands of communities in the hills and mountains of the Himalayas. However, in many places once reliable springs are drying up, presenting rural communities, and women in particular, with new challenges.

A spring next to a temple in Uttarakhand is the source of the Ramganga river
Shivaji and Sardar Vallabhai Patel: Bigger than their proposed statues
Two statues of two great leaders are to be built inside the Narmada river and the Arabian sea. While we know how much they will cost the exchequer, how much will they cost the environment? Posted on 31 Jul, 2015 09:05 AM

What do these two iconic figures -- Shivaji, the great Maratha leader and Sardar Vallabhai Patel, the ‘Iron Man of India’ -- have most in common? While one might think that it was their fight for the freedom of their motherland, albeit at different times, that is not all.

Shivaji & Sardar Patel to be immortalised as statues (Source: Wikipedia & www.statueofunity.in)
Water and the Missile Man
What did the late president Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam's think about water conservation, interlinking of rivers and the future of a world without water? Read on. Posted on 28 Jul, 2015 01:32 PM

Dr. Kalam is no more but he lives on in the hearts of many through his quotes, beliefs, speeches and his acclaimed book India 2020: A Vision for the New Millenium among many others. 

The late APJ Abdul Kalam at the International Book Fair, Trivandrum, 2014
Do not rush through with TSR committee's proposals on green laws: Parliamentary Panel
Policy matters this week Posted on 28 Jul, 2015 08:55 AM

Panel suggests that the Govt not rush through with changes in green laws

Ufrenkhal forest that gives water to Gad Ganga
Why did Urmila have to suffer?
Although fluoride contamination was identified in Dhar, Madhya Pradesh a decade ago. children of some villages still continue to fall victim to skeletal and dental fluorosis causing bone deformities. Posted on 27 Jul, 2015 08:11 PM

Urmila can neither walk upright, nor run about, nor do her chores easily. She is loved in her parents' house and they do not grudge her the extra care she requires. In rural India, this state of affairs does not last long for a girl, especially since she's only six years old. 

Children dance during the inaugration of the safe water supply system in Kalapani, Madhya Pradesh
Flawed embankment strategy converts Bihar into a watery grave
The engineering solutions put in place to tackle the issue of floods has created more problems than solutions in Bihar, says Dinesh Mishra in an interview. Posted on 27 Jul, 2015 02:31 PM

Dr. Dinesh Kumar Mishra of Barh Mukti Abhiyaan, an authority on the river network of North Bihar speaks to India Water Portal about the flood problems, the skewed flood control policy of the Government, the Kosi breach of 2008 and the gargantuan interlinking of rivers project.

Floods in Bihar (Source: Usha Dewani, IWP)
90% of malarial deaths happen in rural India
The economic burden of malaria in India is $1940 million -- lost earnings make up 75 percent while treatment costs make up the rest -- despite the GoI spending $51.33 million towards it in 2013. Posted on 24 Jul, 2015 07:07 AM

Stagnant puddles, which are a breeding ground for mosquitoes, follow the rains every year causing an increase in the incidence of water-borne diseases. Malaria is the third most common of these diseases in India after diarrhoea and typhoid. 

An Anopheles stephensi mosquito feasting (Source: Wikimedia Commons)
Hindon clean-up, a prerequisite to cleaning the Ganga
The pollution rates of the river Hindon are alarming. Despite work by conservation groups, the efforts on the part of the government to fix the problem remain uncertain. Posted on 22 Jul, 2015 11:17 AM

Come monsoon and the situation in the Hindon river is truly troubling. Large stretches of the river continue to suffer toxic contamination.

The polluted Hindon (Source: Hindi Water Portal)
Green nod to Dibang hydel project opposed in NGT
Policy matters this week Posted on 20 Jul, 2015 10:25 PM

Petition filed against green nod granted to Dibang hydel project

People protesting Dibang Project (Source: SANDRP)
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