Governance

In honour of World Water Day 2014, the theme at the Green Bazaar, a community event run by The Alternative, was water. India Water Portal collaborated to add some 'blue' to the 'green'.

The theme of this year’s World Water Day was “energy-water nexus”. It was almost as if the topic was chosen keeping Western Uttar Pradesh in mind because the conflict between water and energy users in agriculture and industry has heightened here in the recent past.

On 22nd March 2014, Raipur celebrated World Water Day with senior government officials and officials from NGOs and other organisations presenting on the importance of NGOs in disseminating information to the people. They also highlighted the discrepancies in data collected between organisations and the need to improve on this if they were to make a difference to society. 

IWMI-Tata Water Policy Program (ITP), a project that focusses on policy research in the co-management of energy & groundwater, has been awarded the 2014 UN ‘Water for life’ award!

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“Posua botah”, he said. “The wind is blowing from the west now so we cannot take you to the beel to show you how we catch fish. This wind cleans the water and we won’t get fish. 'Bhatial botah', when the wind blows from the east, the water turns muddy and the fish come up to the surface to breathe. That’s the best time to fish”, he explained.

The Himalayas were born of continental shift when the Indian subcontinent challenged the larger Asian landmass. This tortured birth still continues making the region susceptible to landslides and earthquakes.

The twin sisters:  Bihar is a land of fertile farms bearing sugarcane, wheat, rice, gram and pulses. Interspersed between the fields are venerable mango groves. Of Bihar's children, perhaps none is as universally loved as Sita. The village that she was born in -Sitamarhi- welcomed another daughter along with Sita.

The Chandil dam reservoir is located 30 kms from Jamshedpur on the Subernarekha river in Jharkhand. While this dam is a 'tourist hotspot', its construction has resulted in the displacement of more than 20,000 families from 116 surrounding villages. “We lost our farmlands because of the project and now, to support our families, we have to take any job available", says Narayan Gope. 

Pophala is a dry land farming village with 73 families that cultivate 290 acres. The people would spend as many as 5 hours to go to another village and get water. In the year 2013, the Gram Sabha in Pophala village, decided on something unique. They decided to figure out a way to get and keep water in their village so as to not be dependent on anyone else.