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)
UNLEASH Hacks Bharat | Invitation for Application to Build Climate Resilient India
Through a collaborative 2-day process, passionate youth across India will have the opportunity to work with local stakeholders and community leaders towards the SDGs 13 & 8.
Posted on 17 Aug, 2020 12:00 PM

Marginalized communities across the country are facing the brunt of climate change which is not only questioning their survival but is also affecting their livelihood.

Online Training: Design and Implementation of DEWATS
CDD Society is organising an 'Online Training on DEWAT' to impart the knowledge and skills required for planning, designing, implementing, and managing DEWATS.
Posted on 17 Aug, 2020 11:02 AM

The Consortium for DEWATS™ Dissemination (CDD) Society is organising an "Online Training on DEWATS" to impart the knowledge and skills required for planning, designing, implementing, and managing DEWATS™ (Decentralised Wastewater Treatment System).

Gender-sensitive response to the climate crisis
Gender-transformative approaches are needed for climate adaptation, to lessen the stresses that force people to migrate. Posted on 14 Aug, 2020 11:19 AM

A crowd of people jostling by the ticket counter at Jhansi railway station in Uttar Pradesh; men and women, some with families in tow, boarding trains to Delhi, Lucknow, Mumbai and other big cities. These are common sights during the summer months at Jhansi, a major town and railway junction.

Women and girls spend a considerable amount of their time in fetching water. (Image: Romit Sen)
Groundwater extraction: NGT gets strict with commercial entities
Policy matters this week Posted on 12 Aug, 2020 08:41 AM

NGT bans granting general permissions for groundwater extraction to commercial entities

NGT gets strict with commercial entities (Source: IWP Flickr album)
Monsoon experiences a countrywide deficit of 10 percent in July
News this week Posted on 12 Aug, 2020 08:27 AM

Monsoon 2020: Countrywide deficit of 10 percent in July; September may have heavy rains

July experiences rain deficit of 10 percent (Source: IWP Flickr photos)
Amphan’s impact on farming and livelihood in Sunderbans
Millions of people's homes were swept away and farmlands destroyed during cyclone Amphan in Sunderbans. Posted on 11 Aug, 2020 05:46 PM

The Amphan cyclone has disfigured the lives of people living in the Sundarbans. Houses have been torn apart, farms have been filled with brackish water making the land unsuitable for farming and betel leaves have been destroyed. People in the Sundarbans are in a life-threatening situation with makeshift shacks to live in and no means to earn a living.

Betel (popularly used in paan) plantation is a major occupation in the Sundarbans. Pulak Bhakta is assessing the damage done to his plantation right after Amphan. The plantation is spread over two and a half bigha of land. According to Pulak, the total loss he has suffered is around INR 3 lakhs. Pulak already bears the burden of a loan which he had taken to set up his plantation. His future seems uncertain and bleak now. (Image: WaterAid/ Subhrajit Sen)
Banking on rainwater harvesting
National Water Mission’s campaign aims at creating rainwater harvesting structures in various parts of India. Posted on 11 Aug, 2020 10:27 AM

National Water Mission’s (NWM) has launched a campaign ‘Catch the rain’ on a pan India basis to nudge the states and stakeholders to create appropriate rainwater harvesting structures (RWHS) suitable to the climatic conditions and sub-soil strata before the onset of monsoon.

As a part of the campaign, work is being done on various interventions such as water for productive use, improving irrigation practices, creating water recharge structures (Image: Pikist)
Understanding Atal Bhujal Yojana through the program guidelines
The program envisages promoting panchayat led groundwater management and behavioural change with a primary focus on demand-side management. Posted on 10 Aug, 2020 03:59 PM

Groundwater fulfills the drinking water requirements of nearly 85% and 50% of the rural and urban Indian population, respectively. 65% of the total irrigated area utilizes groundwater. It also caters to the water needs of the industrial sector in India.

Community participation is expected to facilitate bottom-up groundwater planning process to improve the effectiveness of public financing and align implementation of various government programs on groundwater in the participating states (Image: Water Alternatives, Flickr Commons)
Bihar floods: 'Living on 2.5 Kg flattened rice’
Only 4,18,490 of the 56.53 lakh people have been evacuated from the floods so far, and people are forced to survive on meagre rations provided by the government. Posted on 10 Aug, 2020 03:55 PM

Two weeks ago, the Kanakai River flowing through Kishanganj rendered dozens of families homeless. While the people in the region are staying under plastic sheds, the government has turned a blind eye to their plight.

Mohammadin is also one of them. He tells the India Water Portal,

Locals engaged in repair of broken embankment in Darbhanga (Source: Umesh Kumar Ray)
"Everything’s devastated, and no one is listening to us!"
Surrounded by flood waters, and taking shelter at rooftops with a limited supply of food and drinking water, people of Bihar wait for the floods to end. Posted on 08 Aug, 2020 06:52 PM

"All of a sudden, water entered the house at night. Goods and cattle were submerged. There is no place to eat or drink. We have been in trouble for three days, but no one has come to help us.” The elderly Gauri Singh complains, with mixed feelings of anger, pain and helplessness. 

Floodwater enters Satjoda village of Chapra (Source: Umesh Kumar Ray)
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