Urban Water

Featured Articles
November 6, 2022
Decentralised urban water management in Chhattisgarh
A film that focuses on importance of communitarian in situ water management
People are struggling to get the quantity and quality of water in urban areas (Image: Makarand Purohit)
October 15, 2022
Evaluating WaSH conditions spatially at the panchayat level
Synthesis of water, sanitation and hygiene (WaSH) spatial pattern in rural India: an integrated interpretation of WaSH practices
People in rural areas lack potable water, and use unsafe sanitation and hygiene facilities (Image: Sebastian Dahl)
September 13, 2022
Chaos in a concrete jungle
Heavy rains and floods have battered Bengaluru yet again. Uncontrolled and unregulated development and concretisation of the city that pays no heed to the ecology and hydrology of the region needs to stop!
Urban flooding in Bangalore (Image Source: Thejas via Wikimedia Commons)
July 7, 2022
Slum land rights: A necessity for success of PMAY
PMAY needs policy commitment to rehabilitate slums in small and medium cities of Gujarat
Need for legal framework for land rights in small and medium cities of Gujarat under PMAY (Image: Homes in the City)
December 11, 2021
Counted, but not served?
Water remains inaccessible to the urban poor in the city of Mumbai as it continues to focus on developing new infrastructure to meet its very high per capita water needs. Why is this so?
Thirsty cities and the invisible poor (Image Source: Aathavan Jaffna via Wikimedia Commons)
July 19, 2021
Will urban India gain respite from its water woes?
Urban India is hurtling towards a major water crisis. What are the important considerations that the Jal Jeevan Mission (Urban) should take into account to meet the water needs in urban areas?
Will urban India get respite from its water woes? (Image Source: Aathavan Jaffna via Wikimedia Commons)
Call for Applications to BSF's Small Grants Programme
The Bengaluru Sustainability Forum (BSF) under its Small Grants Programme calls for grant proposals.
Posted on 25 Feb, 2021 05:58 PM

Budget 2021: What does it have for the water and agriculture sector
The allocation in the water and agriculture sector is inadequate to deal with the sectoral challenges.
Partik Kumar
RRA Network
Posted on 02 Feb, 2021 08:24 AM

COVID-19 pandemic brought clean water, basic hygiene practices and sanitation to the centre stage with these becoming crucial to deal with the health crisis.
India’s water resources are getting degraded day by day, be it rivers, streams, lakes, ponds, springs or aquifers but the budget’s focus continues to be source management while neglecting the resource. (Image: PixaBay)
Unsafe drinking water burdens urban poor
While urban poor in Delhi are forced to access water from informal sources, this water is highly contaminated posing multiple risks to health.
Kushagra Goenka
Posted on 17 Jan, 2021 07:25 PM

Water in India continues to be extremely polluted and unsafe.
Safe drinking water, a valuable resource (Image Source: IWP Flickr photos)
The fast disappearing traditional water harvesting structures of Rajasthan
Lack of community ownership and local governance are spelling doom for the once royal and resilient traditional water harvesting structures of Rajasthan.
Rituja Mitra
Posted on 02 Jan, 2021 06:00 PM

It has been four years since Anupam Mishra Ji, the stalwart environmentalist who had worked his entire life promoting the water harvesting techniques of Rajasthan, left. In his book, Anupam Ji extensively talks about how the water tankas (structures) were historically valued by the communities and were maintained regularly and governed through community participation.
Toorji Ka Jhalara, Jodhpur (Image Source: Rituja Mitra)
Digital water infrastructure to help India become water independent
Digital water infrastructure has a great potential in solving India's water crisis by preventing wastage and encouraging optimum use of water.
Amit Vaidya
Posted on 30 Dec, 2020 03:04 PM

The rising water crisis in India
Smart water meters for efficient use of scarce water resources (Image Source: Wikimedia Commons)
Challenges to India’s urban water security and future growth patterns
Water resources in most Indian cities are overworked and overused, and not adequately replenished.
Ambika Vishwanath
Posted on 29 Dec, 2020 12:10 PM

Linkages between water security and socio-economic growth
Cities in India are marked by unequal distribution of water, lack of access, outdated infrastructure and minimal enforcement of rainwater harvesting and other means of supply. (Image: Anish Roy, Pixabay)
Reviving traditional tanks to control floods in Chennai
A study finds that desilting and reviving traditional tanks in Chennai can greatly help in mitigating the impacts of frequent floods in the city.
N. Nithila Devi
B. Sridharan
V. M. Bindhu
B. Narasimhan
S. Murty Bhallamudi
C. M. Bhatt
Tune Usha
D. Thirumalai Vasan
Soumendra Nath Kuiry
Posted on 01 Dec, 2020 04:11 PM

Climate change is leading to rise in extreme events world over, and developing countries such as India have been experiencing not only higher death rates but also greater economic impacts due to natural hazards.
A small tank near Thalambedu in Kanchipuram (Image Source: India Water Portal)
Increasing water security for the urban underserved
A pilot study with Composite Water Vulnerability Index tool designed for ranking of slums shows that 30% households are Beyond the Pipe (BtP).
Piramal Sarvajal
Posted on 27 Nov, 2020 11:40 AM

Piramal Sarvajal, the safe drinking water initiative of Piramal Foundation launched a tool named Composite Water Vulnerability Index (CWVI) at its recent webinar on ‘Sustainable water security for urban underserved’ hosted in association with Center for Water and Sanitation (CWAS) and Centre for Environmental Planning and Technology (CEPT).

Piramal Sarvajal and Center for Water and Sanitation launch the Composite Water Vulnerability Index Tool (Image: Piramal Sarvajal)
Generating demand for sanitation infrastructure
How to steer conversations and processes that help boost the motivation of community leaders to encourage better sanitation behaviour?
Anju Dwivedi
Shikha Shukla Chhabra
Shubhagato Dasgupta
Scaling City Institution for India (SCI-FI)
Centre for Policy Research
Posted on 19 Oct, 2020 02:06 PM

Radharamanpada is an unauthorised slum in Angul with 300 houses. The president of the slum sanitation committee Janaki Sahu, a 28-year-old mother of four, runs a street food stall on the main road. There are seven women in the committee of eleven, working on sanitation solution for populations that remain underserved.
Project Nirmal uses appropriate communication inputs that help generate awareness about the impact of poor containment, collection, transportation and treatment systems on the environment among all stakeholders. (Image: SCI-FI, CPR)
Data, data everywhere, but where?
Involving the community in a data framework with the right incentives will have the second-order benefit of the community becoming decision makers with respect to water use.
Sreechand Tavva
Manu Srivastava
Amrtha Kasturi Rangan
Manisha Shah
Posted on 16 Oct, 2020 09:21 AM

A few of us did an exercise where we closed our eyes and thought of the first four words that came to our minds when we thought of water data in India. Here is what we came up with:
The seamless flow of data from one program to another can be enabled if a few principles are kept in mind (Image: José Manuel Suárez, Wikimedia Commons)
Subscribe to Urban Water
×