Surface Water

Featured Articles
October 11, 2022
Visualizing the Vrishabhavathi river to keep it alive
In an effort to inform the general public, especially citizen activists, policymakers, researchers, and students, about the current status of the Vrishabhavathi river, Paani.Earth has created the necessary maps, data, analysis, and information to drive conservation awareness and action around the river.
Vrishabhavathi river (Image Source: Paani.Earth)
August 9, 2022
MGNREGS becoming the quintessential scheme for tribal agriculture
Ensuring irrigation through farm ponds in tribal Chhattisgarh
Many tribal farmers opted for individual farm ponds under MGNREGA ensuring protective irrigation. (Image: Meenakshi Singh)
November 8, 2020
Breaking down data silos in the water sector
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 26, 2019
Centre holds green signal to Kalasa-Banduri project
Policy matters this week
The Mandovi river disputed between Karnataka and Goa (Source: IWP Flickr Photos)
December 19, 2019
Parliamentary committee expresses disappointment over slow pace of Namami Gange
Policy matters this week
The Ganga at Varanasi (Source: India Water Portal Flickr Photos)
December 19, 2019
Only one out of five river basins in the country resilient to climate change: Study
News this week
Narmada river in Madhya Pradesh (Source: IWP Flickr photos)
Once upon a lake: A report on the current status of the lakes of Mahadevpura constituency, Bengaluru with recommendations for restoration
Lakes of Mahadevpura constituency, Bengaluru- current status, changes in distribution and recommendations for restoration' by Harini Nagendra, Ramesh Sivaram, and S Subramanya presents the current status of the lake and canal system in Bengaluru’s Mahadevpura constituency, with details of individual lakes as well as recommendations for the restoration of these lakes as well as the entire system. This report has been shared with the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike, under which the management of these lakes is consolidated, to inform planning at a constituency and ward level.
Harini Nagendra
Ramesh Sivaram
S Subramanya
Posted on 23 Feb, 2012 05:55 PM


Map of the lakes in Bengaluru, with information about their status

Map of the lakes in Bengaluru, source: ATREE

Trends in private sector participation in the Indian water sector: A critical review - A Water and Sanitation Programme publication
This report published by the Water and Sanitation Programme (WSP) involves a study that involved a review of PPPs in the urban water supply sector since the 1990s, explores the trends emerging in the sector and analyses the factors that have facilitated or impeded the development and implementation of PPPs in the sector.
Water and Sanitation Program (WSP)
Posted on 23 Feb, 2012 05:54 PM

The study also analyses the direction in which the sector is heading with respect to private sector participation. Since most PPPs are at early stages of operation, this study focuses only on learnings from PPP design and transaction. This study does not seek to assess the operating or financial performance of PPPs.
Challenges for achieving conservation and development - A presentation by Elinor Ostrom at the Khoshoo memorial lecture, ATREE
The 2012 Khoshoo Memorial Lecture was delivered by 2009 Nobel Laureate in Economic Sciences, Dr Elinor Ostrom. In this presentation, she explains the need for a framework to assess complex socio-ecological systems.
Elinor Ostrom
Posted on 22 Feb, 2012 06:52 PM

Portrait of Dr.Ostrom

"In search of old ideas" - A discussion of the draft national water policy 2012, by Jayanta Bandopadhyay in The Telegraph
In this article published in the Telegraph Jayanta Bandopadhyay discusses the draft national water policy 2012.
Jayanta Bandopadhyay
Posted on 22 Feb, 2012 05:05 PM

Author: Jayanta Bandopadhyay

Article and image courtesy: The Telegraph
New water policy more contentious; least helpful in tackling existing issues
The new water policy (NWP) draft 2012 is reportedly replete with more contentious issues and least helpful in tackling existing issues. The formulation of new draft policy has been facilitated in an undemocratic way sans participation of all stakeholders. Undoubtedly the draft explicitly states that water needs to be managed as a community resource held by the state under public trust doctrine, but concurrently it underscores the need to treat water as an “economic good”. Instead of treating water as ‘economic good’, it should be treated as sustainable development instrument.
Arvind Kumar
Posted on 22 Feb, 2012 12:34 PM

Author : Dr. Arvind Kumar
Rural water access: Governance and contestation in a semi-arid watershed in Udaipur, Rajasthan: A paper in EPW
Recent policy has encouraged a shift towards community management of water infrastructure through the creation of decentralised institutions.This also implies a shift from large to small structures and institutions. This however presumes the existence of a homogeneous 'community', and does not necessarily acknowledge the effect of various separate groups within such a community on these institutions. This paper published in Economic and Political Weekly (EPW) examines the impacts of this shift towards decentralised irrigation management on different groups residing in six villages in Rajasthan.
Lalitha Kamath
NC Narayanan
Posted on 21 Feb, 2012 05:19 PM

Study area

This study is carried out in micro-watershed No.19, which comprises six villages in Jhadol tehsil of Udaipur district in Rajasthan. A minor irrigation project completed in 1980 serves these six villages

Rainfall, storage levels in reservoir and groundwater use
Towards greener development: EIA sector specific manuals brought out by the Ministry of Environment and Forests
This article collates and presents 26 of the 37 environment impact assessment (EIA) manuals brought out by the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF).
Administrative Staff College of India (ASCI)
IL&FS Ecosmart Limited
Posted on 19 Feb, 2012 07:20 PM

These manuals are aimed at expert appraisal committees, and hope to improve the quality of appraisal of projects. These will also provide a template for use by organisations and consultants developing the EIA reports.cover page of the EIA guidance manual-ship breaking yards

Social exclusion in watershed development: Evidence from the Indo-German watershed development project in Maharashtra - A LEAD paper
This paper examines social exclusion of resource-poor groups in developmental programmes targeted at them through the lens of watershed programmes.
Eshwar Kale
Posted on 18 Feb, 2012 03:08 PM

Marginalized communities are excluded from a say in the creation of policies. 

A bar chart illustrating level of participation in SHGs against landholding status

Climate change risk - An adaptation and mitigation agenda for Indian cities - A paper published in the journal Environment and Urbanisation
This paper outlines the much needed adaptation and mitigation agenda for cities in India where the urban population is likely to grow by around 500 million over the next 50 years.
Aromar Revi
Posted on 18 Feb, 2012 01:33 PM

The paper dwells on the likely changes that climate change is expected to bring in temperature, precipitation and extreme rainfall, drought, river and inland flooding, storms/storm surges/coastal flooding, sea-level rise and environmental health risks, and who within urban populations will be at risk.

The status of glaciers in the Hindu Kush-Himalayan region - A report by the ICIMOD
This study by ICIMOD provides a comprehensive account of the number and status of glaciers across the Hindu Kush-Himalayan region.
Basanta Shrestha
Samjwal Ratna Bajracharya
Posted on 17 Feb, 2012 03:00 PM

The HKH region is one of the most dynamic, fragile, and complex mountain systems in the world as a result of tectonic activity and the rich diversity of climates, hydrology, and ecology. The high Himalayan region is the freshwater tower of South Asia and has the highest concentration of snow and glaciers outside the polar regions giving it the name Third Pole.

Balati glacier at sunset

Balati glacier, Pithoragarh district, Uttarakhand (Source: Uttarakhand and I)

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