Sustainability

The 24^th National Convention of Institution of Public Health Engineers (India) on the theme “Water & Sanitation Utility Services in India and their health implications” will be organised by IPHE(I), Regional Centre, Bhubaneswar during 12^th -13^th  February,2011.

Dear all,

IUCN, with Zoo Outreach Organisation, have today published a new report, 'The status and distribution of freshwater biodiversity in the Eastern Himalaya', which is available online here

India’s Groundwater Challenge and the Way Forward
P S Vijay Shankar , Himanshu Kulkarni , Sunderrajan Krishnan

The groundwater crisis is acquiring alarming proportions in many parts of the country. Strategies to respond to groundwater overuse and deteriorating water quality must be based on a new approach involving typologising the resource problems and redefining the institutional structure governing groundwater. This approach is based on the notion of groundwater as common property.

The scarcity value of natural resources has risen due to rising pressure of human population and demands made by modern economics progress. As such managing these resources has become very important.

The three booklets discuss the issues of water quality, river pollution, and rainwater harvesting, in detail.

Forwarded to the portal by: Rohit Rellan

The India Chapter of the International Advertising Association (IAA) seeks to recognize creative excellence in communicating sustainability.

These are the country’s first ‘green’ awards for communication.

Any communication that highlights the ‘green’ nature of a product, service or corporate philosophy is covered by this award. This would include communication about anything organic, eco-friendly, power-efficient, energy-saving, pollution-controlling, recyclable, reusable and generally something that offers a positioning as not just the custodian of a brand but also a custodian of Brand Earth.

Dr Rupela in his keynote address to the organic farming association of India does mention SRI along with several other desirable practices for a 'cool' or climate friendly agriculture. Some of us met him recently at the national workshop. Let us hope this article and his work will inspire many more researchers to work closely with farmers on sustainable agriculture.

In 2006 Sterlite, a subsidiary of UK mining company Vedanta built a refinery in Niyamgiri Hills, Orissa, India. The intention was to mine bauxite from the Niyamgiri Hills, which is in reserved forest. It is also home to indigenous communities who are dependent on it for their livelihood.

Parivartan Awards for Sustainability and Innovation 2011 recognize and showcase such companies that have used innovation for making their products, processes, facilities and operations sustainable.

The Parivartan Awards will be announced at Parivartan 2011, India’s only forum to focus exclusively on driving adoption for sustainability initiatives in businesses by promoting the business case with decision makers both on the production side as well as on the consumption front. It is the forum of choice to promote sustainably driven market development and innovation.

The author sees the need for the conservation, maintenance and management of these ancient water bodies for the supply of water to cities. The author suggests that there is need to integrate traditional wisdom with modern water resource management.