Public Infrastructure and Services

Urban water supply can be classified into two categories -- formal and informal.  A formal system usually means piped delivery, at least partly treated, and regulated by a utility.

When Satya was asked by the Sarpanch to opt for the position of a worksite supervisor as a Mate, she was thrilled at the prospect of a better life. Brought up in Murayur village in Sivagangai district, Tamil Nadu, she knew how tough agricultural wage labour work was. While her mother left her with grandparents, her father also took on menial jobs and errands from big farmers.

Sixty eight percent of India's population lives in rural areas but when it comes to facilities -- including the availability of safe drinking water -- cities and towns corner most of them.

Stop use of fresh groundwater in city parks: Delhi Government

What does slashed funding for the water and sanitation sector in this year’s budget mean? Is the government’s claim that the states will get more money because of the latest Finance Commission recommendation, spot on? Sona Mitra and Kanika Kaul of the Centre for Budget and Governance Accountability (CGBA) shed light on these at the All India Convention on the Right to Sanitation.

Bihar is working hard to achieve total sanitation. Sanjay Kumar Sinha, of  the Public Health Engineerng Department spoke about Bihar's efforts in this direction during a conference on the Right to Sanitation.

Rajya Sabha passes the Mining Bill

With over 620 million defecating in the open in India, do we need a new approach to curb this practice? The force of habit is such that even households with toilets have around forty percent of adults defecating in the open. But, does curbing open defecation necessarily lead to significant improvements in child health outcomes like diarrhoea, anaemia, parasite infection and growth?

Between May and December 2014, 17 deaths were registered in Sambalpur due to jaundice but residents say that the death toll due to water-borne diseases is much more than that. In January 2015, the Odisha High Court issued a notice to the state government asking it to furnish details on the steps taken to check the Jaundice outbreak in Sambalpur. 

What is Jaundice?

Mahananda, a major River of north Bihar rises in the Darjeeling district of West Bengal. It meets the Ganga after a journey of 376 km through the flat lands of Bihar, West Bengal and Bangladesh. It would spill its banks because of the flat slopes, causing deluge and waterlogging in the Katihar district of Bihar.