/topics/rural-water
Rural Water
Women lead the way in water quality surveillance
Posted on 06 Mar, 2020 01:45 PMHistorically, water is a gendered burden, with women being the primary caregivers responsible for cooking, washing and cleaning chores in the house and in modern times in institutions (teachers, anganwadi and healthcare workers). Women have traditionally been associated with various water related tasks - be it collecting, fetching, or purifying water.
![Organised under WaterAid India’s partnership with GAP, water testing workshop (2019) held in Indore district aimed at training women and youth to lead the entire process of community water management – from planning to supply, operations and maintenance and to educate communities on water-quality issues. (Image: WaterAid India/Ashima Narain)](/sites/default/files/styles/featured_articles/public/iwp/wai1.jpg?itok=FVFEjRSY)
Mahadayi river water dispute receives final award
Posted on 05 Mar, 2020 02:05 PMKarnataka allowed to implement Kalasa-Banduri project
![The Mandovi river disputed between Karnataka and Goa (Source: IWP Flickr Photos)](/sites/default/files/styles/featured_articles/public/iwp/mandovi_rural_2_0.jpg?itok=9OhD2S67)
Suffering in silence: Migrant cane cutters of Maharashtra
Posted on 27 Feb, 2020 10:04 PMMaharashtra is the second largest sugar producing state in India, after Uttar Pradesh where as high as 1.6 million farmers cultivate sugarcane on 0.7 million hectares of land. The sugarcane industry provides direct employment to about 0.16 million workers while 1.5 million workers engage in sugarcane harvesting and transport operations every year.
![Women workers suffer the most (Image Source: Azhar Feder, Wikimedia Commons-CC-BY-SA-3.0)](/sites/default/files/styles/featured_articles/public/iwp/budget1_1.jpg?itok=nFOOYSao)
Unravelling Kuttanad’s drinking water paradox
Posted on 24 Feb, 2020 12:55 PMSurrounded by vast expanses of water, the Kuttanad region in Alleppey district, Kerala faces severe drinking water scarcity due to infrastructure failure and civic body inaction.
![Lack of sufficient quality water, poor pipe connectivity and frequent breakdown of existing pipelines are common in the area (Image: Jayasree Vaidyanathan)](/sites/default/files/styles/featured_articles/public/iwp/pipe.jpg?itok=2mf1p4dU)
Decentralised groundwater governance to deal with the groundwater crisis
Posted on 17 Feb, 2020 05:43 PMThe challenges to sustain groundwater dependency in India are many where groundwater over extraction is not only leading to rapid depletion of the resource, but also giving rise to water quality issues in a situation where the response at the level of policy continues to be lukewarm.
![The need for decentralised governance to deal with the current groundwater crisis (Image Source: ACWADAM)](/sites/default/files/styles/featured_articles/public/iwp/img_5018_0.jpg?itok=1Axtr83L)
Overcoming heavy odds to emerge as a WATSAN model
Posted on 17 Feb, 2020 04:18 PMKotda village provides an inspiring example of how a village suffering from teething troubles in the critical areas of water and sanitation can emerge as a model water and sanitation village. Located in Mangrol block of Junagadh district, from a distance this village presents a lush green appearance because of an abundance of coconut trees.
![AKRSP has promoted rainwater harvesting to address the issue of scarce potable water at Mangrol. By encouraging households to collect rainwater using pipes on their roofs which then drain into an underground tank they have been able to promote water security. (Image: Aga Khan Foundation Flickr)](/sites/default/files/styles/featured_articles/public/iwp/mangrol.jpg?itok=fKFm-VCl)
Budget 2020: Is the allocation enough to meet the piped water dream
Posted on 09 Feb, 2020 09:25 PMFinance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s budget announcement on February 1, 2020 made a push for piped rural drinking water supply and promised full coverage of all households by 2024.
![Just 21.4 percent of India’s households have access to piped water, as per NSSO data (Image: Niyantha Shekar, Flickr Commons; CC BY-NC 2.0)](/sites/default/files/styles/featured_articles/public/iwp/tap_3.jpg?itok=UvTVvyzY)
Managing commons: Need and challenges
Posted on 06 Feb, 2020 07:17 PMCommon pool resources, popularly known as “commons”, are those resources which are accessible to the whole community or village and to which no individual has exclusive ownership or property rights. Commons have two essential characteristics: non-excludability and high-subtractability.
![Plantation in Gomala (Image: Foundation for Ecological Security)](/sites/default/files/styles/featured_articles/public/iwp/plantation_in_gomala_1.jpg?itok=GlBcRaZ1)
Perils, politics and prospects of groundwater in India
Posted on 05 Feb, 2020 03:15 PMAfter independence, India was largely food insecure but post Green Revolution around the 1970s, foodgrain production increased manifold consequently reducing food insecurity and poverty in the country, in spite of rapid population growth. Its ability to achieve targeted results was largely dependent on the explosion of groundwater abstraction mechanisms like tubewells.
![An irrigation well at Randullabad, Maharashtra. (Image source: India Water Portal on Flickr)](/sites/default/files/styles/featured_articles/public/iwp/groundwater_3.jpg?itok=OTSLWBTH)
What's there for water in the budget kitty?
Posted on 02 Feb, 2020 01:46 PMUnion Finance Minister Ms. Nirmala Sitharaman presented the decade's first union budget in the parliament on 1st February 2020. While presenting budget for 2020-2021, she started with the country’s vision for the decade in which she emphasised on water management and clean rivers as one of the 10 points of vision for the country.
![The budget allocation suggests that the predominant focus of the Ministry of Jal Shakti continues to be on water resources development rather than water resources governance or management (Image: Brian Gratwicke, Flickr Commons, CC BY 2.0)](/sites/default/files/styles/featured_articles/public/iwp/kids-swim.jpg?itok=FnoAM3iP)