News and Articles

New satellite images from NASA show the extraordinary scope of the continuing disaster in Pakistan, where thousands of square miles of land remain submerged two months after the country was hit by catastrophic flooding.

A satellite image captured last week shows flood waters lingering in Sindh Province and Manchhar Lake at twice its normal size.

This document provides the details of the revisions suggested in the water tariff for domestic, industrial, commercial and institutional consumers and of sewerage maintainance charges in urban areas.

The document describes the details of the Maharashtra Water Resources Regulatory Authority Act and includes:

• Short title, extent and commencement
• Definitions of the terms used in the Act
• Establishment and incorporation of the Maharashtra Water Resources Regulatory Authority
• Powers functions and duties of the authority
• Permission of River Basin Agency, State Water Planning
• Accounts, audits and reports
• Special powers of authority for removal of backlog as per Governer's directives

The document describes the Maharashtra Groundwater Act, which is an Act to regulate the exploitation of groundwater for the protection of public drinking water sources and includes the details of :

• Short title and commencement of the Act
• Definitions of the terms used in the Act
• Protection measures for public drinking water sources
  • Prohibition of construction of wells within certain limits
  • Declaration of water scarcity area
  • Regulation of extraction of water from wells in water scarcity areas
  • Declaration of over exploited watershed
  • Prohibition of sinking of well in over exploited watershed
  • Prohibition of extraction of water from an existing well for certain period
  • Closing down existing well
  • Power of entry upon any land for obtaining information
  • Power to stop contravention of the provisions of section 3, 5, 7, 8 or 9
  • Payment of compensation
  • Bar to claim compensation

From Ludhiana: Bassi Pathana Town - Fathegar sagar district:

A Community meeting was held in Valmiki Mohalla. It was attended by local eminent persons from the community, Mr. Sardar Sukhdev Singh Jamagal - rtrd Additional Judge, Mr. Kaval Jit Singh Mattu, Advocate, Mr. Dholak Ram - and President,  Safai karmachari Union, and community leader Mr. Ram ji Lal, Govt Employee. 12 liberated SK women took the responsibility of organising a meeting in the basti with the support of committee people. They invited the community as well as general public to the meeting, where the mission, demands, SKA’s back ground were discussed and people’s views were taken.

Climate Change

• Gujarat farmers fight against climate change: Adopt technology to conserve resources and maximize benefits
• Higher-than-normal temperatures in Ladakh pose a threat to its glaciers and thereby life in the region
• South Asia is the world's most climate-vulnerable: India ranks second

This document describes the policy facilitating public private partnerships for infrastructure development in the state of Orissa and includes:

• The background to the policy
• The policy objectives
• Infrastructure sectors
• Institutional arrangement
• Project identification and approval process
• Preparation of Detailed Project Report and selection of developers
• State support
• Orissa Infrastructure Development Fund
• Protection of stakeholder rights

This document describes the details of the Karnataka Urban Development Authorities Act and includes:

• Short title, extent and commencement of the Act
• Definitions of the terms used in the Act
• The incorporation, constitution and details of the functioning of the Urban Development Authority
• Power of authority for development schemes
• Authority for acquisition of land
• Power of authority in case of property and finance
• Details of appointment of officers and servants of the authority

This report by Both ENDS and Gomukh compiles and showcases a set of seven case studies where a ‘negotiated approach’ to River Basin Management was already being used in different parts of the world and in different geographical and socio-political environments. It builds its analysis on real life experiences, including both successful and less successful attempts to implement and scale up local water management techniques. It sets out to go beyond general policy analyses, which tend to describe `what is’ or propose recipes that are based on theoretical research.