Wastewater

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)
November 21, 2019
Jaipur’s wastewater conundrum
A report by NIUA brings to light the chinks in Jaipur's sewage system and suggests some solutions.
Routine check done by the sewage treatment plant staff in Delawas, Jaipur. The plant is part of the ADB best practices projects list. (Image: Asian Development Bank, Flickr Commons)
November 15, 2019
When the sewers get blocked: sanitation labour in urban India
On World Toilet Day, we bring to light the labour of India’s sewer workers - those who do the unclean work that a Clean India relies on.
Photo credit: Sharada Prasad
October 28, 2019
Unregulated e-waste hotspots operating in Delhi with no safeguards
Study identifies 5,000 illegal e-waste units in Delhi operating without health and environmental safeguards.
Most of the operations in these units were found to be manual and rudimentary (Image: Toxics Link)
October 25, 2019
Mapping Pune’s aquifers
Groundwater use has doubled in Pune. Comprehensive mapping of groundwater resources and better management and governance is the need of the hour.
Groundwater, an exploited resource (Image Source: India Water Portal)
October 6, 2019
Deadly chemicals from detergents end up in rivers
India needs to come up with a regulation on use of toxic chemicals in detergents.
Nonylphenol, a toxic chemical found in detergents is known to enter the water bodies and even the food chain, where it bio-accumulates and can pose serious environmental and health risks (Image: Toxics Link)
Stop farming on Yamuna floodplains by 2020: NGT to DDA
Policy matters this week
Swati Bansal
Posted on 17 Sep, 2019 05:26 PM

NGT orders DDA to ensure farming on the Yamuna floodplains is stopped by 2020
Yamuna river in Delhi (Source: Sudhanshu Malhotra via IWP Flickr Photos)
Indore leads the way in making its lakes pollution-free
Floating 'islands' give new lease of life to a lake in Indore
Clean Water
Posted on 16 Sep, 2019 01:19 PM

Choked by sewage and effluent discharge, lakes in and around Indore are in a terrible state and in need of restoration. A bustling city in central India, Indore was declared the cleanest city in India three years in a row.
An attempt to make our lakes pollution free (Image: Clean Water)
Water in Pune’s urban quagmire
A study develops a peri-urban and rurban water and sanitation index for Pune.
Rebecca Hui
James L Wescoat Jr.
Posted on 02 Sep, 2019 12:01 PM

Drinking water programs in India treat urban and rural areas separately, generally neglecting the special characteristics of settlements referred to as peri-urban – those on the outskirts or peripheries of urban areas, or “rurban” settlements i.e. rural areas with urban facilities.
A street in the city of Poonah [Pune] in 1871 (Image: Lester John Frederick, Wikimedia Commons)
Protecting the kidneys of Kolkata – the East Kolkata Wetlands
A real estate boom is tightening its grip on the East Kolkata Wetlands, a unique waste processing ecosystem. Cooperation and coproduction, not conflict are needed to save them.
Gorkhy Chakraborty
Dhruba Das Gupta
Posted on 08 Aug, 2019 05:12 PM

 The East Kolkata Wetlands (EKW) are a truly unique ecosystem, presenting a very different sight from the normal urban landscape in India.
Fishermen use wastewater of Kolkata to rear fish (Image Source: India Water Portal)
Fertiliser sector’s bleak record on water use in India
A recent report by CSE rates fertilizer plants on how green the sector is.
Amita Bhaduri
Posted on 06 Aug, 2019 02:09 PM

Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), a New Delhi based non-profit has rated the country’s fertilizer sector on several parameters, in a first of its kind study. The rating, done over an 18-month-long process, covered 28 of the 32 functional fertilizer units in the country.
There is need to improve the environmental performance of the fertiliser sector through multi-directional initiatives (Image: MaDailyGist)
3rd Indian National Groundwater Conference (INGWC-2020), CWRDM, Kozhikode
18-20 February 2020, Kozhikode Kerala
Posted on 02 Aug, 2019 01:26 AM

Centre for Water Resources Development and Management (CWRDM) is organizing the Indian National Groundwater Conference (INGWC-2020) to discuss 'Groundwater Resources Management for Sustaina
CWRDM INGC
Meghalaya draft water policy, Inter-State River Water Disputes (Amendment) Bill both get approval
Policy matters this week
Swati Bansal
Posted on 16 Jul, 2019 10:34 PM

Meghalaya's draft water policy gets approval
Karnataka and Tamil Nadu have been fighting over Cauvery water sharing for a long time (Source: Wikipedia Commons)
Is it all downhill from here for Leh?
Rapid urban growth, scarce water resources and a high risk of natural disasters pose serious challenges for Leh's urban planning and governance.
Juliane Dame
Susanne Schmidt
Judith Müller
Marcus Nüsser
Posted on 09 Jul, 2019 02:05 PM

Across South Asia, small and medium-sized towns are rapidly expanding. Urbanisation has made inroads into the entire Himalayan region. Mountain urbanisation poses a need for assessments of emerging risks and vulnerabilities in environmentally sensitive regions.
The main bazaar of Leh (Image: Christopher Michel, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0)
The need for survival edge technology
Decentralised communitarian technology can mitigate the water crises facing us today.
Subhadra Khaperde
Posted on 02 Jul, 2019 08:58 PM

Decentralised and communitarian efforts in soil and water conservation, sustainable agriculture, afforestation and renewable energy need extensive investment, if the human race is to survive the deepening water, food, energy and climate crises.
Digging an open well that had some water at lesser depths ranging from 5-10 m using local technology in which a motor run winch draws up the dug up mud from the well bottom. (Image: Rahul Banerjee)
Slow monsoon causes countrywide rainfall deficit of 44 percent
In the news this week
Swati Bansal
Posted on 26 Jun, 2019 10:53 AM

Monsoon makes slowest progress across India in 12 years (source: Times of India)
Image used for representational purposes only. Image source: India Water Portal on Flickr
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