Aarti Kelkar Khambete

In the olden times, people knew the importance of water and had devised a number of techniques to manage and conserve water resources. These efforts not only met the drinking water needs of the people, but also helped the survival of livestock and agriculture in areas where perennial rivers were absent and the population depended on rains and often faced water scarcity or droughts.

What's not to like about sugarcane juice in summer? Would you drink as much of it or more if you knew that those selling it in Pune where I live, are people who have migrated temporarily from drought-affected villages in rural Maharashtra, and are counting on juice sales to get through the whole year?

With water resources dwindling at a rapid rate globally and its predicted serious impacts on economies and livelihoods, World Water Day 2016

India has had very little to celebrate on World Wetlands Day this year as it has lost its wetlands at an alarming rate of 38% in just a decade (1991-2001).

Maharashtra is the fourth state following Karnataka, Chattisgarh, and Madhya Pradesh to seek out relief from the Union government thanks to more than 15,000 of its villages across Marathwada and parts of Western Maharashtra reeling under drought in 2015 [1].

The river Mutha, lovingly called 'Muthai'--meaning 'mother Mutha' in Marathi--is dying a slow death thanks to rapidly urbanising Pune which is depositing huge amounts of untreated sewage and dirt in its waters. However, the situation was different earlier. The river was revered and was a part of the everyday lives of the people in the city.

Kerala, flanked on the west by the Arabian Sea and on the east by the Western Ghats is bestowed with enviable natural resources. It has 44 rivers spanning its lush green landscape and rainfall that averages as high as 3000 mm a year.

Shantabai, a domestic worker in a number of buildings in Pune says, "See didi, nowadays you can find dengue-causing mosquitoes even in posh buildings but people there do not allow Corporation workers to come and spray inside. Even Bollywood actors are being told to take care".