Success Stories and Case Studies

This document discusses the process oriented programme of Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) on Vulnerability Assessment (V&A) and Enhancing Adaptive Capacity to Climate Change initiated in the semi-arid regions of India. The aims of this programme include strengthening the resilience of local communities to conditions of unfavourable weather, like adverse alterations in temperature and precipitation leading to the more frequent occurrence of drought and to use the experiences for policy development for climate change adaptation measures at various levels.

Over 60 per cent of the cultivated area in India is rainfed & unfavorable and uncertain rainfall patterns will seriously affect the food, drinking water and livelihood security of millions of children, women and men. Since the initiation of this project, the emphasis on proactive research on adaptation mechanisms has increased at the national level. 

The present decade may mark the beginning of a new climate era, characterized by extreme and often unpredictable weather conditions and rise in sea levels. The greatest casualty of climate change will be food, water and livelihood security.

This report by Kalpavriksh, Aaranyak and ActionAid India deals with the large dams’ juggernaut, which happens to be the biggest ‘development’ intervention in this ecologically and geologically fragile, seismically active and culturally sensitive region in the coming days. With the Northeast identified as India’s ‘future powerhouse’ and at least 168 large hydroelectric projects set to majorly alter the riverscape, large dams are emerging as a major issue of conflict in the region.

Although the current scale of dam-related developments far outstrips anything which took place in the past, the region has been no stranger to dam-related conflicts. For example, the Kaptai dam, built in the Chittagong Hill Tracts of East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) in the 1960s, submerged the traditional homelands of the Hajong and Chakma indigenous communities, and forced them to migrate into parts of Northeast India.

Photo: Muralidhar Adhikari

This report by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) deals with the economics of wastewater use in agriculture. It presents an economic framework for the assessment of the use of reclaimed water in agriculture, as part of a comprehensive planning process in water resource allocation strategies to provide for a more economically efficient and sustainable water utilization. 

23rd November 2010, New Delhi

• Seeking a moratorium on clearances for large dams in Northeast India
• Withdrawal of clearances granted to 2000 MW Lower Subansiri, 1750 MW Demwe Lower & 1500 MW Tipaimukh dams
• Future steps on hydropower projects and dams only after full, prior and informed consent of people in the region
• Protect the Brahmaputra river basin as a cultural and ecological endowment

This publication by ICAR on “Farm Innovators-2010” brings in a paradigm shift towards participatory technology development. Apart from innovations and scientific package of practices developed and transferred from R&D institutes, innovations in the form of grassroot level technologies and methodologies developed by some of the innovative farmers and rural youth have also been accepted across the system.

Video Courtesy: EarthReport

Source:  5min Media

It has been proved that it's a direct result of drinking ground water that's contaminated with high levels of fluoride. This video suggests that rainwater is the best source of water for communities living in these regions.

This paper by National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases (NICED) is based on a prospective, community based study in an impoverished urban site in Kolkata in order to measure the burden of cholera, describe its epidemiology, and search for potential risk factors that could be addressed by public health strategies. The study population was enumerated at the beginning and end of the study period. Surveillance through five field outposts and two referral hospitals for acute, watery, non-bloody diarrhoea was conducted from May 2003 to April 2004.

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. 

This report by the World Bank examines the evolution of the management of India’s waters, describes the achievements of the past, and the looming set of challenges. The report draws heavily on a set of twelve background documents by eminent Indian practitioners and policy analysts, and addresses two basic questions - 

• What are the major water development and management challenges facing India? 
• What are the critical measures to be taken to address these?