Droughts and Floods

Toilet under the open sky for 73% of rural India

The Planning commission has found that 73% of rural India practices open defecation despite many sanitation programmes encouraged by the government. The main reason for this is the unavailability of toilets.

Appeal by

People's Science Institute

About the appeal

Havoc created by the Uttarakhand deluge is unprecedented. Cloudbursts, heavy rainfall and losses incurred in terms of human life and property have turned an exceptional natural phenomenon into an ongoing grieving tragedy.

If you thought that Uttarakhand was a land populated solely by tourists, I wouldn’t blame you. After all, that’s been the focus of the media in relation to who’s been affected by the recent floods – pilgrims at the Char Dhams and at Hemkund Sahib. The numbers are staggering, no doubt.

Havoc in the hills

We await a future that could be hotter and drier because of climate change. This is increasingly recognised as a global concern, and available data suggests that it is increasing the frequency and severity of weather-related hazards in South Asia.

Breaking news! The monsoon is here! It hit Kerala on June 1 and with that put an end to newspapers stories on drought in India highlighted by pictures of farmers standing on cracked earth and staring up at the sunny skies. However, very soon there will be Page-1 picture spreads of water-logged cities with traffic jams and harried people titled "The city is drowning"!

The construction industry went through a boom in the 1990s due to more people demanding and affording houses. This put a lot of pressure on the Pennar area in Andhra Pradesh. Sandmining, which is the process of taking sand, became rampant at that time.

Smaller is better in Maharashtra

Maharashtra is reeling under a drought – one of the worst in the last 40 years. The state declared drought in 125 out of 358 talukas during kharif 2012-13, and then declared water scarcity in 3,905 villages in rabi 2012-13.

A stepwell or ‘bawdi’ or ‘baori’, is exactly what the name suggests – a well with steps that lead down to the water. About 1000 years ago, a 13-storey deep water reservoir boasting 3500 steps was built to ensure that people in the arid Abhaneri region of Rajasthan had a dependable water source.