Sustainability

A sharing workshop on groundwater organised by ACWADAM (Advanced Center for Water Development and Management) in Pune on 21/22nd May 2009 saw some very good presentations being made. Dr Tushaar's Shah's keynote speech provided an amazing big picture of groundwater use in agriculture. The presentation can be viewed on slideshare and the entire speech is available on YouTube in 4 parts.

Forwarded to the Portal by:Priyanka Kohli, ALC Image and Content Courtesy: ALC Access Livelihoods Consulting India Pvt. Ltd. is a development management organisation comprising a group of self motivated and passionate consultants with prime focus on enabling the promotion of Sustainable livelihoods for poor. ALC India organises as well as conducts Capacity building programmes for various organisations. ALC has published the Capacity Building programme Calendar for the financial year 2009-2010. The annual training calendar can be accessed here:ALC Annual Training Calendar

Image & Content Courtesy: ALC India ALC India has announced a 4-day National Level Training Program on "Risk Management For Promotion of Sustainable Livelihoods"from 07th - 10th July 2009 at Patna (Bihar).This program targets the middle & senior level functionaries of NGOs, CBOs and development professionals. The medium of instruction during the program is English.

The overall objective of training is to address the rural and urban poor risks at household and individual levels. The focus is to address the vulnerability caused by the agriculture losses, improper decision making process at household and community level, market instability, losses due to natural disaster, illness and wage loss. The overall objective is to sensitize the participants about the risk management practices for existing /emerging livelihoods of poor.

The expected outcomes of the training are: 1. To develop clear understanding of livelihood risk & vulnerability in development context. 2. To enhance skills in designing program strategies to better cope with risks of poor. 3. To help develop capacities related to business planning and enterprise risk management for promoting livelihoods of poor.

The national seminar on “Changing geohydrological scenario in the hard rock terrain in India”, was jointly organised by the Geological Society of India, Department of Mines and Geology, Central Ground Water Board, Karnataka Jal Biradari and Karnataka Institute of Cooperative Management.

Image and Content Courtesy: Water Alternatives (WaA)

Report of steering committee on drinking water supply and sanitation for tenth five year plan

Guest Post by: D. S. Rawat,ASSOCHAM

Image and Content Courtesy: ASSOCHAM It is our great privilege to inform you that ASSOCHAM under its Cool The Earth , Initiative is organizing International Summit on "Water Governance , Critical Issues For All"at 9.00 a.m. on June 24, 2009 at ASSOCHAM House, New Delhi. Our initiative is supported by the Ministry of Water Resources, UNESCO, International Water Management Institute, and Water Technology Centre, (IARI), KPMG (as knowledge partner) and other prominent organizations in water sector. As is evident, Water is going to be of increasing critical importance to countries like India in the coming years. ASSOCHAM has been carrying out special studies and surveys on water conservation and related issues. Our view is that water is going to be as integral part of whole infrastructure system as roads, power, etc in the development process in future. During informal consultations with government officials, experts and NGO's, we have been advised to raise awareness about water management among the consumers, industrial houses, agriculturists, environmentalists, NGO's, media, etc. so as to generate priority concern for all and to help find right solutions.

Mr. S.S. Ranganathan, author of this guest post, is a retired senior executive of Ion Exchange and currently a consultant based in Bangalore.

He can be reached at: ss.ranganathan@gmail.com , +91-9343734229

WATER SECURITY FOR THE RESIDENTS OF APARTMENTS & GATED COMMUNITIES -  S.S.Ranganathan

These papers published by FORWARD provides a background on the water crisis in India and describes the water and sanitation situation in the states of Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra.

This paper published on the International Environmental Law Research Centre (IELRC) website examines the reasons behind the new project and the institutional, financial and legal aspects of the Tirupur PPP.

It also examines important legal issues such as the right to water, competing interests in water, financing of projects, waste water management and the environmental consequences of the PPP. More particularly, it questions the wisdom of planning a water supply project that seeks to prioritize the needs of a polluting industry over the basic water needs of the region.

The New Tirupur Area Development Corporation Limited (NTADCL) is the first public private partnership, set up in 1995 primarily to supply industrial water to Tirupur, a major export centre for knitwear, in India. This water supply and sewerage project is also the first project to be structured on a commercial format; first concession by a state government to a public limited company to draw raw water for domestic and industrial uses and to collect revenues; the first index-based user charges and direct cost recovery for urban environmental services.