/topics/citizens-rights-and-duties
Citizens' Rights and Duties
Invisible water wizards
Posted on 16 Feb, 2018 02:00 PMIndia has long undervalued one of its most precious resources—water. Today the country’s chronic mismanagement of water has led to drought in nearly 2,00,000 villages. According to the World Bank data, Indian farmers use almost 70 percent of the total groundwater that is drawn in the country each year. Shockingly, India uses more groundwater annually than China and the United States combined.
![Through SRDS method, monsoon rain is channelled back through borewells into the underground aquifers where it can be conserved for future use.](/sites/default/files/styles/featured_articles/public/iwp/srd_water_tchnique-2_0.jpg?itok=OEP_i6gO)
Harvesting rainwater effectively
Posted on 15 Feb, 2018 01:25 PMOne of the major causes of deterioration of water quality is the increase in overall salinity. Total hardness and the presence of materials like fluoride, nitrate, iron, arsenic, and toxic metal ions determine salinity levels in groundwater. With the demand for groundwater growing rapidly, its exploitation is also accelerating which causes depletion.
![The innovation was introduced in a government school building in Untka village located in Mewat district of Haryana.](/sites/default/files/styles/featured_articles/public/iwp/untaka-rwh.gif?itok=-9AlYCrA)
Water issues: Take account of socio-cultural question
Posted on 13 Feb, 2018 08:30 AMAs part of Bonjour India 2017-2018, the four-months-long, ongoing Indo-French journey celebrating the Indo-French partnership, water-related issues are being highlighted through research, art and debates in cities like Jaipur, Bengaluru, New Delhi, Pondicherry and Kolkata.
![A small canal in Chanaute, Birendranagar, Nepal. (Photo: Janak Poudel (CC BY 4.0 SA)](/sites/default/files/styles/featured_articles/public/iwp/1200px-kulo.jpg?itok=VrjxL_FG)
What budget has for farm and rural sectors
Posted on 07 Feb, 2018 04:31 PMThis year’s budget was expected to be extensively farmer- and rural-sector oriented. And that is exactly what it turned out to be. The distress in the agrarian sector has intensified and its political implications were rife this year considering the Lok Sabha elections are scheduled next year.
![The budget has a slew of initiatives to revive the farm sector. (Image: Azhar Feder, Wikimedia Commons-CC-BY-SA-3.0)](/sites/default/files/styles/featured_articles/public/iwp/azhar-feder-cc-by-sa3.0.jpg?itok=JE98EU1f)
Eliminate garbage naturally
Posted on 23 Jan, 2018 06:19 PMKashmir was once known for its pristine mountains, lakes, beautiful landscape and clean environment. In the last few decades, however, things have changed. An increasing amount of untreated garbage produced by humans is becoming a critical problem affecting not only the health of the residents of Kashmir but its environment, too.
![A screenshot from the film Untreated Waste--Invitation to Disaster (Source: Abdul Rashid Bhat)](/sites/default/files/styles/featured_articles/public/iwp/wasted_life5s.jpg?itok=G0ErKPy0)
Open water data for integrated water science
Posted on 23 Jan, 2018 03:30 PMUnderstanding water in all its forms in every part of the water cycle is vital to ensuring its sustainable and equitable management. Whether there is a scarcity of water or an excess of it, knowing precisely the quantum of water, whether underground in aquifers, embedded in the soil as soil moisture or in numerous lakes, reservoirs and rivers is vital.
![Image courtesy NASA](/sites/default/files/styles/featured_articles/public/iwp/gpm_accumulation_1080p.00336_print.jpg?itok=3aY_HYy-)
Profiting from sustainable farming
Posted on 23 Jan, 2018 01:48 PMPitidri is a nondescript village that dots the rainshadow area of Purulia district in West Bengal. Droughts are common here even when the area is endowed with above average rainfall of over 1300 mm a year. Until some time ago, Urmila Mahato, a 42-year-old farmer from Pitidri had been struggling to ensure her family’s food security.
![Urmila Mahato at her farm.](/sites/default/files/styles/featured_articles/public/iwp/urmila_mahato_01.jpg?itok=NWtWgOIM)
Alternative Futures: India Unshackled
Posted on 22 Jan, 2018 10:39 AMAlternative Futures: India Unshackled is a book that brings together scenarios of an India that is politically and socially egalitarian, radically democratic, economically sustainable and equitable, and socio-culturally diverse and harmonious.
![Alternative Futures: India Unshackled](/sites/default/files/styles/featured_articles/public/iwp/cover_image_0.png?itok=7RK-oBj-)
Waste away, Ambikapur shows way
Posted on 19 Jan, 2018 11:37 AMAmbikapur has become a role model for all the urban local bodies (ULBs) in Chhattisgarh for its successful solid liquid resource management (SLRM). Thanks to Ritu Sen, former collector of Ambikapur and her team for taking the initiative to clean the city and for bringing the women's self-help groups (SHGs) together for this noble cause.
![A worker carries household waste to the SLRM centres at Ambikapur.](/sites/default/files/styles/featured_articles/public/iwp/24777072857_f0051e8b46_o.jpg?itok=84SLa6ZZ)
Stubble burning banned, farmers stumped
Posted on 07 Jan, 2018 06:20 PMAmar Singh sits in his huge courtyard at the centre of his home in the village of Atraula in Meerut. Lying in the far west part of Uttar Pradesh, this is a flourishing sugarcane belt. An important agricultural region, its demographic, economic and cultural patterns are similar to that of nearby Haryana and Rajasthan.
![A large amount of crop residues are available in western UP and most of these are burnt in the field (Image: Ed Dunens, Flickr Commons)](/sites/default/files/styles/featured_articles/public/iwp/ed-dunens.jpg?itok=kyOhqF3V)