India

There are several uncertainties with technology endeavours of non-profit organisations. They pose significant risks to non-profits - wasted resources, inability to evolve with time, and obsolescence in the long term. Open source products offer a sustainable path.

UN emphasises the need for safe faecal disposal this WTD2020

Two more wetlands added to Ramsar sites

In the early weeks of the lockdown, we, at Hindustan Unilever Foundation, had a rather humbling epiphany. We had all the data we needed on the households that we work with in our water conservation programmes: their landholding, crop choices, yields from each season, source of water, number of water conservation structures built, amount of water saved, and so on.

For a long time, villagers of Thanakasoga in Sirmaur, Himachal Pradesh knew about the depletion of their drinking water sources and the thirstier future they faced. “We depend on bawdis and natural springs, from where we fetched water. By 2012, our springs were dying and could hardly cater to the local demand.

30 out of 100 cities to face greatest rise in water risks by 2050 are Indian: Report

Severe fine for misuse or wastage of groundwater

In support of the Digital India Initiative, the National Hydrology Project (NHP) is translating the Ministry of Jal Shakti (MoJS), Government of India’s (GoI) vision to create a “one water, one data platform” for the country.

In a span of a few months, COVID-19 has hit the world severely. At the same time, the water bodies are seeing more life, smog is giving way to blue skies, the air has become cleaner and many forms of pollution have plunged. However, coronavirus waste has emerged as a new form of pollution.

Water, a scarce natural resource fundamental to life, livelihood, food security and sustainable development is required in every sector i.e. domestic, agricultural, industrial and environmental. Its source is precipitation, the usual forms being rainfall, snowfall etc. These in turn build surface and groundwater resources in the form of rivers, lakes, ponds, glaciers, groundwater etc.