Political

the drought situation in Maharashtra, the traditional rainwater harvesting system in Rajasthan. Besides this, the news also includes reports on the campaign to save the Loktak lake in Assam and mangroves in Sundarbans, the water supply schemes in Kerala and the dropping of groundwater levels in India

New bill to control groundwater exploitation

Human excreta is loaded with nutrients, which when disposed off discriminately, increases pollution and leads to a loss of resources. On an average a human being produces some 500 litres of urine and 50 kilograms of faeces a year, sufficient to fertilise plants that would produce more than 200 kilograms of cereals!

Long before ‘organic’ became a buzzword, several farmers across the country practised holistic farming where nothing was considered useless. Most farmers had cattlen on their farms. While the milk was consumed by the family, the cow dung and urine were recycled back into the farm.

Dr Peter Spillet of the Thames River Restoration Trust shared that the Trust was the recipient of the 2010 Theiss International Riverprize funds on behalf of many organizations involved in the restoration work on river Thames in United Kingdom. He said that the Trust had shared the money for twinning projects in various countries including in India.

There is a palpable sense of a looming water crisis in India. Conflicts across competing users and uses are on the rise. In the irrigation sector, it is widely felt that “paucity of resources and poor performance of existing major and medium irrigation systems are the two main problems”(1).

In this technique, transparent containers are filled with contaminated water and placed in direct sunlight for at least 6 h, after which time it becomes safe to drink. This simple, straightforward disinfection method that utilises the abundant, freely available sunlight is low cost, easy to use and sustainable.

About Water Integrity Network

The Water Integrity Network (WIN), hosted by Transparency International, was formed in 2006 to respond to increasing concerns among water and anti-corruption stakeholders over corruption in the water sector.

About the course

In partnership with the Virtual School of UNDP, WIN is organizing online course on increasing transparency, accountability and participation in the water sector.

The course targets water sector practitioners interested in deepening their knowledge and sharing their experiences in the area of anticorruption; and people working on projects and initiatives in the water sector related to anti-corruption, transparency and human development issues in the water sector.