News and Articles

The 2023 State of India’s Environment report, put together by Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) identifies areas where the country is falling behind as regards its Sustainable Development Goals.

We get a sense of water purity from its appearance, smell and taste to figure out if the water is clean to drink. But unsafe water can be tasteless and odourless too, making it difficult to determine its quality. Water can have chemical, mineral and biological contaminants that can make us sick in the short and long run. 

The Synthesis Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Sixth Assessment Report is a warning call for action on the quickly closing opportunity of keeping global warming below 1.5 degrees centigrade. Unless fossil fuels are rapidly retired, the impacts of climate change already faced by vulnerable communities will become difficult to handle.

Concurrent newspaper reports with contrary data points on the same subject is not unusual especially when it comes to issues on water. Some of these differences could get rationalized when we normalize for context but for the most part, we would not be able to tell which one is true because the data presented would mostly qualify as claims and not as facts.

Atpadi, a taluka in Sangli district of southern Maharashtra and  situated in the rain-shadow of the Western Ghats, was often called as ‘the land of dushkal (droughts)’ and experienced one of its worst droughts in 2012,  followed by those again in  2016 and 2019. 

The context

Globally, over 3 billion people are at risk of disease because the water quality (WQ) of their rivers, lakes and groundwater is unknown, due to a lack of data.

Poor management of water and  over dependence on groundwater is making India a water stressed country, which can spell doom for agricultural productivity. How India manages and governs water will be important in the future. Adopting water smart attitudes and behaviours by rural communities is crucial. How can that be achieved? This book shows the way.

In order to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including enhancing livelihood, decreasing poverty, preserving the environment and biodiversity, and reversing climate change, agroforestry areas should be expanded in a variety of ways.

More than 10,000 people in Bhagalpur and Buxar districts of Bihar have been given access to life-saving clean, drinking water through Halma plc’s Water for Life campaign in partnership with WaterAid.