Lifestyle

Featured Articles
December 11, 2019 Dry toilets have long been hailed as a sustainable solution to the sanitation and waste management crisis facing India today, but have been overshadowed by more modern toilet designs.
A traditional dry toilet. Image: India Science Wire
November 27, 2019 Policy matters this week
An irrigation well at Randullabad, Maharashtra (Source: India Water Portal on Flickr)
November 11, 2019 Study points to vulnerabilities faced by women in the mountains and plains of Uttarakhand, which is likely to only increase with climate change.
Ganga's riverflow at Rishikesh in Uttarakhand (Image courtesy: Ankit Singh; Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0)
November 6, 2019 The number of people vulnerable to floods triggered by climate change by 2050 is triple that of previous estimates, according to a new study.
Aerial view of Chennai during floods 2015 (Image: Veethika, Wikimedia Commons, CC-SA 4.0 International)
October 22, 2019 A forum discusses the need to stop illegal land transfers and land alienation of the poor.
The maldharis from kutch on their own road trip (Image: Malay Maniar, Flickr Commons, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
October 21, 2019 In this interview, Joy talks about his work as an activist working in rural Maharashtra, and how he came to work on water conflicts in India.
KJ Joy speaks at a felicitation for the late Professor Ramaswamy Iyer.
The Dying Springs of Chirimiri'
Blasting and drilling around Chirimiri's coal mines have taken a toll on the area's water resources and environment. The film presents the community's perspective on this issue. Posted on 01 Apr, 2016 06:04 PM

Chirimiri Coalfield is a part of Central India Coalfields, located in Koriya district, Chhattisgarh.

Coal mining in Chirimiri
Small scale fishworkers fishing for jobs elsewhere
Fishers livelihoods are being directly threatened by mechanised fishing methods and ecologically destructive fishing practices. Posted on 19 Mar, 2016 01:31 PM

Chinna, 35, harvests fish and is engaged on a piece rate basis by the local contractor who has rights to fishing in the village tank in Anantapur, Andhra Pradesh. At times, Chinna also uses family labour to complete his work.

Traditional fishers livelihoods are directly threatened by mechanised fishing methods (Source: Vikas Sahayog Kendra, Palamau)
Jharkhand's octogenarian water warrior
Simon Oraon, leading a people’s movement to save water and forests in Ranchi, Jharkhand Posted on 28 Feb, 2016 01:39 PM

It was 1961. Simon Oraon, a Class IV school drop-out began his journey against drought in Bedo, a tribal block of Ranchi, Jharkhand. An idealistic young man, he along with his fellow villagers began constructing earthen dams to capture rainwater for recharging groundwater.

A water body revived at Bedo, Ranchi
5 crore people cleanse themselves at the cost of 5000
Ujjain's own labourers, farmers and the Kshipra river will bear the brunt of the onslaught of pilgrims at the upcoming Ujjain Simhastha (Kumbh Mela). Posted on 24 Feb, 2016 09:38 PM

The Ujjain Simhastha (Kumbh Mela) in Madhya Pradesh will begin on April 22, 2016 and go on for a month. The event, held once every 12 years, holds religious significance to Hindus, and throngs of people--approximately 5 crore over the month--take a holy dip in the Kshipra river during this time.

Early morning at Ramghat, Ujjain
Preparing for the Ujjain Simhastha Kumbh Mela
How is the MP government going to handle the water, sanitation and solid waste issues at the Mela? Diwakar Natu, Chairman of the Mela Authority talks to India Water Portal. Posted on 24 Feb, 2016 09:37 PM

The Ujjain Simhastha Kumbh Mahaparva is one of the four Kumbha Melas, which is held once in 12 years.

Diwakar Natu, Chairman of Simhastha Fair Authority
Art of killing a river
Manoj Misra speaks on the much neglected area of the Yamuna river and its floodplains and why its mere clean-up is not enough--especially as the World Culture Festival approaches. Posted on 22 Feb, 2016 01:19 PM

Recent permission granted to the Art of Living to hold the World Culture Festival in the Yamuna floodplains points fingers yet again at the fact that not much has been done to assure its safety. The rapid encroachment of the Yamuna floodplain has raised a few questions. Can the river sustain the rampant commercialisation of its floodplains?

NGT had in July 2015 slapped a fine on the Akshardham temple management for carrying out expansion without prior environmental clearance and without examining whether the expanded portion fell on the Yamuna’s floodplains (Source: Ramesh N G, Wikimedia Commons)
Saved by tanks: The story of Puducherry’s Bahour commune
While the monster floods of 2015 mercilessly gobbled up villages along the coast of Tamil Nadu, settlements in neighbouring Puducherry managed to escape the fury. Miracle, you say? Posted on 16 Feb, 2016 10:13 AM

The East Coast of India is very much unlike its western counterpart both in terms of physiography and climatology.

The Manapet tank in Bahour has an ayacut of around 110 acres, most of which is now urbanised (Image: Seetha Gopalakrishnan, IWP)
Budget needs to protect food security
Budgetary support needs to be upped for the implementation of the public distribution system entitlements under the National Food Security Act. Posted on 15 Feb, 2016 11:01 AM

With the budget 2016-17 round the corner what are the asks from the standpoint of food security? This year’s budget is being prepared in the wake of many parts of the country being affected by drought resulting in greater distress, hunger and starvation for a large number of people.

Children at an anganwadi centre, Mysore waiting for the mid-day meal
Can Budget 2016-17 breathe life into the public health system?
Budget asks include the upping of health spending, passing new health policies and involving civil society among other things. Posted on 15 Feb, 2016 11:00 AM

Per a report by the Planning Commission, India’s burden of water borne diseases remains grossly underestimated. The improvements in access to drinking water has not been matched by a proportionate decline in deaths and illnesses from waterborne diseases.

Measuring for malnutrition in Madhya Pradesh (Source: Russell Watkins, Wikimedia Commons)
Choppy waters and a calm river voyager
Emmanuel Theophilus was awarded the ' Bhagirath Prayas Samman' at the India Rivers Day 2015 for his valiant and untiring effort to safeguard the integrity of the Mahakali River. Posted on 06 Dec, 2015 12:31 PM

The epic voyage--Nadisutra--along the Ganga may have been the high point of Emmanuel Theophilus’s recent work, but there have been many more peaks and valleys for this fervent mountaineer cum ecologist. Theo lives in a remote village near Munsiyari in Uttarakhand.

Theophilus being awarded the ' Bhagirath Prayas Samman' (Source: Kush Sethi)
×