Political

The advantage of aerobic rice explained. Arghyam (http://www.arghyam.org) supports this initiative through a student grant support. The project is lead by Prof. Shashidhar Reddy with a grant from the Rockefeller foundation. The student receives a small grant from the Krishi Vidya Nirantara to support his thesis work under Prof Shashidhar Reddy.

Fresh water to-day has become a precious commodity world wide. Water-saving, better utilization of water and avoiding wastage is becoming a universal concern. This New faucet, avoids inadvertent wastage during the usage of water for legitimate purpose such as washing of hands. It is user friendly, Hygienic, Economical, Eliminates leaking taps, Made of recyclable material, and helps in the optimum use of water. One of the basic problems with the commonly used screw-type faucet is that once the faucet is open to wet the hands, while the soap is being applied fresh water is continuously flowing down the drain without serving any purpose. As the time taken for applying soap constitutes more than 60% of the time in a normal hand washing cycle it can be easily understood that a large quantity of water is going to waste inadvertently. Apart from this screw-type faucet can continuously waste water if they are left open due to carelessness etc.

Forwarded to the Portal by: Sunil Kumar Singh, Sambodhi Sambodhi Research and Communications is conducting a programme titled "Monitoring and Evaluation of Development Projects"to be held at New Delhi from 29th- 31st July 2008.

An Open Painting Competition on the theme "PROPER SANITATION AND SAFE WATER"held on Sunday the 25th May, 2008, by Arghyam & YVU, Thoubal.

Forwarded to the Portal by: Shruti, SOPPECOM Forum for Policy Dialogue on Water Conflicts in India invites abstracts for papers on "Contending Water Uses and Users and Inter-Sectoral Equity in South Asia: Cases and Learnings for a New Policy,

Shri Anupam Mishra, Gandhian and environmentalist is a remarkable person. He lays no claim to copyright for his own books and (similiar to open source software) it has increased the dissemination of his message. During a recent visit to his office at Gandhi Peace Foundation in New Delhi, he showed several different editions of "Aaj Bhi Khare Hai Talaab" brought out by all kinds of individuals and publishers across the country. He recounts the story of how a impoverished young person was inspired to translate it into Punjabi and get it published.

Forwarded to the Portal by: Vikas Khanna, CSE India CSE's advanced course on "Urban Rainwater Harvesting"for working professionals is being conducted from July 14-18, 2008, at New Delhi. This course is focused on, the theory, practice and policy of rainwater harvesting (RWH) and is open for all working professionals including civil engineers, architects, urban planners, environment consultants, municipal water managers, policy makers and NGOs. This hands- on workshop will combine class room lectures, field visits, practical exercises and interactive seminars to help you in planning, designing and implementation of rainwater harvesting systems for micro and macro catchments in urban areas. It also undertakes policy and social mobilization aspects of rainwater harvesting. Application Deadline: July 4, 2008

Would you throw your lot in with cloud seeding, or have ideas regarding conservation and regulated usage? Feel free to join in and have your say, access the Drought Mitigation Discussion here

The French Institute of Pondicherry has brought out a DVD titled "Bittersweet Waters: Irrigation Practices and Modern Challenges in South India". This trilingual documentary (French, English and Tamil ; 53 minutes) deals with the issues of water management in South India, a subject of underlying anxiety in towns as well as in the countryside.

Desalt Innovation Middle East LLC (DIME) has introduced hydrophobic sand or "water proofed" sand. DIME has exclusive rights from a chemical manufacturer in Germany to produce the sand, by the addition of an additive SP-HFS 1609 by a specially developed mixer.