Voluntary Citizen or Civil Society Sector

Kotda village provides an inspiring example of how a village suffering from teething troubles in the critical areas of water and sanitation can emerge as a model water and sanitation village. Located in Mangrol block of Junagadh district, from a distance this village presents a lush green appearance because of an abundance of coconut trees. “Despite this, the village was so dirty about two decades back that we used to put a cloth on our nose to block the stench on some village paths," says Kamla, an elderly woman of Kotda. This was because open defecation was practiced by all households.

“Every single number in the budget, be it receipts or expenditure is a lie. The budget numbers can no longer be trusted, as the difference between actual expenditure and budget estimates are off by around 25 percent. The year ends at the end of March, and the estimates are based on data only till the end of December, so the estimate of receipts and expenditure in the next three months is a lie,” says Jayati Ghosh, Professor of Economics at Jawaharlal Nehru University at a panel discussion organised by the Centre for Budget and Governance Accountability (CBGA) in New Delhi recently.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s budget announcement on February 1, 2020 made a push for piped rural drinking water supply and promised full coverage of all households by 2024. Last year, the National Rural Drinking Water Mission (NRDWM) was restructured and subsumed into Jal Jeevan Mission.

Like in many parts of India, Karnataka’s groundwater is a vital source of irrigation water, but has been depleted by a combination of a prolonged, multi-year drought and intensive extraction. Worsening agro-climatic and environmental conditions are threatening the incomes of smallholder farmers and hampering the continued progress in poverty eradication.

A committee has been constituted to draft a new National Water Policy (NWP) and make key changes in the water governance structure and regulatory framework. It is chaired by Mihir Shah, who is a former Planning Commission member and a water expert. The committee is expected to produce a report within six months. The Revitalising Rainfed Agriculture (RRA) Network, a pan India network working on evolving operational processes for planning and convergence to facilitate the revival of rainfed agriculture has made its submission to the committee drafting the NWP.

Maheen Mirza’s film ‘Agar wo desh banati/ If she built a country’ looks at the widespread displacement on an unprecedented scale for mines and industries in Raigarh, Chhattisgarh. The devastation of the environment, the cutting-off of the relationship of the people with their forests, the appallingly scant resettlement and compensation for the local adivasi people and the devastating consequences for their livelihoods is dealt with.

Centre approves Atal Bhujal Yojana, worth Rs 6,000 crore
Considering the acute groundwater shortage in the country, the Union Cabinet has approved the Atal Bhujal Yojana with a total outlay of Rs 6,000 crore to manage the critical resources of water through multiple activities.

Groundwater contamination has emerged as an alarming issue in India and a recent UN report reveals that India ranks 120^th among the 122 countries in terms of water quality index. As high as 70 percent of the water supply in India is contaminated, resulting in nearly 0.2 million deaths each year.

Poisoned waters: Fluoride contamination of groundwater

A new study by the Centre for Science and Environment has exposed that levels of salt and fat in junk food is far higher than proposed thresholds in the country. The tests at the New Delhi based non-profit’s Environment Monitoring Laboratory indicate that food manufacturers sell packaged food and fast food products with unhealthy levels of nutrients.