Articles

Floods in Majuli Assam. Photo credit: Mitul Baruah

Beyond the death toll: The everyday violence of Assam’s floods

Mitul Baruah from Ashoka University narrates personal experiences of people affected by floods in Majuli, Assam.

CCMobile App compatible with Android and iOS, tends to connect farmers with their crop (Image: YourStory)

Mobile agri-advisory services provide timely and relevant advice to farmers. But do they translate to practice in the field?

A cluster of mangroves on the banks of Vellikeel river in Kannur, Kerala (Image: Wikimedia Commons; CC BY-SA 3.0)

Mangroves: Powerhouses of carbon storage the planet desperately needs

Mangroves are carbon-dense ecosystems that can play an important role in carbon storage, study suggests.

Rescue efforts underway during the floods in Chennai in 2015 (Source: IWP Flickr photos)

Floods claim 227 lives; Centre proposes river basin management bill to check floods

News this week

Many springs in the Himalayas have reduced discharge. (Source: India Water Portal)

Government set to conserve India's springs

Policy matters this week

Picture: The semi-arid regions of the Moyar-Bhavani River basin in Tamil Nadu. Picture credit: Prathigna Poonacha, Tanvi Deshpande; Indian Institute for Human Settlements from India Water Portal on Flickr. Picture used for representational purposes only

P Sainath: The water crisis is not caused by drought

Magsaysay award winner & founder-editor of PARI, P Sainath analyses India's water scarcity, the agrarian crisis & farmer suicides, before asking: what can we do about it?

Fishermen use wastewater of Kolkata to rear fish (Image Source: India Water Portal)

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.

India ranked 13th in the list of most water-stressed country in the world (Source: IWP Flickr photos)

Jal Shakti Abhiyan hits ground rolling as India ranks 13th most water-stressed country in the world

News this week

Groundwater drops to alarming levels. Illustration credit: KN Balraj. Source: India Water Portal on Flickr

Government undertakes 3D mapping of aquifers in all villages

Policy matters this week

Residents of Muthulakshmi Nagar in Chitlapakkam came together to inaugurate the pilot roadside rainwater harvesting project in their area. Pic : L Sundararaman for Citizen Matters

Jolted by water shortage, Chitlapakkam RWA takes up roadside rainwater harvesting.

Chennai residents take matters into their hands in a novel initiative

Ramakrishna Bovi is a traditional well-digger in Bengaluru. Image credit: Citizen Matters

"Digging recharge wells is the only way Bengaluru won’t run out of water"

A million recharge wells for Bangalore

Children at the Chingari Trust, Bhopal. Pic: Shuriah Niazi for Citizen Matters

35 years on, government looks away as Bhopal neighbourhood continues to drink chemical-laden water

Bhopal Gas Leak: Long Term Impact

Cauvery river in Karnataka (Source: IWP Flickr photos)

Lok Sabha passes inter-state river disputes bill

Policy matters this week

There is need to improve the environmental performance of the fertiliser sector through multi-directional initiatives (Image: MaDailyGist)

Fertiliser sector’s bleak record on water use in India

A recent report by CSE rates fertilizer plants on how green the sector is.

Villagers in Magradeh, Madhya Pradesh watching neighbouring farmers play a game. Image credit: Water Practitioners Network

All work and some play

Collective action games trigger conversations around the nature of the invisible and immeasurable common pool resource - groundwater.

Quick fix solutions to droughts will not work (Image Source: Wikimedia Commons)

Is the Jalayukt Shivar Abhiyan just a quick fix to manage droughts?

A research paper argues that quick fix solutions to drought management will not work unless they are backed up by proper planning, implementation, monitoring and regulation of water use.

A farmer in Pochampally (Image:Saurabh Chatterjee, Flickr Commons, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

How do farmers perceive soil erosion?

A study in Telangana argues that farmers’ expertise is important while assessing the severity of soil erosion.

The Himalayas (Source: IWP Flickr photos)

Himalayan states call for green bonus and a separate ministry

News this week

Raibari Bewa standing near the toilet, bathroom unit and collecting water from the third tap in Dudukaguda village, in Thuamul Rampur block, Kalahandi district of Odisha. On the walls, details of Swachh Bharat Mission benefits availed by her in Odia | Picture courtesy: Ajaya Behera

Rural sanitation: A charter of demands

Research & experience over 20 years in rural Odisha shows that an effective rural sanitation model requires both financial assistance & an integrated water supply.