Rural Water

Featured Articles
October 25, 2019
Mapping Pune’s aquifers
Groundwater use has doubled in Pune. Comprehensive mapping of groundwater resources and better management and governance is the need of the hour.
Groundwater, an exploited resource (Image Source: India Water Portal)
October 24, 2019
How farm ponds in Madhya Pradesh are building agricultural resilience
An intern with Watershed Organisation Trust narrates his field experience from the villages of Madhya Pradesh, where farmers are using farm ponds to conserve water.
A farm pond constructed by Sheshrao Dhurve in Karaghat Kamti village of Madhya Pradesh
October 21, 2019
In conversation with K. J. Joy of SOPPECOM
In this interview, Joy talks about his work as an activist working in rural Maharashtra, and how he came to work on water conflicts in India.
KJ Joy speaks at a felicitation for the late Professor Ramaswamy Iyer.
October 16, 2019
Jal Jeevan Mission: States to bear half the cost, local bodies to decide water charges
Policy matters this week
Women filling water from a tap (Source: IWP Flickr photos)
October 1, 2019
From droughts to floods: India’s tryst with climate extremes
Deconstructing the traditional narrow engineering based policy discourses around floods and droughts and connecting them to social and cultural realities is the need of the hour in India.
Water talk Series at Mumbai (Image Source:Tata Insitute of Social Sciences)
September 30, 2019
The Water Future Conference in Bangalore: Towards a Sustainable Water Future
The recently concluded 4 day conference in Bangalore looked at the current state of global water resource challenges & future pathways to achieve the SDGs, while ensuring equity in access to all.
Charles Vorosmarty, Chair, COMPASS Initiative, Water Future at the opening plenary on advanced water system assessments to address water security challenges of the 21st century.
Join the Environment Club's Jal Chaupal at Arnawali village, Meerut
Swati Bansal posted 2 weeks ago Jal Chaupal

About the Paani Ki Baat Campaign: The situation of the constantly falling groundwater levels is worrisome, if it is to be raised, awareness has to
Testing of drinking water gets easy for users
Policy matters this week Swati Bansal posted 4 weeks 2 days ago

Testing drinking water gets easy thanks to JJM and ICMR
Farmer taking water from a hand pump (Source: IWP Flickr photos)
Looking for water filters to distribute in rural areas in India
(not verified) posted 2 months 1 week ago

Hi there,

Very soon I am going on a road trip all across India covering rural areas in India.

If you are willing to give me water filters (I have heard a lot about NirNal), which I can distribute on my way in the villages, schools where children don't get to drink clean water. This will bring me immense happiness and I will feel my trip as fulfilled.
Budget 2021: What does it have for the water and agriculture sector
The allocation in the water and agriculture sector is inadequate to deal with the sectoral challenges. Amita Bhaduri posted 2 months 2 weeks ago

COVID-19 pandemic brought clean water, basic hygiene practices and sanitation to the centre stage with these becoming crucial to deal with the health crisis.
India’s water resources are getting degraded day by day, be it rivers, streams, lakes, ponds, springs or aquifers but the budget’s focus continues to be source management while neglecting the resource. (Image: PixaBay)
Mini piped water scheme helps overcome social exclusion
Promoting sustainable systems that facilitate provision of safe water and sanitation to communities in a tribal village. Amita Bhaduri posted 3 months ago

In 2016, India ranked 131 among 188 countries in the Human Development Index (HDI). With a population of 1.3 billion, the need for services is high, a
Anganwadi Centres now provided with improved toilets and running water (Image: Water For People India)
Over 97 million Indians were currently being exposed to extreme floods: Report
News this week Swati Bansal posted 3 months 3 weeks ago

75 percent districts in India are hotspots of extreme climate events: Report
75 percent districts in India are hotspots of extreme climate events (Source: IWP Flickr photos))
Patterns of social exclusion in watershed development in India
How have watershed development projects fared in India? Have they helped in better distribution of benefits among the poor and marginalised? Aarti Kelkar Khambete posted 4 months 2 weeks ago

How have watershed development projects fared in India? Have they helped in better distribution of benefits among the poor and marginalised? Why is it important to talk about watershed development at this juncture?

This book by Dr Eshwer Kale dwells on these questions and explores issues around social exclusion among resource-poor people in watershed development projects.
Watershed development: Towards equitable outcomes (Image Source: India Water Portal)
Women hold the key to dietary diversity
A study finds that women's control over income and better decisionmaking power can go a long way in improving dietary diversity and tackling malnutrition in rural India. Aarti Kelkar Khambete posted 5 months 4 weeks ago

Evidence world over shows that small scale agricultural production does very little to deal with malnutrition and food insecurity among rural poor.
Empowering women to improve nutritional outcomes (Image Source: India Water Portal)
Data, data everywhere, but where?
Involving the community in a data framework with the right incentives will have the second-order benefit of the community becoming decision makers with respect to water use. Amita Bhaduri posted 6 months ago

A few of us did an exercise where we closed our eyes and thought of the first four words that came to our minds when we thought of water data in India. Here is what we came up with:
The seamless flow of data from one program to another can be enabled if a few principles are kept in mind (Image: José Manuel Suárez, Wikimedia Commons)
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 6 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)
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