Sustainability

This book by Earthscan contains the global standard for ‘water footprint assessment’ as developed and maintained by the Water Footprint Network (WFN). It shows how water footprints are calculated for individual processes and products, as well as for consumers, nations and businesses. It also includes methods for water footprint sustainability assessment and a library of water footprint response options.

A shared standard on definitions and calculation methods is crucial given the rapidly growing interest in companies and governments to use water footprint accounts as a basis for formulating sustainable water strategies and policies. The current manual is an updated, revised and expanded version of Water Footprint Manual: State of the Art 2009, published by the WFN in November 2009 (Hoekstra et al, 2009a). This new edition has been produced after intensive consultations with partners and researchers worldwide. Directly following the publication of the Water Footprint Manual, all partners of the WFN were invited to provide feedback on the manual.

The quality of drinking water is a vital element of public health and well-being. The most effective means of consistently ensuring the safety of a drinking-water supply is through the use of a comprehensive risk assessment and risk management approach that encompasses all steps in water supply from catchment to consumer.

WHO guidelines on water quality term these approaches as water safety plans (WSPs), developed to organize, systematize and apply management practices in drinking-water quality.

Article and Video Courtesy: WAVE India
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India is the largest user of groundwater resources in the world. It is estimated that approximately 230 cubic kilometers per year is used annually, this is more than a quarter of the total world consumption from this resource.

It is in this context that this World Bank report looks at the reasons for this quantum of groundwater usage.

The report delves into socio-economic and political reasons and looks at policies which inadvertently promote so much extraction. The report also analyses various attempts to manage this resource. These attempts range from government and international agency efforts directed to grassroots mobilisations. Finally the report comes out with suggestions to deal with this crisis.

This presentation prepared by the founders of Parivartan, a Kanpur based NGO, deals with the organisation's efforts to improve the sanitation system of the town by involving local citizenry.

Captain SC Tripathi, the founder of Parivartan explains that his organisation is based on a 'collective' model where in all aspects from ideation to implementation is a collective effort. This model seemed appropriate considering the different problems that Kanpur was facing ranging from sanitation issues to drainage, power outages etc. Added to this was political and official apathy, indifference and cynicism of citizenry.

This study provides interventions to solving the sanitation crisis in the holy town of Pandharpur, situated on the banks of the Chandrabagha/Bhima river, in the state of Maharashtra, which receives more than 1.5 crore devotees annually. On any given day there are approximately 20,000 pilgrims in this Class B town. This vast floating population creates massive sanitation problems leading to environmental and hygiene issues.  The study forms part of the Maharashtra State Pollution Control Board's 'Environmental Improvement Programme at Religious Places in Maharashtra' project.

 This proposal prepared by Hoshangabad Nagar Palika Parishad, Government of Madhya Pradesh and Water and Sanitation Programme South Asia, is meant to ensure that every household in this town adopts safe sanitation practices and is to help enable the urban local body, implement a city wide sanitation programme that finally ensures collection and treatment of waste.

This document is the tenth mile stone in the process of achieving the goal of city-wide sanitation for Hoshangabad.

This set of presentations from the conference on Outstanding Organic Agriculture Techniques held during September 2009 at Bangalore deals with pest and disease management practices in organic farming, which rely primarily on preventive and integrated methods.

Crop production and plan protection in organic farming

This paper by S R Sundararaman presents organic farming as the only recourse for farmers, to save both livelihood and the health of the soil. Organic farming methods enable farmers save money and turn their farmyard waste into value-added products for increasing crop production. Farmers will not have to be dependent on agri-business companies for seeds, fertilizers and pesticides. Our self-reliance is thus preserved. A large portion of our country's foreign exchange is used to pay for the import of petroleum products. By going organic we will also help our country save on valuable foreign exchange. Our land will keep giving us returns for extended periods of time unlike farming as per the green revolution, where the land stays productive for a short time and then becomes sterile.

The uppermost question in the minds of farmers who have recently converted to organic farming or who want to turn organic is how to ensure that crop production does not reduce and how to protect the plants from disease, without the chemical fertilizers and pesticides that their fields have grown used to. This paper provides the answers and it also seeks to reassure all farmers that there is no farm which cannot turn around and produce quality crops in sufficient quantity, using organic farming methods.