The recent floods in North Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh have caused widespread devastation.Government and civil society organisations have responded quickly and relief work is going on on a wide scale. There will be a high degree of activity in relief and  rehabilitation for the next 6 months for sure.

Floods are a fairly common feature in many parts of the country. Last year saw unprecendented flooding and misery in N.Bihar with the burst of the Kosi river embankment near Kushaha. Last year also saw severe flooding in Orissa and parts of UP, and this year Cyclone Aila devasted parts of West Bengal.

As an information dissemination site, India Water Portal has been tracking these events and trying to provide support to people working in the flood affected areas in various ways eg. connecting donors and donees, providing techical information related to safe water and sanitation in floods, information dissemination etc. We are limited by our time and resources but we find that much more could be done in these areas. Further, we find this is a very good area for students, particularly of media and journalism to get involved. We would therefore like have a few students work with us on an internship project related to the floods.

The nature of the work is as follows:

• To help the India Water Portal serve as an information hub and as a site where different people connected to flood relief work can connect and share information.To report independantly as possible on the work being done and bring to light information that is not already widely known.
• To analyse media reporting of the floods to find patterns, make connections etc.
• For someone interested in mapping, we could explore how mapping could be useful in these situations.

This is a project that would best be done by 2-4 students working well together as a group. It would be particularly suited to students of media and journalism though others with an interest in these areas are also suitable. Those with interest in the use of IT for the development sector would also find this a good opportunity. The project could be a 2-6 month project and could be done part-time. Working space at the Arghyam office during this time might be possible. You would need to have your own computer to work on. The remaining modalities could be worked out.

Please contact us at - portal@arghyam.org