Public Infrastructure and Services

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Featured Articles
July 10, 2023
How data and technology can improve urban livability
By fostering strong collaborations and pooling resources, cities can collectively address the challenges of data-driven urbanization, says NIUA report
There is tremendous transformative potential of data driven approaches in shaping urban environments (Image: Needpix, CC0)
September 1, 2021
Study calls for securing water sustainability in Chennai
Best practices for holistic urban water management in Chennai Metropolitan Area
These bright plastic jugs are ubiquitous in Chennai and Tamil Nadu. (Image: McKay Savage, Flickr Commons; CC BY 2.0)
December 26, 2019
Centre holds green signal to Kalasa-Banduri project
Policy matters this week
The Mandovi river disputed between Karnataka and Goa (Source: IWP Flickr Photos)
December 11, 2019
Locals reject social impact assessment report of Luhri II hydropower project
News this week
Sutlej river in Kinnaur, Himachal Pradesh (Image source: Sanyam Bahga, Wikipedia)
December 6, 2019
Holistic approach needed to clean the Ganga
A report by the India Rivers Forum highlights the need to focus further than the main stem of the Ganga river.
Distant snow clad mountains, the smaller hills and the Ganga river (Image: Srimoyee Banerjee, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0)
December 4, 2019
In wake of climate change, prioritise and invest in water security and clean drinking water
To adapt well & build resilience, climate change strategies need to factor in efforts towards water security, writes Vanita Suneja, Regional Advocacy Manager (South Asia), WaterAid.
Image credit: WaterAid/Prashanth Vishwanathan
No man's land
The state of the poromboke lands in Chennai signifies the deteriorating nature of its ecology. Saving them is important not just to preserve a tradition but also to safeguard growing urban spaces.
Seetha Gopalakrishnan
Posted on 18 Jan, 2017 09:39 PM

From its rather benign origins connoting a type of land classification, the term poromboke has transformed into something grotesque over the years. This term had been in use since the Cholas denoting stretches of land reserved for shared communal use which cannot be bought or sold.
The Ennore creek choked by fly ash. (Screen grab from the Chennai poromboke paadal)
State of rivers goes south
Rivers turn muck in many stretches in south India calling for action before they dry up completely.
Amita Bhaduri
Posted on 14 Jan, 2017 05:40 PM

At a time when the government’s attention is steered towards the concerns of the northern rivers like the Ganga and the Yamuna, it is seldom that the polluted rivers of the south India come up for discussion.
Water-borne litter in Salem, Tamil Nadu. (Source: Parvathisri, Wikimedia Commons)
Closing the loop
A village near Bengaluru sets an example of reusing wastewater by innovatively using the reject water from a community RO plant to eliminate fluoride contamination.
Priya Desai
Posted on 09 Jan, 2017 03:58 PM

With a total population of 1200, Sonnahallipura village in Hoskote taluk of Bangalore Rural district has 250 homes. This village was chosen by the Rotary Club of Bangalore, Indiranagar to start a micro-credit programme for 10 women’s self-help groups (SHG) and a low-cost sanitary napkin manufacturing unit.  
The RO plant in Sonnahallipura village.
Maharashtra gears up for irrigation projects
Policy matters this week
Swati Bansal
Posted on 09 Jan, 2017 10:14 AM

Maharashtra approves cost overrun in irrigation projects, set to complete Gosikhurd project
Irrigation canal from the Bhima dam, Maharashtra (Source: Nvvchar on Wikipedia)
Curious case of disappearing fish
Fish species are rapidly disappearing from Himalayan rivers. Dams are not the reason. Human activity is.
Chicu Lokgariwar
Posted on 07 Jan, 2017 09:41 PM

Jaman Ram, a resident of Bhikia Sain, a tehsil in Uttarakhand, remembers fishing with his father in the Ramganga. “We could catch 80-100 kilograms of fish a day. That is no longer possible,” he says. Shafiq of Haldwani shares an unsettling memory of the Ramganga. As a young man on a holiday, he was paddling in the river near Marchula when the rock he was standing on shifted.
Mahseer swim in the bracing waters of the Ganga in Uttarakhand.
Changing coast affects livelihood
While sundry development and infrastructure projects beautify the Chennai coastline, fishermen are left to fend for themselves.
Seetha Gopalakrishnan
Posted on 07 Jan, 2017 07:05 AM

Going by the statistics from the Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute, Tamil Nadu’s coastline is densely populated with 573 fishing villages along 13 coastal districts. The story is slightly different around the urban and peri-urban coastline, thanks to the ongoing gentrification of the coastline in most parts of urban India.
Chennai coast on a busy day.
When riverbed becomes real estate
The banks of Yamuna have witnessed many forced evictions of illegal settlers over the years. The officials, however, turn a blind eye to encroachment by massive infrastructures.
Amita Bhaduri
Chicu Lokgariwar
Posted on 02 Jan, 2017 08:17 PM

Shalu’s household was evicted from Koyla Basti of the Yamuna pushta (embankment), a massive slum cluster on the banks of the Yamuna river in the year 2004. Earthmoving machines bulldozed thousands of homes at the site which was to host the Commonwealth Games of 2010.
Forced evictions before the Commonwealth Games. (Source: Housing and Land Rights Network)
Saving the Ganga, one step at a time
A walk along the Ganga is all it takes to get a better perspective on the river and its deteriorating ecosystem. Here’s an attempt at it.
Makarand Purohit
Posted on 21 Dec, 2016 09:11 AM

An aerospace engineer from IIT, Kharagpur, Siddharth Agarwal could have been drawing a fancy salary like any other 25-year-old if he hadn’t followed his passion.
Siddharth Agarwal (Photo credit-Siddharth Agarwal)
Open letter to Uma Bharti, Minister for Water Resources
What are the gaps in the recent gazette notification on river Ganga rejuvenation? Dr Brij Gopal, coordinator, Centre for Inland Waters in South Asia writes an open letter for public discussion.
Brij Gopal
Posted on 20 Dec, 2016 08:03 PM

Hon’ble Madam,
 
Namaskar,  
Chhatris on the banks of the Betwa river. (Source: Vadaykeviv Wikimedia Commons)
Soon a single tribunal for all inter-state river disputes
Policy matters this week
Swati Bansal
Posted on 19 Dec, 2016 12:45 PM

Government decides to create a permanent tribunal for all inter-state river disputes
Cauvery river in Karnataka (Source: IWP Flickr photos)
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