Conservation - Reducing Water Usage

The document emphasises the need for periodic modifications in the water policy. This is  in terms of planning and management of water resources by taking into consideration the changes in economic, social, climatic, demographic situation of the country and the urgent need to conserve the available water resources.

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Lakes are integral components of the ecosystem and serve as natural habitats to a variety of plants and animals, besides being important sources of drinking water and livelihood for people. Industralisation has lead to the release of pollutants into the lakes and destruction of their natural habitats, thus making them unfit for use.

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The National Environment Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) is a premier CSIR laboratory. On September 7th, NEERI held a brainstorming workshop entitled "Interface between water technology developers and other stakeholders”.  The purpose of the workshop was to engage better with other players involved with bringing scientific innovation in the water sector to reach large numbers of people who need the innovations.  Attendees included scientists from many CSIR laboratories involved with water research, senior central government officials from the Rural Water Supply Department and the Dept of Science and Technology, State government officials, representatives from leading corporate houses including Eureka Forbes and Unilever and NGOs.  

A workshop on developing interface between water technology developers and other stakeholders particularly those who actively address water policy issues namely officials of Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation, Public Health Engineering Department, NGOs, International Organisations and Professional Associations was held by the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) with support of the Department of Science and Technology (DST) at Nagpur on 7^th September, 2010. 

The historic UN General Assembly Resolution declaring Water and Sanitation as a Right, was passed on the 28th July 2010. 

What is surprising is the complete silence to this UN Resolution from some of the countries who have been traditional champions of human rights, in terms of celebrating it as a historic achievement in advocating a basic right to water and sanitation. Instead some of them went one step short of openly opposing and vetoing the UN Resolution and have heaped criticism on Bolivia for tabling this UN Resolution.

Sanitation - a big problem in India, as half the population of our country do not have access to this facility. Mumbai is one of the biggest cities in the world and advanced in terms of its commercialization. However, sanitation is one of the most common issues neglected. Our team of women from Jan Jagruti went into the lanes of 3 areas Azad Mohala, Bharatiya Kamla Nagar, Vijay Nagar and spoke to women to understand the severity of the sanitation issue prevailing. These areas have severe problems with public health, due to improper sanitation infrastructure and insufficiency of toilet facilities, compounded by numerous issues of flooding during the monsoon season. Khaaddi, a local area/dumping ground, is widely used by local residents for urination and defecation, leading to the spread of contagious diseases. Though women use paid toilets, the issue of cleanliness and waiting in long queues are the most common problem before them. It is very insecure for them when they use open spaces for defecation.

One of the oldest "People's electricity" systems I have ever seen (Please read the notes for each of the videos).  Of course this trip had even better high points - wine made from Gooseberry and Nutmeg - all locally brewed.  So travelling in the midst of hills, sipping local wine, seeing some great work, (and providing perspectives for someone-else to write - is this work or what?

This Civil Engineering Course under the National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning (NPTEL) on the broad subject of Water Resources Engineering and Management is being carried out by Indian Institute of Technology’s and the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore as a collaborative project supported by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (Government of India) to enhance the quality of engineering education in the country, by developing curriculum based video and web courses. In these web based lectures, the authors have developed the subject in detail and in stages in a student-friendly manner. The broad group of Water Resources Engineering is structured into modules on the topic by IIT Kharagpur as follows: