Conservation - Reducing Water Usage

Featured Articles
December 29, 2020
Challenges to India’s urban water security and future growth patterns
Water resources in most Indian cities are overworked and overused, and not adequately replenished.
Cities in India are marked by unequal distribution of water, lack of access, outdated infrastructure and minimal enforcement of rainwater harvesting and other means of supply. (Image: Anish Roy, Pixabay)
December 13, 2019
Trading in virtual water
A study highlights the need to scale down the export of rice, maize, buffalo meat and other items to conserve groundwater in India.
A farmer uses a hosepipe to irrigate crops at her farm in Nilgiris mountains, Tamil Nadu (Image: Hamish John Appleby for IWMI, Flickr Commons, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
December 11, 2019
Replacing rice will improve India’s climate resilience
A study calls for solutions that can benefit farmers and the environment and positively impact India's nutrition indicators.
Rice field in Karnataka (Image: Guldem Ustun, Flickr Commons, CC BY 2.0)
December 6, 2019
Holistic approach needed to clean the Ganga
A report by the India Rivers Forum highlights the need to focus further than the main stem of the Ganga river.
Distant snow clad mountains, the smaller hills and the Ganga river (Image: Srimoyee Banerjee, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0)
December 4, 2019
In wake of climate change, prioritise and invest in water security and clean drinking water
To adapt well & build resilience, climate change strategies need to factor in efforts towards water security, writes Vanita Suneja, Regional Advocacy Manager (South Asia), WaterAid.
Image credit: WaterAid/Prashanth Vishwanathan
December 2, 2019
Water stewardship approach to minimizing risks for businesses
Water stewardship is an approach predicated on the concept that water is a shared resource and so water risks are also shared risks that everyone in a catchment will face
Picture credit: Romit Sen
Digital water infrastructure to help India become water independent
Digital water infrastructure has a great potential in solving India's water crisis by preventing wastage and encouraging optimum use of water. aartikelkar posted 2 weeks 2 days ago

The rising water crisis in India
Smart water meters for efficient use of scarce water resources (Image Source: Wikimedia Commons)
Challenges to India’s urban water security and future growth patterns
Water resources in most Indian cities are overworked and overused, and not adequately replenished. Amita Bhaduri posted 2 weeks 3 days ago

Linkages between water security and socio-economic growth
Cities in India are marked by unequal distribution of water, lack of access, outdated infrastructure and minimal enforcement of rainwater harvesting and other means of supply. (Image: Anish Roy, Pixabay)
Increasing water security for the urban underserved
A pilot study with Composite Water Vulnerability Index tool designed for ranking of slums shows that 30% households are Beyond the Pipe (BtP). Amita Bhaduri posted 1 month 2 weeks ago

Piramal Sarvajal, the safe drinking water initiative of Piramal Foundation launched a tool named Composite Water Vulnerability Index (CWVI) at its recent webinar on ‘Sustainable water security for urban underserved’ hosted in association with Center for Water and Sanitation (CWAS) and Centre for Environmental Planning and Technology (CEPT).

Piramal Sarvajal and Center for Water and Sanitation launch the Composite Water Vulnerability Index Tool (Image: Piramal Sarvajal)
Ahar pynes: Traditional flood harvesting systems of South Bihar
The Ahar pynes of South Bihar are a classic example of a community managed irrigation systems and need urgent revival. aartikelkar posted 1 month 3 weeks ago


Ahar pynes, the ingenious community managed irrigation systems of South Bihar
Ahar Pyne system in Gaya, South Bihar (Image courtesy: Hindi Water Portal)
Leave no household behind
Access to basic entitlements is a critical safety net for vulnerable communities. aartikelkar posted 1 month 4 weeks ago

In the early weeks of the lockdown, we, at Hindustan Unilever Foundation, had a rather humbling epiphany. We had all the data we needed on the households that we work with in our water conservation programmes: their landholding, crop choices, yields from each season, source of water, number of water conservation structures built, amount of water saved, and so on.
Basic entitlements, a safety net for vulnerable communities (Image Source: India Water Portal Flickr photos)
Data-driven ‘water and agriculture’ planning: The big picture
If data was better organized and available for download in more ‘user-friendly’ formats, its utilization would improve manifold. Amita Bhaduri posted 3 months ago

India is fortunate to have a rich tradition of public data collection and compilation.
The quality of our public data is highly variable, yet if analyses and interpretation are done keeping in mind some of the limitations, the datasets can be a precious resource at the meso and macro level. (Image: Pixabay)
Where does the water in a well come from?
In the water sector, the focus on fixing demand and supply is taking us away from the real problem - the unnoticed groundwater dependencies in ever-expanding urban India. aartikelkar posted 3 months 2 weeks ago

The environment versus development debate has increasingly become more polarised, with discussions in the public domain revealing a stark contrast of views. Development has increasingly come to symbolise ‘doing something’ and ensuring ‘visible outputs’, largely in the form of infrastructure.
An open well in Maharashtra (Image Source: IWP Flickr photos) Image used for representational purposes only.
IUKWC Virtual User Engagement Initiative 2020
The India UK Water Centre welcomes you to a free, online event to engage with new water research tools and methods that could contribute to your operational practice. Swati Bansal posted 4 months 1 week ago

IUKWC has put together a set of interviews with researchers from six Indo-UK projects that provide an overview of their research outputs and how these can support water operations, management and/or decision making.

Fully interactive - interviewees will be available to answer your questions during two hour windows
Tank desiltation scheme in Maharashtra: Policy concerns and way forward
Maharashtra has been implementing the Gaalmukt Dharan, Gaalyukt Shivar Yojana (GDGS) scheme since 2017. How has it fared and what needs to be done to improve it further? aartikelkar posted 6 months ago

Tank systems of India
Desiltation activities undertaken under the GDGS in Maharahstra (Image Source: NASHIKONWEB.COM)
Repurposing microirrigation to deal with water woes
Microirrigation does not often bring about a change in cropping patterns, with farmers continuing with water-intensive crops. Amita Bhaduri posted 6 months 2 weeks ago

India is likely to face stark water scarcity in the coming decades as a result of excessive use, according to the World Resources Institute (WRI)’s Aqueduct Water Risk Atlas - a tool to visualise and assess water stress and drought and flood risk covering
Irrigation pump supplying water for drip irrigation (Image: IWMI Flickr, (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0))
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