Groundwater

Guest post by : Aarti Kelkar-Khambete

This workshop organised by the DHAN Foundation in the Gingee Town Panchayat (GTP) in Tamil Nadu on the 18th of November 2011, aimed at initiating a scientific study titled “Strategy for increasing per capita availability of water for Gingee town, Tamilnadu". Elected representatives of the town panchayat along with the general public and government officials participated in this workshop.

The report recognises that most groundwater quality problems are anthropogenic in origin, caused by a combination of over-exploitation and infiltration of wastes. Inadequate infrastructure and resources mean that waste generated by cities and industrial areas is not properly collected, treated and disposed, thus leading to grondwater contamination.

Content and photo courtesy: Environment Support Group  

On the contentious policy relating to privatization of lakes, the Justice N K Patil Committee appointed by the Karnataka High Court has recommended that private sector participation solely based on commercial interest is not desirable.

In a significant development, the Committee appointed under the Chairmanship of Justice Mr. N. K. Patil, Judge of the Karnataka High Court and Chairman High Court Legal Services Committee, in response to the Public Interest Litigation by Environment Support Group challenging the privatisation of management and rehabilitation of lakes in Bangalore (WP 817/2008), has strongly recommended that ““private sector participation solely based on consequential commercial interest” is not a desirable model” (Emphasis in original).

This study by Udayvani and Arghyam describes the findings of case studies undertaken by Udaywani to get a clear picture of the drinking water and toilet facilities in 8 Gram Panchayats of the 6 Districts of Karnataka following the ASHWAS survey conducted by Arghyam that included a survey of Household Water and Sanitation in 172 Gram Panchayats across 28 districts of Karnataka (all except Bangalore Urban).

The workshop was hosted by Government of Kerala and the Water and Sanitation Program, South Asia with the Government of India, The World Bank Institute and the World Bank was held at Cochin, Kerala from December 7th to December 8th, 1999.

Guest post by – Rahul Bakare, Arghyam

 This article details an example where local knowledge has been used to develop access to safe water in the tribal areas of the Eastern Ghats in Andhra Pradesh

This presentation  highlights the grave water situation in Bihar in the context of the emerging water quality and quantity issues that the world and especially developing countries will be facing in the near future.

It deals with issues around capital raising, policy framework, efficiency and sustainability and provides a way forward for strategic acceleration of the benefits.

Image courtesy: http://sikkimsprings.org/