News and Articles

The news is out. On December 2, 2009, Government of India announced its plans of taking a loan to clean the Ganga. This time around the World Bank is extending Rs $1 billion [Rs 4500 crore] loan to India.

This couldn't have been more relevant to the conversation that we are having here.

No! This title isn't mine. I borrowed it from Mahmoud Darwish's literary work of the same name.

Udumalpet taluk comes under Tiruppur district, a recently formed district of Tamilnadu previously under Coimbatore district. Udumalpet is the headquarters of Udumalpet taluk and popularly known as” Poor man’s Ooty” due to its cool climatic conditions. 

The special track on Sanitation today was the best part of the whole series of sessions. Insightful and sometimes funny, like this one. Here is a story about the "WC" as meant by a british woman intending to travel to india, and as understood by her probable indian host.

Attending today's technology sessions, I couldn't help thinking about what Carl Sagan once remarked about science and technology. He noted,

The issues related to planning and implementation were largely concerned with water quality, budgeting and equity.

The group deemed it necessary that the following are addressed on a greater priority:

1. Centralized vs. decentralized rainwater harvesting
2. Water quality aspects in rainwater harvesting system
3. Water quality management through rainwater harvesting

Working Group Meetings formed by a panel of experts in the respective field, formed a significant aspect of WHSC Conference. The conference is geared towards effecting a change in the way water resources are governed and managed. Towards this, the working group meeting's recommendations were valuable, and awaited.

All these decades from early twentieth century, storm water and artificial recharge of aquifers have seldom been an area of consideration for planners and policy makers. The country appeared to be oblivious to the fact that these too are integral part of the resources that we need to take care of before it starts hitting back at us in our daily lives!

M.Gopalakrishnan speaking on Policy Issues (Photo: Praveena Sridhar)