Events

Some video clippings of the Arkavathy Janadesh Yatra, a river walk along the entire length of the Arkavathy river outside Bangalore, to draw attention to this dying river.

On 29^th January, my colleague Binayak and I went to Nelmangala to participate in the "Save Arkavathy"Walk. The Walk was organized hoping that the participants would learn from the experiences of the villagers along the Arkavathy River and be able to generate interest in them to join the walk.

Thanks to Sanjay Bapat for forwarding this to us: ========== Dear friends: Popular demand has been pulling at our sleeves… so we are happily extending our deadline! Harvest 2 Harness is extending the deadline for submission of your entries on Rainwater Harvesting models to February 29, 2008 (Friday). After 3 successful years, you will agree that we have created a brand out of H2H… your support, of course, being the most significant part of this.

As the Indian economy grows at a rapid 9 per cent, the use of water by industries will also grow at 9 per cent. While agricultural use of water will continue to remain the largest consumer, it is expected that the demand from industries will show a rapid increase. Industries demand water at a point and also discharge water at a point and therefore sustainable management of water by industries is not only crucial to the industry itself but to the neighbourhood where the ind ustry is located. The Confederation of Indian Industries , CII , recently organised its National Award for Excellence in Water Management 2007 competition in the Sohrabji Godrej Green Business Centre in Hyderabad (http://www.ciionline.org/, www.ciigbc.org) . A range of industries participated in the competition organised in two categories - 'Within the fence' and 'Beyond the fence'. The way many industries highlighted their projects was an indication on how serious they consider the management of water resources. That it is identified as one of the key resources, apart from energy to be looked at as a critical input for sustaining growth, doesn't come as a surprise. Source to sink

Regional Workshop on Ecological Sanitation (From Umesh Pakalapati, CapNet South Asia, Hyderabad) A regional workshop on "Ecological Sanitation"will be held in Bangalore, Karnataka, India in February (15th-17th), 2008. It is being organized with the support of CapNet Global and Arghyam Trust, India. Cap-Net invites interested people to send their details.

3 day workshop organised by Ecological Society, Pune 7-9 February 2008 Salient Points:Top management experts will facilitate your understaning and interact with you in the 3-day residential workshop in a sylvan environment.

Not much was expected of the UN Climate Change Conference that took place in Bali, Indonesia, since developed and developing nations have been at loggerheads over a range of interrelated issues since the earlier Kyoto Conference: setting hard targets for greenhouse gas emission reductions, funding afforestation efforts in the developing world, deciding who should cut back more or pay more for damage repair , historical offenders in the developed world or newly emerging villains in the developing and so on. Besides, the Bali meet was only going to consider the idea of negotiating further on these issues.

BushProof (www.bushproof.com) organises courses on water and sanitation They have a course on "Water and Sanitation for Development and Emergencies" Next session of this course is: 3-15 March 2008 , Hong Kong Read more here: http://bushproof.bio

Arghyam Trust organised an interaction in Bangalore with Mr. Ramaswamy Iyer to mark the recent release of his book "Towards Water Wisdom: Limits, Justice and Harmony" . The release of Mr. Iyer's book is covered here: https://www.indiawaterportal.org/blog/index.php/2007/07/04/new-book-by-ramaswamy-iyer/

We at the Water Portal and Arghyam were very gratified as Mr. Iyer spoke briefly but warmly of the Portal and its usefulness as a resource on water issues. Photos from the event are below. Others in the photographs include Sunita Nadhamuni, CEO of Arghyam, Dr. L.C. Jain who introduced Mr. Iyer and particapated in the proceedings and Vishwanath Srikantaiah of the Rainwater Club and Arghyam

Two useful documents from Water Aid (www.wateraid.org) released on the occasion of World Toilet Day.