Sambalpur

Water Initiatives Orissa (WIO) and the Indian River Network (IRN) organised the Odisha River Conference during 18 - 20 April 2009 at Sambalpur Odisha, in which about 75 participants including activists, environmentalists, journalists, academicians, researchers and civil society representatives from across the country participated. The "Sambalpur Declaration" released during this conference by the participants, calls for saving the rivers from their current degradation and giving communities their traditional rights over the rivers, amongst other strong resolutions on the subject.Read More

Read the Sambalpur Declaration

This case study of Padiabadmal village in Sambalpur district by Manav Adhikar Seva Samiti (MASS) advocates traditional water harvesting as a solution to Western Orissa's perennial drought. Known for its agricultural prosperity in the past Western Orissa is now infamous for its parched reality of water scarcity, migration, starvation and all the woes attached to a ‘perennially drought-ridden’ society. In the last 100 years this belt has already had around 42 drought attacks, most of it coming after 1965.Read More