Political

About the Book –

Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) are supposed to provide solutions to many of the existing problems related to infrastructure projects – in both execution and operation. Currently, there are PPP projects in almost all the sectors including roads, ports, airports, water, sewerage, solid waste management and transport among others. It is, therefore, important to do a reality check on PPP projects and their efficacy in addressing the problems faced by the public sector water supply services and other infrastructure sectors as well.

The report looks at various aspects of PPPs, beginning from why PPPs have come to be regarded as the major approach for infrastructure development in the country, the circumstances that lead to the change in approach from direct privatisation to public-private partnerships, the current status of the PPP projects that are being executed in India, especially in the water sector, to the current estimates and projections of investment requirements for infrastructure development in India by governments and International Financial Institutions (IFIs).

In one year the small village of Gadrata, Rajasthan earned 0.15 Million US$

The secret: Rainwater Harvesting

Seekar, Rajasthan, India

This is the success story of the small village of Gadrata and its hamlets (overall about 50-55 families) in the Seekar district of Rajasthan and how water means gold!

A few years ago Smt. Amla Ruia, Chairperson of Aakar Charitable Trust and a resident of Mumbai, Maharashtra, motivated and supported the villagers of Gadrata to build a Check Dam to solve their water problems. Until that time groundwater levels in their wells were in serious decline.

The Sachetana Drinking Water Plus project implemented by the BAIF Institute of Rural Development (BIRD-K), in three districts of Karnataka, aims to solve the problem of endemic fluorosis in the region, by providing an alternate source of water and by improving the quality of groundwater.

This report is a mid-term assessment of the project in Mundargi taluk of Gadag district of Karnataka, undertaken to understand and document the decentralized fluoride mitigation strategy adopted in the project villages and to analyze the impact on the groundwater levels and water quality as a result of the project's efforts.

The Jal Bhagirathi Foundation has been working for the past eight years with programmes in the Marwar region of Thar Desert to empower distressed village communities enabling them to revive the traditional community management systems and practices with special focus on creating social capital as sustainable means for bringing water security.

The STEPS Centre (www.steps-centre.org) at the University of Sussex,  UK, Sarai (CSDS) and Centre for Studies in Regional Development (JNU) are hosting a workshop on 'Peri-urban Futures and Sustainability' on 8th February at the India International Centre, New Delhi

8th February at 6.30pm, Instituto Cervantes, Hanuman Lane, Connaught Place, Delhi

Manushi and Jal Biradari are organizing a three-day meeting to discuss the New Yamuna Action Plan. It will cover YAP 1 [Yamuna Action Plan] and the agenda for YAP2. Minister for Environment and Forests Mr Jairam Ramesh will participate in a dialogue on 10 February.

This document contains case studies from the work of Samagra Jal Vikash Samiti, Arghyam and Development Alternatives, in Rajpura, Kachipura, Pipra and Hastinapur villages of Bundelkhand region of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, in organising drinking water and improving water quality of available drinking water.

GRAY WATER (Bathroom water) recycling project

General

Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship

The Skoll Awards for Social Entrepreneurship are designed to support and celebrate social entrepreneurs whose work has the potential for large-scale positive influence in important areas often burdened by intractable imbalances -- tolerance and human rights, health, environmental sustainability, peace and security, institutional responsibility, and economic and social equity.