News and Articles

13th Birding Fair at Jaipur's Man Sagar on 2 – 3 Feb 2010 to be devoted to 'Rivers’ Restoration'

Roundup of news - November 3-4, 2009

Karnataka confident of getting more funds

https://www.deccanherald.com/content/34098/cm-confident-getting-more-funds.html

 Land aquisition on in full steam:

https://www.thehindu.com/2009/11/04/stories/2009110454390400.htm

 CM in Dharwad on Wednesday

For a GIS zealot like me, this is breaking news on the Indian mapping front. Finally a GIS application for risk-mapping and management of floods in India!

The Flood Risk Mapping Study, funded by the Water Resources wing of the Public Works Department to a tune of Rs 2,17 crores, is an initiative of the Tamil Nadu State Government. It is supported by the Centre's Department of Science and Technology and Survey of India in the research component of the project. This one-year project is being handled by Anna University’s Institute of Remote Sensing (IRS), Chennai.

This report includes the findings of the ASHWAS  survey (A Survey of Household Water and Sanitation),  a participatory survey carried out by Arghyam, that  included  28 districts of Karnataka covering more than 17,200 households across 172 gram panchayats (GPs). This was a peoples' survey, and the surveyors were selected from the respective communities that included students, women from self help groups, local NGO partners and other volunteers.

Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur presents WHSC 2009. A three day conference which is expected to pave way for producing compendium of technological options, policy guidelines and implementing mechanisms for water harvesting, storage and conservation.

Objectives

We hope that WHSC-2009 will immensely benefits technocrats, policy makers and implementers to attain global excellence. Main objectives of this conference are:

• To assess the significance of water harvesting, storage and conservation to meet international water stipulate.
• To assess challenges related to water harvesting, storage and conservation technologies
• To engage stakeholder in issue-oriented discussion as to share experience and agree on a common plan of action

Lately there have been some conversations about water sector and microfinance, about bringing in microfinance to address water issues like access to clean drinking water, household water distribution and supply, associated problems of sanitation like underground drainage, and utilities.

“Few people know how to take a walk. The qualifications are endurance, plain clothes, old shoes, an eye for nature, good humor, vast curiosity, good speech, good silence and nothing too much.”

What kind of a walk must have Ralph Waldo Emerson had, to pen down these lines?

Let me describe a scenario which has become typical of my life in the development sector. "They never finish what they start", is the answer that I hear for most of my questions about public water supply projects (also for many other infrastructure projects), in most parts of India.

This paper describes the findings of a study that was conducted to validate the findings of earlier studies and observations that have been conducted in ancient texts in India that describe termite mounds as useful indicators for groundwater exploration.