Rural Water

The following article is the latest update of an overview of Kosi floods by SSVK. It reveals the ineffective handling and inadequate supply of materials by the Government in the flood hit regions. It also points out the activities done by various organizations and SSVK itself.

Following is the summary of an interview of Anshu after he along with his team did their part in the rehabilitation processes. The summary narrates Anshu's experiences and evaluations on Bihar flood.

The document can be downloaded as a PDF here (Hindi): Kosi rehabilitation policy document

Kosi disaster: The rehabilitation & reconstruction policy

The report starts from August as the floods struck and chronicles the sequence of events till November. The initial frenzy of the flood & confusion as people panic and relief exists as only a mirage to the slow grind of the government machinery are documented.

Today is Blog Action Day 2008, where blogs all over the world are writing about poverty. We thought we would use this opportunity to talk about water and poverty.

Here is a slightly long and complex paper but the sum and substance of it seems to be that Solar Disinfection (SODIS) combined with Nimbu pani is excellent to reduce e-coli count and inactivate it substantially. Nimbu paani also serves as an indicator that the water has been SODISED.

Orans are local micro bio-diversity reserves- community conserved areas (CCAs) harboring the shrine of a local goddess or deity. Also known as Dev-banis, these local forests vary in size from a hundred to five hundred bighas (about hundred hectares). Most Orans have sources of water, either small springs or rivulets running through them or a variety of ponds and nadis in their midst.

The French Institute of Pondicherry has brought out a DVD titled "Bittersweet Waters: Irrigation Practices and Modern Challenges in South India". This trilingual documentary (French, English and Tamil ; 53 minutes) deals with the issues of water management in South India, a subject of underlying anxiety in towns as well as in the countryside.

Forwarded to the Portal by: N Sree Hari, Byrraju Foundation Byrraju Foundation (BF), a not-for-profit organization is dedicated to rural transformation and to catalyse improvement in quality of life in villages.

As ground water levels decline in India, Persian Wheels cannot reach the water to draw them out from open wells. One such Persian wheel stands forlorn and frustrated as the water table has dipped in Kolar, Karnataka India. This wheel has worked for the last 80 years and 2007 was the first time that the water table fell and the wheel could not work for the day.