Society, Culture, Religion and History

This article from Pugwash online highlights the ongoing conflict between India and Pakistan over the Kashmir issue, the growing water demand in both the regions, the risk of water serving as a valuable reso

Groundwater depletion has reached such alarming proportions in the semi-arid and arid regions, despite huge investments in watershed development programmes by the state and central governments and the international donor community. One of the stated aims of these programmes is to mitigate drought and ensure water availability throughout the year.

This paper by Priya Sangameswaram in the Economic and Political Weekly deals with equity in watershed development in Hivre Bazar in Western Maharashtra.

The study is based on a scoping study on ‘Developing Markets for Watershed Protection Services and Improved Livelihoods in India,’ which Winrock International India (WII), New Delhi, undertook as part of a larger international study being carried out by the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), London. 

This report titled "Institutional History of Watershed Research in India - The evolution of ICRISAT's work on natural resources in India", by Dr C Shambu Prasad, A J Hall and S P Wani, published by ICRISAT, is a case study of watershed-based development initiatives at the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT). It seeks to reveal the way scientists and development practitioners work and how they are shaped by the diversity of partners involved and thereby draw process lessons for ongoing and future work on watersheds in international agricultural research centers (IARCs).

Waternama is a collection of traditional practices for water conservation and management in Karnataka. The book is produced by Communication for Development and Learning and edited by Sandhya Iyengar.
View/download the full book (29.2 MB)

To develop a watershed means, conventionally, to treat this whole area in such a way so as to conserve and nurture the natural resources of the area. These natural resources chiefly include the soil and water.

Bangalore Film Society, Arghyam, Svaraj- Society for Voluntary Action Revitalization and Justice, Finger Lakes Environmental Film Festival, Ithaca College, USA (FLEFF) Mountainfilm in Telluride, USA, Alliance Francaise de Bangalore, Max Mueller Bhavan, Bangalore, Charter of Human Responsibilities and Water Journeys - Campaign for Fundamental Right to Water are organizing the fourth edition of the largest international film festival on water - Voices from the Waters 2009 from Friday 4th September, 2009 to Monday 7th September, 2009. Established in 2005 to promote among the public an awareness of the myriad water-issues affecting our everyday lives either directly or indirectly and as a platform for alternate voices and views rarely heard in mainstream, Voices from the Waters started as a Bangalore-based Environmental Film Festival and over the 2007 and 2008 editions grew to be one of the largest, most diverse and dynamic platforms of debate, dialogue and celebration of the precious resource, the blue gold, life itself - water.

This study is a part of water and democracy programme initiated by the Centre for World Solidarity (CWS) as a joint initiative with Church Development Service (EED) in 2007 involving more than 50 partner organisations in South Asia.

Water Initiatives Orissa(WIO) and the Indian River Network (IRN) organsied the Odisha River Conference during 18 - 20 April 2009 at Sambalpur, Odisha. Attended by about 75 participants which included activists, environmentalists, journalists, academicians, researchers and civil society representatives from across the country, the Conference has just concluded with a "Sambalpur Declaration" that calls for saving the rivers from the current fate of high rate of degradation and giving communities their traditional rights over the rivers, among other strong resolutions.