Drinking and other Domestic Uses

Image and Content Courtesy: WaterAid

WaterAid India's WaterDrops newsletter is published quarterly. WaterDrops is an effort to showcase WaterAid India's work, ideas, issues and concerns with its partners, civil society organisations, international NGOs, UN agencies and other important players in the water and sanitation sector. The latest issue of WaterDrops focusses on issues of inclusion, including articles on Social exclusion in drinking water and sanitation, Caste based discrimination, Water as a tool for social control and Inclusive approaches in Bihar. The latest issue can be downloaded here: WaterDrops Issue - 12

"Right to Water and Sanitation", is a briefing paper (draft) written in March 2009, by Indira Khurana and Richard Mahapatra of WaterAid India, based on secondary research.

A portable bicycle pump reduces the drudgery of transporting water to these homes. They also plan to implement grey and black water treatment systems with the assistance of industries in the vicinity that can use that water, or use the sewage waste to generate biogas.

Report of steering committee on drinking water supply and sanitation for tenth five year plan

This paper by WaterAid India is an assessment of the drinking water and sanitation situation in the country in terms of coverage and financing gaps, if any, keeping the targets of the Millennium Development Goals as a benchmark for the assessment.

Development Alternatives did a survey of water quality in various areas of Delhi through its Clean India Campaign. The results are presented as a software application. The application can be downloaded and installed on your computer.

"Innovations in Microfinance" Series

A debate on Private Sector approaches to Water Management for the poor provides a unique opportunity to learn about private sectro microfinance approaches to water management that have been used for a range of purposes from purchasing household water connections and clean water storage units, like rainwater harvesting tanks to the construction of household latrines.

The debate sponsored by the Citi Foundation & Arc Finance is to be held at the New York Asia Society and Museum. The event can also be accessed via a free live video webcast. More details below the fold.

Approximately 1.1 billion people lack clean water supplies and 2.7 billion have no access to proper sanitation. To combat conditions that lead to sickness and disease, low income families across Asia are asking for clean water and improved sanitation to keep their families healthy and productive. Sophisticated modern piped water networks are too expensive for most developing countries and poor people living in the slums often pay 5 to 10 times more per liter of water than wealthy people living in the same city. Sensing a business opportunity, microfinance organizations are beginning to explore the market for making water more accessible to the poor.

The PAHELI report (Peoples' Audit of Health Education and Livelihoods) is a rapid assessment of the prevailing status of human development in a district and covers four major sectors: life and livelihoods, water and sanitation, mother and child health, and education and literacy. The design and execution of PAHELI was done by Pratham and PAHELI district partners.

The ninth compendium of environment statistics 2007, brought out by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI), provides data on five core parameters - land/soil, water, bio-diversity, atmosphere and human settlements. These statistics can be used to understand various aspects of the environment, and to explain the impact of economic activities on sustainable development as a whole and the environment in particular.

The Maharashtra groundwater (regulation for drinking water purposes) act, 1993, take protection measures for public drinking water sources such as prohibition of construction of wells within certain limits.