India Water Portal Blog
Hello and welcome to the official IWP Blog!
The blog was launched as an attempt to make IWP portal more useful to our visitors. Through our helpful and informative blog articles, we wish to provide the opportunity for participants to discuss important water related issues with IWP members. If you’re unfamiliar with our blog, take a few moments to read a few posts..We also encourage you to consider commenting and subscribing on our articles.
From dead rock, the trees return: The quiet work of one person, who has pioneered a village movement to restore and revive the forests and water bodies of the Himalayas
From the Tehelka Magazine, Jan 27 , 2007 Issue.
Since the 1980s, one man’s quiet effort has pioneered a village movement to restore the forests of Uttarakhand’s denuded hills. Sanjay Dubey profiles Sachchidanand Bharti.
There is little to set Sachchidanand Bharti apart from others in the village of Ufrain Khal, and it is only when he greets us with a rose and a warm hug that we realise that this unassuming man is the person we have come to meet. As we look out over the valley beyond, the hills around us reflect his extraordinary achievement — with no financial assistance apart from the contributions of villagers, Bharti has transformed large parts of the once-denuded Dudhatoli range in Uttarakhand’s Pauri district into the best and thickest forests in the state.
Posted on: Friday, February 5, 2010 - 17:13 | Responses: (0)
Foundation for Ecological Security-Infochange Reporting Fellowships 2010
The Foundation for Ecological Security and www.infochangeindia.org invite applications to a special round of fellowships to research and report on the subject of Common Property Resources (CPR).
Common property resources include forests, grazing lands, rivers, groundwater, irrigation systems, tanks, pastures, inland fisheries and coastal fishing, as well as traditional knowledge and seed/genetic resources.
Posted on: Friday, February 5, 2010 - 16:05 | Responses: (0)
Water Harvesting for Agriculture
How they pulled their farm back from the brink
"Trying to measure the success of water harvesting only with increased water level is not fair. The vegetation improves, so does the soil moisture. Shree Padre reports on an arecanut farming family's success.
Posted on: Thursday, February 4, 2010 - 17:36 | Responses: (0)
The Lost Lakes of Bangalore - A contest
The Lost Lakes of Bangalore is a project to document Bengaluru’s many tanks and lakes which have vanished with urbanization and growth. As part of this project India Water Portal is organizing a contest for schools and colleges to document this aspect of Bengaluru's history.
Posted on: Thursday, February 4, 2010 - 13:25 | Responses: (0)
Training Programme on understanding and resolving Water Conflicts
Forum for Policy Dialogue on Water Conflicts (Forum) in India, in collaboration with the Chalakudi Puzha Samrakshan Samiti and Kerala State Resource Centre of the Forum, is organizing a Training Programme on Understanding and Resolving Water Conflicts from 5 to 8 April 2010 in Kerala (the exact location in Kerala would be announced later).
Posted on: Tuesday, February 2, 2010 - 16:23 | Responses: (0)
Contest to mark World Wetlands Day
VIJAYAWADA: School children will be with one another to list the number of animals and plants they can recognise in a competition being held by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and the Forest Department at Kaikaluru on Tuesday.
Posted on: Tuesday, February 2, 2010 - 15:19 | Responses: (0)
World Wetlands Day Celebration at Yamuna Biodiversity Park
The Yamuna Biodiversity Park (YBP) invites all citizens to celebrate the World Wetlands Day on the 2nd of February. This date marks the signing of the ‘Convention on Wetlands’ in 1971 at Ramsar, Iran. The 2010 Wetlands Day theme is “Caring for Wetlands – an Answer to Climate Change”. The theme highlights the fact that wetlands, with their biodiversity, can help mitigate climate change.
Posted on: Tuesday, February 2, 2010 - 15:10 | Responses: (0)
World Wetlands Day 2010 to be observed by Orissa’s Chilika Development Authority
Bhubaneswar: World Wetlands Day is observed on 2 February every year. It marks the date of signing of the convention on wetlands on 2nd February 1971 in the Iranian city of Ramsar. This day presents us with a welcome opportunity to join together in celebrating the benefits that we all receive from wetlands, as well as to raise the awareness of the local communities who derive their livelihood about the importance of these vital ecosystems for our common future. The Ramsar Bureau (Secretariat) took a decision to observe the World wetland day on 2nd February in 1997. Chilika Development Authority has been observing World Wetlands Day way back from 1997 i.e. from the first year of observation of WWD.
The WWD is observed by CDA in and around Chilika Lake with the active participation of local communities. For optimizing the objectives of the WWD celebration instead of observing it at Bhubaneswar it is invariably observed in and around Chilika by CDA .
Posted on: Tuesday, February 2, 2010 - 14:57 | Responses: (0)
Vanishing Wisdom: Article on decline of traditional chaals in Uttarakhand
Across Uttarakhand, traditional systems do the disappearing act, reports AMITANGSHU ACHARYA
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Preserve women in Uttarakhand build secure futures with traditional chaals |
SITTING ON the mud porch of his house in Uttarakhand, 80-year old Maulya Singh looks stoically at the burnt stumps of pine a few metres away and talks philosophically of the land drying up. His daughter-in-law is, however, more concerned about the practicalities. As most springs in the village are dry, she is forced to trudge farther and farther afield to get drinking water. Maulya Singh interrupts, “If there are no chaals, where will the water in the springs come from?”
IN THE year gone by, Uttarakhand reeled under the impact of a climate gone awry. The rain required for the main crop, wheat, was 90 percent less than normal. Average temperatures in summer had soared to the highest in 39 years. The temperatures in turn lead to severe forest fires which charred 2,426 hectares of forest. In the Garhwal region, there were 665 forest fires.
Maulya’s question about the land drying up is innately connected to the rising temperatures. It is a connection that elders in villages across Uttarkashi and Tehri Garhwal are talking about as they worry about the disappearing chaals. But what is a chaal? Many years ago, shepherds looking for drinking water found small ponds between hill crests. In an effort to harvest the water, earthen walls were constructed around the ponds, which came to be known as chaals.
Posted on: Tuesday, February 2, 2010 - 12:28 | Responses: (0)
Public-Private Partnerships in Water Sector: Partnerships or Privatisation?
About the Book –
Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) are supposed to provide solutions to many of the existing problems related to infrastructure projects – in both execution and operation. Currently, there are PPP projects in almost all the sectors including roads, ports, airports, water, sewerage, solid waste management and transport among others. It is, therefore, important to do a reality check on PPP projects and their efficacy in addressing the problems faced by the public sector water supply services and other infrastructure sectors as well.
The report looks at various aspects of PPPs, beginning from why PPPs have come to be regarded as the major approach for infrastructure development in the country, the circumstances that lead to the change in approach from direct privatisation to public-private partnerships, the current status of the PPP projects that are being executed in India, especially in the water sector, to the current estimates and projections of investment requirements for infrastructure development in India by governments and International Financial Institutions (IFIs).
Posted on: Monday, February 1, 2010 - 17:17 | Responses: (0)
