Citizens' Rights and Duties

Forwarded to the Portal by: Himanshu Thakkar, SANDRP

Submission Sent to Prime Minister, DJB, Ministry of Water Resources & HP Govt.

A memorandum demanding the scrapping of the proposed Renuka Dam Project in Sirmaur, Himachal Pradesh was sent to the Prime Minister, Union Minister of Water Resources, the Delhi Jal Board, the Central Water Commission and the Ministry of Social Justice today by concerned environment groups as well as representatives of the dam affected communities. The 5 page detailed submission has made this demand on three basic grounds - technical/conceptual issues, environment implications and the social impacts of the project. Attacking the very root and concept of the project the memorandum highlights the point that the agreement that was signed in May 1994 is no longer valid, as per the opinion of the Union Ministry of Law and Justice, since Rajasthan, one of the parties, did not sign the agreement. The Delhi Jal Board has admitted in response to an RTI application that no options assessment has been done to arrive at the least cost option before taking up the Renuka dam proposal. Without such an assessment, taking up a proposal like the Renuka dam would be completely wrong and inappropriate use of public resources. Moreover, several Studies have proved that Delhi itself is thirsty not because there is shortage of water but actually due to mismanagement and misappropriation of water. According to the Performance Audit report of the Delhi Jal Board for 2008, Delhi has distribution losses of 40 per cent of total water supply which is abnormal and significantly higher than the acceptable norms of 15 per cent prescribed by the Ministry of Urban Development.

Waternama is a collection of traditional practices for water conservation and management in Karnataka. The book is produced by Communication for Development and Learning and edited by Sandhya Iyengar.
View/download the full book (29.2 MB)

Ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, hundreds of students of several schools along with senior citizens cleaned up Poiya Ghat Sunday morning, picking up rags and used polythene bags, to focus attention on river pollution which candidates of various political parties have chosen to ignore.

Brij Khandelwal, programme convener of the Yamuna Foundation and Rivers of the World Foundation, said apart from students involved in the My Clean Agra initiative, a large number of other voluntary groups and organisations were involved in Sunday's programme which specifically targeted the politicians for failing to clean up the cities and the rivers of India.

"No political party has bothered to say a word about how they would save a dying river and rejuvenate it or restore its original glory," said Subhash Jha and Haridutt Sharma of the Yamuna Foundation for Blue Water.

A member of the PLC Watsan group Dhani behn, has built an Ecosan toilet for herself - one of the first in Gujarat-about a year back. This is one of the best toilets on Ecosan I have seen and the simple and elegant story of the same is hugely impressive. It is located in Bhavnagar Saurashtra - Gujarat. She was part of an exposure visit of PLC WatSan to a MYRADA project in Karnataka implementing ecosan. She has one simple reason for use of the toilet- it's less use of water. Even with a twin pit pour flush about 5 litres of water gets used for a single flush and in a day 20 to 25 litres of water can get flushed by one person. Even this is too much in arid and semi arid Gujarat. The transfer of knowledge has resulted in an elegant solution to an otherwise vexing issue that can be made applicable on a larger scale across the state. There exists tremendous interest in Eco-san from other parts of Gujarat too including the coast with its high and saline water table and the tribal hamlets with its hard rock terrain and the rest with a lot of water shortage.

The oustees of Maheshwar Dam demanded immediate stoppage of Maheshwar dam in village during the visit of the Monitoring Committee constituted by the Ministry of Environment and Forest. The oustees told the Committee that the project authorities have completely failed to rehabilitate the oustees but the construction work is going on full pace. Therefore, as per the conditions of the clearance the dam work should be stopped.

The Monitoring Committee: It may be stated that on 1st May 2001, the Ministry of Environment and Forest transferred the statutory clearance regarding Maheshwar Project to the Shree Maheshwar Hydel Power Corporation Limited (SMHPCL), the company building the dam. As per this clearance a Monitoring Committee was constituted to ensure that the rehabilitation work should be carried out at the same pace of concreting. The Committee headed by Mrs. Nirmala Buch visited the area on 23rd and 24th of February,2009.

New guidelines have been released by the Department of Drinking Water Supply, Ministry of Rural Development (GoI), towards ensuring drinking water security in rural areas. This programme is being taken up under the Rajiv Gandhi National Drinking Water Mission (RGNDWM). The Department of Drinking Water Supply (DDWS) is the nodal department in the Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD) in the Government of India, providing scientific, technical, and financial assistance to the states in the drinking water and sanitation sector. Access the guidelines here: National Rural Water Supply Programme Guidelines - 2008

WaterAid is a leading independent organisation which enables the world's poorest people to gain access to safe water, sanitation and hygiene education.

Dear Friends, We welcome you to support the cause of a dying river in the Western ghats As you are aware, an indefinite Satyagraha led by Chalakudy River Protection Forum has been going on at Athirappilly near the project site since 25^th February 2008. A series of programs have been organized in connection with the first anniversary of the Satyagraha to remind the conscience of the society what is in store if we tamper too much with our rivers, the people's longstanding time tested resistance to an environmentally, socially and economically unjust and unviable hydro electric project planned in one of the most beautiful rivers in the Western Ghats, the only basis of survival of millions of people and what has to be the real solution to the energy crisis in Kerala.

A series of Press Releases from sources indicate the progress on the matter of the Ganga River Basin Authority. It makes for an informative read with a candid discussion in the comments section!

Ganga River Basin Authority for Comprehensive Management of the Ganga Basin

PIB Friday, February 20, 2009
Ministry of Environment and Forests

 AUTHORITY ENSURES DEVELOPMENT REQUIREMENTS IN SUSTAINABLE MANNER ENSURING ECOLOGICAL FLOWS IN GANGA

The Government today announced the setting up of a National Ganga River Basin Authority. A statement to this effect was made in Parliament by Shri Namo Narain Meena, Minister of State in the Ministry of Environment & Forests. A Notification in this regard is also being issued by the Government.