Latest & Hottest from AAQ and Discussion Forum!
Posted on June 17, 2008 | Filed Under IWP, Announcements, Volunteer
The Discussion Forum and the Answer A Question Service on India Water Portal remain in a constant state of flux, with a constant turnover of participants and at times a heated exchange of ideas in an intellectually stimulating environment!
Discussion Forum
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Currently on the discussion forum it is drought mitigation techniques and methods that have the experts battling it out.
Read more on the methods proposed the pro’s and con’s of each as the debate moves forward. Would you throw your lot in with cloud seeding, or have ideas regarding conservation and regulated usage? Feel free to join in and have your say, access the Drought Mitigation Discussion here
Parineeta Dandekar’s blog post:Environmental Flows lays out some of the urgent issues and the worrying consequences we are seeing of ignoring water for ecosystems or environment. A thread has been initiated on the Discussion Forum to facilitate further participation and to initiate dialogue on how to move forward.
Access the Environmental Flows Discussion Here
Answer A Question
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Driven by a surfeit of questions and strong response generation from the community the AAQ service continues to thrive!
Currently a rapid to and fro discussion is evolving in the query that questions the rationale for the selection of a 135 liters per day per capita limit, as the Domestic Consumption Level in Urban India. Interested? Read more and get your say in here: Rationale of Domestic Water Consumption Levels
Ever worried about the coliform counts and those leaky pipes that run under our streets? Jarnail Singh in a thought provoking question puts in words what we have always wondered about. He talks about the placement of drinking water pipes with respect to sewage mains, the guidelines that are applicable, at a more practical level about the detection and prevention of leaks in the sewage system. Learn more about the situation here: Sewage Contamination of Water Supply
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Portals on the brain
Posted on June 15, 2008 | Filed Under IWP, Conf, Wkshop, Training, News, Software
Several Knowledge Portals are springing up in different domains. It is interesting to see these. Here is information about some:
1.) The Water Portal was invited to a brainstorming meeting for a AYUSH (Ayurveda, Yoga & Naturopathy,Unani, Siddha, Homoepathy) Portal. The effort is being lead by FRLHT (www.frlht.org) and C-DAC, Pune. The brainstorming was very lively with much input from different particapants — government, NGO, industry, research. All good wishes to them. Photo above is from that session.
2.) National Knowledge Commission had a discussion of the Knowledge Portals that they have been trying to push. The attendees included ourselves, Center for Science and Environment which will be launching the Environment Portal www.indiaenvironmentportal.org, soon, ATREE which is working on a biodiversity Portal, Azim Premji Foundation which is working on a Teacher Training Portal, Apollo Hospitals on a Health Portal, and representatives from FICCI and Entrepreneurship Development Institute which are also involved in Portal efforts. Much animated discussion there too.
3.) In July, www.indg.in, India Development Gateway will be launched at a function in New Delhi by the President. Our best wishes to them ! and the Water Portal is planning to have a booth there.
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Waterless urinal
Posted on June 15, 2008 | Filed Under IWP, Ecosan, Urban Water, International Year of Sanitation
On a recent visit to the National Institute for Advanced Studies, Bangalore (http://www.nias.res.in/, site was down as of 15th June, Saturday night), we saw that the men’s bathroom had waterless urinals from Parryware. There was also a request to turn off the light when leaving the bathroom. Three cheers for NIAS for promoting sustainability in small but important ways.
Some points:
– It seems the urinals were malodorous and the people in the rooms above complained. Some air freshener type thing is being used now for this, and it is effective, we did not feel any odour in the bathroom. So more design work seems necessary. Binayak of Arghyam mentioned that the waterless urinals at UNESCO-IHE ( ) used a odour absorbing material to handle this problem.
– The urinal saves water but what would be even more cool was if the urine was used as fertilizer. One can envision large public facilities like airports and railway stations where all the urine is put to productive use !!
– The contact information at Parryware is http://www.eparryware.com and waterless@parry.murugappa.com
Can we hear more stories of waterless urinal installations and how they are working ?
-Vijay, Water Portal team
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Brief on: Drinking Water Survey by Arghyam via Comat tele-centers
Posted on June 5, 2008 | Filed Under Arghyam, IWP, Technology, Announcements, Volunteer
A Brief on the Drinking Water Survey by Arghyam via Comat tele-centers
Background
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Arghyam in collaboration with Comat is launching a survey on the status of drinking water in parts of rural Karnataka. The survey is unique as it involves getting people on ground to send information (through the use of questionnaires) via IT and internet to Arghyam on a real time basis. Many times, this kind of information is unavailable. Again, information on ground situations including surveys from rural areas take a longer time to reach the decision makers. During this period, an inability by decision makers to know about the ground situation hampers in undertaking proactive solutions. The people continue to suffer as they wait for their problem to reach the administration for a reaction.
Arghyam is keenly interested in feedback and comments regarding the methodology and
usefulness of this survey, and how it may be taken to more places. Add suggestions and feedback in the comments section of this post!
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Project: Comat
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A Bangalore based social enterprise works for various rural projects across the country in areas of e-Governance, and information and communication technologies for development offer services to enable governments and businesses get closer to the rural milieu. Comat operates tele-centers in rural hubs across the country. The tele-centers are equipped with computers and internet and the rural populace uses them to gather information and collect various essential certificates. In Karnataka, Comat has 800 tele centers spread across the hoblis. Arghyam working on water related issues and being the anchor of India Water Portal decided that by utilizing the tele-centers, a large amount of ground data on water can be generated from the people (who visit the tele-centers everyday from different parts of rural Karnataka).
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Method
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To generate data on water related issues, Arghyam followed a survey procedure. For the first survey, the chosen theme is “Drinking water” (themes will change over time). Arghyam designed a simple questionnaire that will generate basic information on source, availability, storage, frequency of supply, and hygiene aspects of drinking water. The questionnaire (both in paper and html format) will be hosted on the Comat tele-centers. Visitors to the tele-centers will fill the questionnaire with the help of the tele-centre operator and their input will be transferred to Arghyam database for further output based on the information.
- Scale
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Currently, the survey will be run across rural Bangalore as a test run, and then (by mid-June) will be scaled up to all the 800 tele-centers across Karnataka.
Timeline:
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For the first survey on drinking water, June to August (being high traffic season in tele-centers) has been tentatively scheduled.
Output:
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During the survey period, the monsoon’s presence will influence the answers that can lead to an interesting pattern. For instance as an example, it will help in understanding whether people use government installed sources for drinking water or are dependent on rain during this period. Similarly, Arghyam will correlate various aspects and generate a set of outputs. The output in the form of charts and brief analysis will be hosted in the India Water Portal. The findings will be printed and shared with the concerned authorities in the districts and at the state level. Further innovations with the output can be expected from Arghyam.
Overall, this survey will help in bridging an important gap in regards to availability of real time data from the ground on water and simultaneously, help in disseminating the information to the decision makers.
Organizations websites:
Comat:http://www.comat.com/index.html
Arghyam: http://www.arghyam.org/
Indian Water Portal: http://indiawaterportal.org/
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Buying an apartment ? Read this !!!
Posted on June 4, 2008 | Filed Under IWP, IEC Material, RWH, Urban Water
We at the Water Portal, came up with some questions to ask the builder when you are buying an apartment. The more educated you are regarding the way the apartment is handling water, the better decision you are likely to make and one that will benefit you immensely in the long term. The builder does not have a natural incentive to think about wise water management as most of us don’t consider this seriously when buying an apartment. If we demand better water management from the builders, they will automatically respond. .
So here are the talking points. This is only a start, and we welcome more input from others to make this a comprehensive resource that people can use:
About planning for the water supply:
What is the builders’ estimate how much water the building likely to consume daily ? What has been the basis for calculation of different water requirement? Where is the water supply for the building going to come from ? What is the realistic picture for the availability of water from different sources that they are planning for ? What is the backup in case the planned option runs into difficulties ? If municipal water supply, what has been the trend of supply in that area ? If water tankers, where is the tanker supplier getting the water from ? Is the supply likely to be viable in the longer term ? What about potability of water source, have they tested the water quality ?
About using Groundwater
2.) If they are depending on groundwater for some or all of the supply, what is the long term sustainability ? Are there many apartment complexes and offices in the vicinity (or likely to come up soon) in which case the demand on the groundwater will be high and groundwater will deplete quickly ? What is the depth to which they went to hit water in the borewell, compare it to other wells in the locality. Is there a strategy to recharge the groundwater ?
About Rainwater harvesting
3.) Is the builder implementing rainwater harvesting ? Rainwater harvesting, either for direct use or groundwater recharge is going to be an extremely useful source of water as the shortages increase. There is no reason why builders cannot implement RWH other than that people do not insist on it. The more people put pressure, the more likely builders will act on this. Have they even heard of rainwater harvesting and the benefits?
If they are using RWH, ask how the cleanliness of the roof (typically where the water is harvested from) will be ensured. Is there a different tank for RWH water and other water supply. How have they calculated the tank size ? If the RWH water is being used for bathroom purposes or (with proper precautions) for drinking purposes, it will have a real impact on the water requirement for the complex. This will need a separate pipeline system for bathroom and kitchen. Has this been implemented ?
About Wastewater Treatment 
4.) Is the wastewater being connected to the city sewage lines ? If not, how is it being handled ? There are strong arguments for implementing a wastewater treatment plant in-house for larger apartment complexes. Not only does it create a source of water for use in landscaping or carwashing, it also reduces pollution of groundwater and reduces strain on the city infrastructure. Again, have they heard of this possibility?
If they are treating wastewater, how are they planning to use or dispose of the treated water. If electricity supply in your area is erratic, does the treatment plant design take that into account ? What will be the process and cost for maintaining the treatment plant ?
Landscaping
5.) Is there a lot of grass and shrubs being planned ? Trees take up less water (and local varieties rather than exotic varieties) are a better option. What are the current plans of watering the green area - the kind of water and the kind of system
Incentivizing water conservation:
6.) The cost of procuring the water for use in the apartment complex is likely to be quite high or is likely to increase rather than decrease. So people need to pay for the water they use rather than paying a fixed amount per apartment. This automatically incentivizes people to conserve water. But when there is no way to measure how much water you are using, there is no way to set up a system that rewards people for using less water. Therefore individual water meters are essential for each apartment ? Are these being installed ?
Water-Saving Devices:
7.) Have the builders installed water-saving devices ? These include low-flow showers, dual flush toilets with smaller tank size, and low-flow tanks.
Other points to think about:
8.) Solid waste management: Is there is a system to segregate garbage into organic and non-organic ? Kitchen waste can be composted locally to provide fertilizer for the garden. Has at least a space been earmarked so that the residents may put a system in place.
9.) Once the Apartment Owner’s Association is in place, it would be good to monitor the water use closely and bill people based on usage. So the water bill for the apartments should be calculated by usage rather than clubbed into the maintenance. Leakages would also need to be monitored. Water loss through leakages and ineffective plumbing is rather large in most housing complexes.
10.) There are several ‘green building’ technologies that are becoming mainstream. These include solar heaters, designing to maximise the use of natural lighting, and to reduce energy requirements for heating or cooling. These kind of technologies will pay off in the long run and need to be incorporated early, as retrofitting will be difficult and more expensive. Builders will start thinking along these lines only if buyers demand these.
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Consultation in New Delhi + usage survey form
Posted on June 1, 2008 | Filed Under Arghyam, IWP, Conf, Wkshop, Training, Announcements, Volunteer
Following up on our previous posting on this:
http://www.indiawaterportal.org/blog/index.php/2008/05/21/630/
We had a good discussion in New Delhi with 30 particapants. We will compile the suggestions received and put them up very soon. Meanwhile we request all users of the Portal (that means you!) to fill out the survey form below and mail it to us (portal@arghyam.org) . We used this survey form at the New Delhi meeting to get feedback from the attendees and if more of you to respond to the same survey form, that would make the sampling more useful. Please take a few minutes to fill out this very short (1 page) survey.
Also given the interest shown in the Delhi meeting, we will certainly do a meeting in Bangalore too with more planning and a fuller agenda. If someone from other cities is passionate about the cause and will help us to organise outreach meetings there too, we would be happy to do that.
Sharada Prasad was there, with his co-conspirator Selje Hernes, and had a lot of stories and some spectacular photographs from his trip. More on that too, on the K2K section of the website, in a day or two: http://www.indiawaterportal.org/k2k
For now then, here are a couple of documents:
List of people who attended the Delhi meeting (few names missing as we were not able to get everyone’s information) : Click here
Survey form for usage of the Portal: India Water Portal Usage Survey
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Water Portal — consultation in New Delhi
Posted on May 24, 2008 | Filed Under Arghyam, IWP, Conf, Wkshop, Training, Announcements, Indian Languages, Software, Volunteer
The Water Portal is planning an informal consultation with users and stakeholders on Saturday May 31st in New Delhi.
Date/Time: The meeting will be between 3:00 and 5:30pm on Saturday May 31st. The Solution Exchange Water Community has very kindly offered to facilitate the meeting at their offices :
UN Conference Hall
UN Building
55 Lodhi Road
New Delhi – 3
Landmark: Opposite India International Center Main Building
Agenda:
1.) To hear from users of the Portal about what they find useful on the Portal, and what we should work on to enhance the value of the Portal.
2.) To communicate new initiatives we are working on already, and get your feedback and suggestions for them. These include launching a Hindi version of the Portal soon (and after that more languages) and the use of other dissemination mechanisms including mobile phone and village kiosks
3.) An introduction to the Solution Exchange Water Community, an online community for sharing of experiences and knowledge.
4.) Sharada Prasad, India Water Portal staff member has been travelling on mobike across the country in the cause of water (see http://www.indiawaterportal.org/k2k). He will join us and share his photos and experiences from across the country. It will surely be an interesting discussion!
The event is open to the public, but please mail us (portal@arghyam.org) to let us know if you are coming in order to get an estimate of the size of the group. We look forward to hearing back from you and meeting up in New Delhi !
We request you to forward this mail to others who might be interested. For clarifications you could contact me at vijay@arghyam.org or 0-98801 37097
A request: As the Water Portal is an open platform for sharing of data and knowledge, we request you to bring with you useful data or other material that could be added to the Portal. It could be in soft- or hardcopy format.
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Water Portal — consultation in New Delhi
Posted on May 21, 2008 | Filed Under Arghyam, IWP, Conf, Wkshop, Training, Announcements, Indian Languages
The Water Portal is planning an informal consultation with users and stakeholders on Saturday May 31st in New Delhi.
Date/Time: The meeting will be between 3:00 and 5:30pm on Saturday May 31st. The Solution Exchange Water Community has very kindly offered to facilitate the meeting at their offices :
UN Conference Hall
UN Building
55 Lodhi Road
New Delhi – 3
Landmark: Opposite India International Center Main Building
Agenda:
1.) To hear from users of the Portal about what they find useful on the Portal, and what we should work on to enhance the value of the Portal.
2.) To communicate new initiatives we are working on already, and get your feedback and suggestions for them. These include launching a Hindi version of the Portal soon (and after that more languages) and the use of other dissemination mechanisms including mobile phone and village kiosks
3.) An introduction to the Solution Exchange Water Community, an online community for sharing of experiences and knowledge.
4.) Sharada Prasad, India Water Portal staff member has been travelling on mobike across the country in the cause of water (see http://www.indiawaterportal.org/k2k). He will join us and share his photos and experiences from across the country. It will surely be an interesting discussion!
The event is open to the public, but please mail us (portal@arghyam.org) to let us know if you are coming in order to get an estimate of the size of the group. We look forward to hearing back from you and meeting up in New Delhi !
We request you to forward this mail to others who might be interested. For clarifications you could contact me at vijay@arghyam.org or 0-98801 37097
A request: As the Water Portal is an open platform for sharing of data and knowledge, we request you to bring with you useful data or other material that could be added to the Portal. It could be in soft- or hardcopy format.
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Arghyam — funding for projects in wastewater management
Posted on May 16, 2008 | Filed Under Arghyam, IWP, Announcements, Awards/RFPs/Competitions, Urban Water, International Year of Sanitation
Arghyam is a public philanthropic trust based in Bangalore focussing on the water sector. Arghyam was founded in 2001 with a private endowment from Ms. Rohini Nilekani. Arghyam financially supports and anchors the India Water Portal. More about Arghyam at www.arghyam.org
During the current financial year (2008-09) Arghyam is looking to support innovative projects/interventions in the field of wastewater treatment & management in a rural or peri-urban area. If you have an interesting proposal on these lines please send your brief Concept Note to us for consideration. More information on the project selection process is at:
http://arghyam.org/content/view/59/68/ . You can also contact us at manohar@arghyam.org
S. Mahohar Rao
Arghyam
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And He’s Off !!
Posted on April 24, 2008 | Filed Under Arghyam, IWP, News, Software
Sharada Prasad is leaving for his all-India trip in a couple of days.
Here’s a message from him on the occasion. Follow his trip on http://www.indiawaterportal.org/k2k
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Hello Friends,
The day is almost here. I would be taking off on Saturday, 26th April at 9:00AM from Madivala Lake. The co-ordinates are 12.908700, 77.614846
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=12.908700,+77.614846&ie=UTF8&z=16&iwloc=addr
It will be a very informal ceremony. I will request you all to make it to the event to the extent possible. Please note that I need to leave exactly at 9:00AM just to reach Pondicherry in time for the first community interaction scheduled at around 17:00hrs.
In any case - here are the few words for people (Sripad and Lokesh) who started planning with me for the trip and for some or the other reasons will not be able to join me on this trip - I will surely miss you all. Without your ideas and support, I would have not thought of doing it.
Thanks to Ashwini Manjunath, Anand Alur, Nandini, Padmini, Ashok, Somashekhar, Lakshmi, Tulasi, Ranganath and many others who helped me get the right gear required for the trip.
Special thanks to Prashanth Pillai, Navroze Contractor, Raghavendra P and Srivatsa for the last minute help and support and to Santosh and Manju Moms for continuous encouragement.
I will be available on this BSNL number - +91 9480447094 . Leave a message. I will call you people back. I would be accessing internet intermittently. You can also leave a message with Manikeswari at my office on +91 - 080 - 41698941. She will convey the message the moment I am on network.
You can follow me on twitter - http://twitter.com/sharadaprasad . I will be updating my lat-long almost every two hours (you need to paste them into Google Maps search box to get my latest location). Depending upon the internet connection, I would be updating blogs, GPS tracks and photographs on http://www.indiawaterportal.org/k2k/ Please follow my ride there and leave your comments.
I am deeply indebted to Arghyam for the financial and logistic support and to its partners and friends for helping me with community interaction.
I will keep you guys posted.
So long, my friends.
Regards,
Sharada
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