Governance

Featured Articles
January 4, 2021
Should we bet more on historians than engineers to sort flooding?
How the historian's method is invaluable in developing an understanding of floods.
Need to consider the perspective of the historians who see floods as a naturally occurring event. (Image: Wikimedia Commons)
January 1, 2021
Delhi smog can’t be blamed on crop fires
There is more to Delhi's air pollution than stubble burning in Punjab and Haryana.
The small window of a fortnight between rice harvesting and wheat sowing compels farmers to burn the crop residue (Image: Neil Palmer, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY SA-4.0 Generic)
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Cities in India are marked by unequal distribution of water, lack of access, outdated infrastructure and minimal enforcement of rainwater harvesting and other means of supply.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 12, 2020
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)
December 8, 2020
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)
December 7, 2020
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)
UNLEASH Hacks Bharat | Invitation for Application to Build Climate Resilient India
Through a collaborative 2-day process, passionate youth across India will have the opportunity to work with local stakeholders and community leaders towards the SDGs 13 & 8. Swati Bansal posted 5 months ago

Marginalized communities across the country are facing the brunt of climate change which is not only questioning their survival but is also affecting their livelihood.
Online Training: Design and Implementation of DEWATS
CDD Society is organising an 'Online Training on DEWAT' to impart the knowledge and skills required for planning, designing, implementing, and managing DEWATS. Swati Bansal posted 5 months ago

The Consortium for DEWATS™ Dissemination (CDD) Society is organising an "Online Training on DEWATS" to impart the knowledge and skills required for planning, designing, implementing, and managing DEWATS™ (Decentralised Wastewater Treatment System).
Gender-sensitive response to the climate crisis
Gender-transformative approaches are needed for climate adaptation, to lessen the stresses that force people to migrate. Amita Bhaduri posted 5 months ago

A crowd of people jostling by the ticket counter at Jhansi railway station in Uttar Pradesh; men and women, some with families in tow, boarding trains to Delhi, Lucknow, Mumbai and other big cities. These are common sights during the summer months at Jhansi, a major town and railway junction.
Women and girls spend a considerable amount of their time in fetching water. (Image: Romit Sen)
Groundwater extraction: NGT gets strict with commercial entities
Policy matters this week Swati Bansal posted 5 months ago

NGT bans granting general permissions for groundwater extraction to commercial entities
NGT gets strict with commercial entities (Source: IWP Flickr album)
Monsoon experiences a countrywide deficit of 10 percent in July
News this week Swati Bansal posted 5 months ago

Monsoon 2020: Countrywide deficit of 10 percent in July; September may have heavy rains
July experiences rain deficit of 10 percent (Source: IWP Flickr photos)
Amphan’s impact on farming and livelihood in Sunderbans
Millions of people's homes were swept away and farmlands destroyed during cyclone Amphan in Sunderbans. Amita Bhaduri posted 5 months ago

The Amphan cyclone has disfigured the lives of people living in the Sundarbans. Houses have been torn apart, farms have been filled with brackish water making the land unsuitable for farming and betel leaves have been destroyed. People in the Sundarbans are in a life-threatening situation with makeshift shacks to live in and no means to earn a living.
Betel (popularly used in paan) plantation is a major occupation in the Sundarbans. Pulak Bhakta is assessing the damage done to his plantation right after Amphan. The plantation is spread over two and a half bigha of land. According to Pulak, the total loss he has suffered is around INR 3 lakhs. Pulak already bears the burden of a loan which he had taken to set up his plantation. His future seems uncertain and bleak now. (Image: WaterAid/ Subhrajit Sen)
Banking on rainwater harvesting
National Water Mission’s campaign aims at creating rainwater harvesting structures in various parts of India. Amita Bhaduri posted 5 months ago

National Water Mission’s (NWM) has launched a campaign ‘Catch the rain’ on a pan India basis to nudge the states and stakeholders to create appropriate rainwater harvesting structures (RWHS) suitable to the climatic conditions and sub-soil strata before the onset of monsoon.
As a part of the campaign, work is being done on various interventions such as water for productive use, improving irrigation practices, creating water recharge structures (Image: Pikist)
Understanding Atal Bhujal Yojana through the program guidelines
The program envisages promoting panchayat led groundwater management and behavioural change with a primary focus on demand-side management. Amita Bhaduri posted 5 months 1 week ago

Groundwater fulfills the drinking water requirements of nearly 85% and 50% of the rural and urban Indian population, respectively. 65% of the total irrigated area utilizes groundwater. It also caters to the water needs of the industrial sector in India.
Community participation is expected to facilitate bottom-up groundwater planning process to improve the effectiveness of public financing and align implementation of various government programs on groundwater in the participating states (Image: Water Alternatives, Flickr Commons)
Bihar floods: 'Living on 2.5 Kg flattened rice’
Only 4,18,490 of the 56.53 lakh people have been evacuated from the floods so far, and people are forced to survive on meagre rations provided by the government. Swati Bansal posted 5 months 1 week ago

Two weeks ago, the Kanakai River flowing through Kishanganj rendered dozens of families homeless. While the people in the region are staying under plastic sheds, the government has turned a blind eye to their plight.

Mohammadin is also one of them. He tells the India Water Portal,
Locals engaged in repair of broken embankment in Darbhanga (Source: Umesh Kumar Ray)
"Everything’s devastated, and no one is listening to us!"
Surrounded by flood waters, and taking shelter at rooftops with a limited supply of food and drinking water, people of Bihar wait for the floods to end. Swati Bansal posted 5 months 1 week ago

"All of a sudden, water entered the house at night. Goods and cattle were submerged. There is no place to eat or drink. We have been in trouble for three days, but no one has come to help us.” The elderly Gauri Singh complains, with mixed feelings of anger, pain and helplessness. 
Floodwater enters Satjoda village of Chapra (Source: Umesh Kumar Ray)
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