Rajasthan

This document on the study conducted by IWMI on the Carewater site aimed at understanding the economic and social burden experienced by people afflicted with contamination of water due to higher percentages

Indira Gandhi Nahar Pariyojna (IGNP) is one of the largest irrigation and drinking water projects of northwestern Rajasthan. However Hanumangarh and Sriganganagar districts are facing severe waterlogging and salinity conditions since the introduction of the IGNP canal system in that area. 

'Every Drop Counts' shows how to channel rainwater and surface water to recharge groundwater via open wells. Tankas (underwater tanks) are an excellent solution to tackle water scarcity and conserve our ground water.

Courtesy- Barefoot College, Time- 11:30 minutes

The report by Navdanya and Research Foundation for Science, Technology & Ecology is in two parts. The first part lists the World Bank projects in three categories – loans given from 1950-1990, water restructuring projects from 1990-2005, and projects at approval stage. The second part of the report includes case studies of World Bank driven water privatization projects in Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. 

This process study conducted by WASSAN with the support of ICEF is an attempt to bring focus on the processes of the watershed development projects. It is an attempt to provide feedback to the policy makers, donors and field level facilitators on the processes at the field level. It is an attempt to assess, diagnose and compare process at field level in different projects. 

This study presents a remote sensing based rapid watershed health appraisal of NWDPRA watersheds of Rajasthan. The study area is distributed across 8 agro-climatic zones ranging from desertic western plain to humid southern and south-eastern plain. The satellite data prior to treatment year (1988) was compared with post-treated year (1996), to reveal the noticeable changes over a span of 8 years.

The NGO Tarun Bharat Sangh (TBS) was set up in the mid 1980's for rural development and environmental conservation work. Their work includes water, forest conservation and other social issues hence raising awareness and understanding of the natural world.

In consultation with the Planning Commission of India, states of Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh were selected for the study. The government-pioneered projects from time to time have changed in approach and strategy. These shifts in the policy decisions are taken on the basis of experiences from existing programmes and to reach out to the last person in the last row.

Safe Water Network , a not-for-profit dedicated to the development of reliable, sustainable, and scalable water solutions for the world's poor , announced today a partnership with India-based organizations Bhoruka Charitable Trust, the Centre for microFinance, and the Institute of Health Management Research for a rainwater harvesting optimization program in the state of Rajasthan, India. This 18-month initiative expands on a recently completed program that delivered rainwater harvesting systems to 15 villages in the Churu District of Rajasthan. The program supports the development and validation of improvements in three areas: cistern design, water quality, and funding tools. The program also includes the completion of a white paper, which will make policy recommendations specific to Rajasthan. Learnings from the initiative will be shared with others who are working around the world to help the nearly one billion people living in areas of acute water scarcity.

A two day National Workshop on need for policy and legal norms for allowing freshwater flows in Rivers in India on January 3-4, 2009 at Bangalore ended with a unanimous demand that governments must allow continuous, sustained freshwater flows in all perennial rivers of India, whenever, a dam, diversion or hydropower project is planned, constructed or operated. Inaugurating the workshop on the morning of January 3, 2009, Shri L C Jain, former member, planning commission of India (and many other important posts), expressed his pain and anguish on the state of India's Rivers, "It is very disturbing that the acts of commissions and omissions of the authorities have ruthlessly, blindly, heartlessly lead todestruction of almost every major rivers of India. The hearts of the officials and ministers should throb for the millions depending for their needs and livelihoods on the rivers, but it seems that the stones of the South and North block buildings have entered their hearts." Quoting Gandhiji's agenda for the economic independence of India from what he wrote in the Young India on November 29, 1929, Jain said, Land, Water and Air cannot be subject of commerce, but the planners lock up the pain, hunger, malnutrition in the paragraphs of their five year plan documents and do not ensure their inclusion in their actual plans and programmes. He expressed his deep anguish that even the recommendations of the official policies and committees on ensuring freshwater flows in the rivers remain unimplemented.