Urban Water

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Featured Articles
August 10, 2024
Changing waterscapes trigger the spread of Zika in urban India 
While citizens need to play their part to prevent diseases such as Zika, municipal bodies/urban area authorities need to pull their socks up and set right the poor governance mechanisms that are slowly turning cities into hotbeds of diseases, filth and mismanagement.
The Aedes aegypti mosquito, the culprit for causing Zika (Source: Wikimedia Commons)
July 28, 2024
Tap into the numbers: Budget insights on WASH
The budget allocation for the Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation reflects a steady upward trajectory, underscoring the importance of scaling financial commitments to meet the growing demands of the WASH sector.
Child drinking water from handpump in Guna, Madhya Pradesh (Image: Anil Gulati, India Water Portal Flickr)
March 15, 2024
Surat and Bengaluru lead in used water management
A study by CEEW study indexes 503 urban local bodies from 10 states with a treated used water reuse policy. Haryana, Karnataka, Punjab are ahead in used water management in India.
Yelahanka water treatment plant (Image: India Water Portal Flickr)
February 5, 2024
Shimla's future: Crafting a development plan
Navigating sustainable development in the wake of legal battles and environmental challenges
The heavy rains and landslides in 2023 have highlighted the city's inability to bear the burden of additional population (Image: Vincent Desjardins; CC BY 2.0 DEED)
December 12, 2023
Technological solutions for water sustainability: Challenges and prospects
This book is a valuable resource for everyone concerned with the changing water situation in the country, and the potential of new technologies for sustainable use of water.
A sewage treatment plant at Bangalore, Jakkur for managing urban water sustainably. Image for representation purposes only. (Image Source: IWP Flickr photos)
October 20, 2023
Building community expertise in planning, designing, and overseeing WASH systems
A holistic approach to Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) initiatives
Shantilata uses a cloth to filter out the high iron content in the salty water, filled from a hand pump, in the village Sitapur on the outskirts of Bhadrak, Bhubaneshwar, Odisha (Image: WaterAid/ Anindito Mukherjee)
Maps, lakes and citizens: The use of surveys in lake conservation - An article in the Seminar magazine
Settlements in the area that is now Bangalore have a recorded history that dates back to the 5th century CE. Water for these settlements was made available through multiple series of tanks, which numbered 19,800 around the year 1830.
Harini Nagendra
Posted on 19 Mar, 2012 11:44 AM

This lake system is now decaying with lakes either taken over for urban uses, or choking due to neglect. ATREE and the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) have been engaged in attempting to understand how to restore these lakes for urban use, while maintaining their ecological importance. This article in Seminar describes this attempt.

Puttenahalli: one of Bengaluru's urban lakes

Draft National Water Policy (2012) fails to take into account the multiple, complex problems and issues relating to water in India says M S Vani
The Draft National Water Policy 2012 seems to be an improvement over earlier versions due to a fundamental shift from the ‘project oriented’ approach espoused so far by the bureaucracy and political establishment to a ‘resource’ oriented approach. Water, considered state property due to eminent domain principle, was hitherto seen only in terms of projects- irrigation or multipurpose. Now at least it is defined as a ‘natural resource’.
But what does it really mean, to call water as a ‘natural resource’? What is the relationship we as humans are seeking to establish with this part of nature? What are the relative roles of citizen and state in India towards this resource?
M S Vani
Posted on 18 Mar, 2012 05:49 PM

Guest post by: M S Vani

Perusing the draft, one comes across all the ‘right’ concepts, words liberally sprinkled throughout the document, describing the resource:-

  • Natural resource
  • Hydrological cycle
  • Ecological needs of rivers
  • Climate change
  • Sources pollution

and our intended response to it :-
Status of water supply in in class-I cities and class-II towns of Uttar Pradesh (UP)
Status of water supply in in class-I cities and class-II towns of Uttar Pradesh (UP)
spectromech
Posted on 17 Mar, 2012 10:15 PM

Source: Central Pollution Control Board’s 2009-10 Report

Class of cities/towns
Integrated water management for rural/urban India: Common effluent treatment plant can conserve fresh water in industrial estates
Contamination of surface and groundwater resources is rampant in rural/urban India with wastewater entering fresh water bodies or seeping into groundwater. An integrated approach is needed to manage the water and wastewater treatment so that water supply is kept clean and wastewater is recycled for beneficial use in agriculture and industry. This paper will present a study that was completed for the Hammond Sanitary District in Indiana where 38 million gallons per day (MGD) will be recycled after secondary treatment for beneficial use by land owners in Northwest Indiana.
Vasudevan Rajaram
John R Sheaffer
Posted on 17 Mar, 2012 11:02 AM

Authors : Vasudevan Rajaram and John R. Sheaffer
Lessons for rural water supply - Assessing progress towards sustainable service delivery - India - IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre, The Hague
This report by the IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre describes the findings of a study that was conducted in India as a part of a 13 country study that aimed at reviewing and better understanding the trends within rural water supply and identifying factors that appeared to contribute to or constrain the delivery of sustainable services at scale. The study also aimed at identifying organisational incentives and barriers that shaped the way in which sector institutions approached rural water services.
James A J
Posted on 10 Mar, 2012 04:24 PM

The study looked beyond a simple description of the situation towards broader processes of decentralisation and political leadership, in an attempt to unpack what has gone right or, as in many cases, what has gone wrong, within the rural water sub-sector.
3rd Annual India H2O Conference 2012, May 23-24, 2012, Mumbai
Posted on 29 Feb, 2012 11:29 AM

Organization: ASAPP Media Information Group

Venue: The Orchid, Mumbai

H20

Description:
For the first time in history, India is marching towards rapid urbanization under a deliberate policy. The creation of new cities, conversion of rural into urban areas, development of existing cities, and the continued growth and creation of waterdependent industries will require intense coordination with infrastructure, including water supply. This year, India's Union Ministry of Water Resources is reviewing the National Water Policy. Private players are awaiting a fortification of policies and revising thinking in implementation of viable water supply. A national water map is being developed to divine the availability with much more accuracy.

Mayadantha Male (The miracle of rain) - All India Radio Karnataka programme on rainwater harvesting
This article by Chicu summarises an AIR, Karnataka programme on rainwater harvesting.
All India Radio
Posted on 26 Feb, 2012 04:37 PM

"The miracle of rain : Let the earth overflow"
Trends in private sector participation in the Indian water sector: A critical review - A Water and Sanitation Programme publication
This report published by the Water and Sanitation Programme (WSP) involves a study that involved a review of PPPs in the urban water supply sector since the 1990s, explores the trends emerging in the sector and analyses the factors that have facilitated or impeded the development and implementation of PPPs in the sector.
Water and Sanitation Program (WSP)
Posted on 23 Feb, 2012 05:54 PM

The study also analyses the direction in which the sector is heading with respect to private sector participation. Since most PPPs are at early stages of operation, this study focuses only on learnings from PPP design and transaction. This study does not seek to assess the operating or financial performance of PPPs.
New water policy more contentious; least helpful in tackling existing issues
The new water policy (NWP) draft 2012 is reportedly replete with more contentious issues and least helpful in tackling existing issues. The formulation of new draft policy has been facilitated in an undemocratic way sans participation of all stakeholders. Undoubtedly the draft explicitly states that water needs to be managed as a community resource held by the state under public trust doctrine, but concurrently it underscores the need to treat water as an “economic good”. Instead of treating water as ‘economic good’, it should be treated as sustainable development instrument.
Arvind Kumar
Posted on 22 Feb, 2012 12:34 PM

Author : Dr. Arvind Kumar
How valuable are environmental health interventions? - Evaluation of water and sanitation programmes in India - Paper published in the Bulletin of the World Health Organisation
This paper published in the Bulletin of the World Health Organisation presents the findings of a valuation study that estimated the economic value of the average “treatment effect” of a community demand driven water and sanitation programme. The study employed a unique combination of propensity-score “pre-matching” and large panel data to estimate the economic impacts of a multi-dimensional environmental health programme.
Christine Poulos
Jui Chen Yangb
Subhrendu K Pattanayak
Sumeet Patil
Posted on 21 Feb, 2012 06:11 PM

The paper informs that a number of epidemiological studies on the benefits of water and sanitation interventions have shown that diarrhoea can be reduced by 30–50%.
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