India

A sharing workshop on groundwater organised by ACWADAM (Advanced Center for Water Development and Management) in Pune on 21/22nd May 2009 saw some very good presentations being made. Dr Tushaar's Shah's keynote speech provided an amazing big picture of groundwater use in agriculture. The presentation can be viewed on slideshare and the entire speech is available on YouTube in 4 parts.

The research study was published in Down to Earth in March 2009 issue. The study describes how climate change is leading to a rising trend of short but intense spells of rainfall, which is making usable water scarce in India.

"Work in progress", is an article by Jean Dreze and Christian Oldiges, that appeared in the Feb. 14-27, 2009 issue of the Frontline Magazine, that compares the data from the NREGA website (www.nrega.nic.in) related to the first two years (2006-07 and 2007-08) of implementation of the NREGA.

Guest Post by: Lenneke Knoop, The Water Channel Image and Content Courtesy: The Water Channel The new version of www.thewaterchannel.tv has been launched. TheWaterChannel is a dedicated web-based video channel on water. It wants to be a main repository for video material on water and a main support and medium in promoting better water management.

TheWaterChannel now contains over 150 water related videos with new material coming in daily. The new version has several improved features and much more functions including improved uploading services, several technical improvements and news feed subscription.

Arghyam and India Water Portal are promoting this design competition with the objective of increasing awareness on the important issue of water as a resources that needs to be conserved and on the role that architects and designers could play in ensuring the s

Image and Content Courtesy: UNICEF UNICEF is looking to fill 3 roles of Water and Environmental Sanitation Officers.

The India Water Portal has several intern positions up for grabs. Positions range from film makers, visual designers to software enthusiasts, offering a chance to work at the forefront of water activism in India. FILM MAKERS Project head: Vijay Krishna Brief description of the project: We have the CDs from the Arghyam 3rd annual conference. These need to be edited and packaged into a short film. Creating Video Case Studies of Urban and Rural Schools doing Rain Water harvesting. We would highlight them on the Schools Water Portal (http://schools.indiawaterportal.org) Location of the project: Bangalore Expected time duration of the project: 1 month Duration of the internship: 1 month Preferred educational qualification: Amateur Film Makers/Students with an interest to work on social and environmental projects. Knowledge of Development Sector, and/or Environment would be an added advantage. Languages preferred: English Computers - Interns must bring their own laptops or at least have a home computer. Costs , India Water Portal will not be able to provide any financial support for interns. However any expenses for work-related travel and for consumables would be reimbursed.

Image and Content Courtesy: WaterAid

WaterAid India's WaterDrops newsletter is published quarterly. WaterDrops is an effort to showcase WaterAid India's work, ideas, issues and concerns with its partners, civil society organisations, international NGOs, UN agencies and other important players in the water and sanitation sector. The latest issue of WaterDrops focusses on issues of inclusion, including articles on Social exclusion in drinking water and sanitation, Caste based discrimination, Water as a tool for social control and Inclusive approaches in Bihar. The latest issue can be downloaded here: WaterDrops Issue - 12

Forwarded to the Portal by:Priyanka Kohli, ALC Image and Content Courtesy: ALC Access Livelihoods Consulting India Pvt. Ltd. is a development management organisation comprising a group of self motivated and passionate consultants with prime focus on enabling the promotion of Sustainable livelihoods for poor. ALC India organises as well as conducts Capacity building programmes for various organisations. ALC has published the Capacity Building programme Calendar for the financial year 2009-2010. The annual training calendar can be accessed here:ALC Annual Training Calendar

Forwarded to the Portal by: Deepa Gupta , IYCN One of the central features of JNNURM is community participation. Mandatory reform conditions such as Community Participation Law, to enable constitution of Area Sabhas within municipal wards and Public Disclosure Law are testimony to this fact. However, our experience shows community participation in various aspects of implementing JNNURM needs much greater attention than just the passage of laws for community participation. It is being increasingly realized that communities have little capacity to participate. Objective of the Fund: The primary objective of the fund is to catalyse community participation by supporting the building of community assets. In the long run, this should lead to increased community participation in the city's functioning thus enabling them to develop a sense of ownership on community assets and take on responsibilities for community-based exercises.