Articles

Land and environmental approvals needed for faecal sludge treatment facilities
There is an urgent need for specific guidelines and rules for the selection of sites for setting up faecal sludge treatment facilities.
The site for the FSTP should be able to accommodate pres­ent and anticipated future requirements. (Image: SCI-FI, CPR)
Over 97 million Indians were currently being exposed to extreme floods: Report
News this week
75 percent districts in India are hotspots of extreme climate events (Source: IWP Flickr photos))
Submit report on the need for clearance of National Waterway-1: NGT to MoEF
Policy matters this week
Motor-driven ferries at Varanasi (Source: IWP Flickr photos)
Getting communities engaged in faecal sludge management
Community engagement structures, espe­cially at the slum and ward level, can take on roles with adequate capacity building and training inputs.
Community engagement structures at the slum level have ensured that the most mar­ginalized and vulnerable sections of a city, that is, the slum communities now have a voice. (Image: SCI-FI, CPR)
Air pollution: Filling the gaps
Controlling air pollution needs long-term holistic solutions such as a reduction in the usage of biomass, coal and lignite, and agricultural residues.
All Indian cities like Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Bengaluru and Hyderabad surpass the air quality standards by a significant margin (Image: United Nations; CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
Lost to fluorosis
Fluoride contamination is leaving villagers in Barhet block of Jharkhand crippled, while authorities struggle to find solutions.
The state needs to play a key role in identifying fluorosis as well as in developing and executing an action plan to control it. (Image: Rab Nawaz Alam)
Strengthening institutional arrangements for faecal sludge management
Project Nirmal created sub-city level (slum and ward) engagement structures to enable meaningful participation of all house­holds, in the planning and management of sanitation service delivery.
An assessment at the beginning of Project Nirmal indicated the absence of institutional mechanisms for effec­tive coordination and collaboration among the various government departments across state, district and local levels (Image: SuSanA Secretariat)
Putting faecal sludge management on track
The cost and revenue projections for both on-demand and scheduled desludging scenarios were elaborated upon in the faecal sludge management plan for Dhen­kanal Municipality.
Faecal Sludge Treatment Plant at Dhenkanal, Odisha
Crafts bloom in the parched Thar desert!
Communities from the harshest part of the country, the Thar desert, cope with drought, through their art.
Art, to deal with drought (Image Source: Rituja Mitra)
Science, fiction and sustainability
Can science-based fictional narratives help us develop a vision of a sustainable future?
Science fiction is interrelated to sustainability because it highlights to us about possibilities. (Image: Peter Fischer, Pixabay)
Faecal sludge management policy environment for small towns: Taking a wider view
Project Nirmal helped Odisha to become a front runner among states with a comprehensive policy framework on faecal sludge management.
Odisha is trying to fa­cilitate adoption of FSM by Urban Local Bodies so that sewage, septage/ faecal sludge, and liquid waste is safely managed, treated, and dis­posed. (Image: SCI-FI, CPR)
Plundered rivers, vanishing ecosystems: Sandmining in India’s west
While sandmining is increasingly killing rivers in India, what is the state of rivers in western India?
River sand continues to be plundered for the construction industry (Source: P Jeganathan/Wikimedia Commons)
Embracing planning for faecal sludge management: The tale of two towns
How to plan for and implement FSM related initiatives in small towns?
Project Nirmal demonstrates appropriate, low-cost, decentralized, inclusive and sustainable sanitation service delivery solutions for two small towns (Angul and Dhenkanal) in Odisha. (Image: SCI-FI, CPR)
Mobile technology for non-profits
What are the factors that need to be considered when procuring mobile devices?
Nonprofits generally operate on a tight budget and the right technology solution can be of great help. (Image: Pixabay)
Study using geo-tagged bottles unravels plastic pollution
News this week
Plastic pollution by a river (Source: IWP Flickr photos)
New packaged drinking water rules to apply from January 1, 2021
Policy matters this week
Filtration plants in a packaging water units (Image source: Tushar Trivedi)
Connecting the dots: Reimagining water security at scale
Can digital technology aid in bringing samaj, bazaar and sarkar closer to solve water and livelihood issues? What do learnings from the ground show?
Connecting the dots (Image Source: www.kudumbshree.org, kudumbashree via Wikimedia Commons)
District development, data and diversity: Lessons and the way forward
Though we have highly sophisticated ways of depicting data nowadays, we have gone backwards on linking data with decision making.
The quality of the government data for schematic reporting has improved as compared to 20 years ago, that does not necessarily mean that planning has improved (Image: Pikist)
Not in the interest of women farmers!
The new farm related bills will spell doom for women workers who form the bulk of small and marginal sections of Indian agriculture, warns Mahila Kisan Adhikaar Manch (MAKAAM).
Farm women, overworked and underpaid (Image Source: India Water Portal)
Illegal sand mining led to 193 deaths in two years, says report
News this week
Sand mining on the banks of Tapti (Source: IWP Flickr photos)