Voluntary Citizen or Civil Society Sector

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Featured Articles
October 8, 2023
India's rivers: From conservation movements to legal personhood
While the current push for legal personhood for rivers is facing obstacles and is stalled, it holds potential as a viable long-term strategy for the preservation of India's rivers
River quality deteriorates as demand for hydropower to support economic growth continues to expand. (Image: Yogendra Singh Negi, Wikimedia Commons; CC BY-SA 4.0 DEED)
October 6, 2022
Visualizing the Vrishabhavathi river to keep it alive
In an effort to inform the general public, especially citizen activists, policymakers, researchers, and students, about the current status of the Vrishabhavathi river, Paani.Earth has created the necessary maps, data, analysis, and information to drive conservation awareness and action around the river.
Vrishabhavathi river (Image Source: Paani.Earth)
October 1, 2021
Community videos: By the community, for the community
Community videos as a tool to influence behaviour change and adoption in rural communities
Community videos are produced by farmers themselves and feature local participants and agents from the rural communities themselves (Image: Digital Green)
September 17, 2021
Villagers’ shramdaan revives canal, enhances area under cultivation
Benefits of well-managed commons on livelihoods
Collective efforts revived the canal structure of Bichhiya dam bringing water to the village (Image: Foundation for Ecological Security)
September 4, 2021
How Paani Foundation harnesses the power of communication for social transformation
Committed to use the power of all forms of communication to bring about behavioral change and transformation at scale
Villagers participating in shramdaan for making watershed structures (Image: Paani Foundation)
September 3, 2021
Learning about safe water practices and solutions
Safe water learning cards being used to train a wide spectrum of stakeholders
Different combinations of safe water learning cards can be customised for a session based on the target audience (Image: INREM)
Right information and collective strength of people triumph!
The film titled 'A Hand Pump' tells the story of the villagers of Padapadar, Odisha and their struggle to finally get their right to safe drinking water.
Makarand Purohit
Posted on 04 Jan, 2016 08:25 PM

"More than eight villagers in Padapadar have died due to water-borne diseases such as typhoid, diarrhoea, jaundice, etc.
A hand-pump installed at Padapadar village
A thousand streams spring back
Sahastradhara near Dehradun is testimony to the fact that nature’s bounty is unlimited if man treads carefully.
Vishal Gupta
Posted on 15 Dec, 2015 12:58 PM

Govind Ram has seen the worst and best that man can do to nature.
A view of Sahastradhara region from the ropeway (Source: Dr Umesh Behari Mathur/ Flickr)
Industrial effluents dirty River Brahmani
Setting up industries along rivers may be financially rewarding but when untreated effluents drain into the river, the water quality deteriorates.
Akshaya K Bhadra
Baidhar Sahu and Swoyam P. Rout
Posted on 14 Dec, 2015 06:47 PM

Water is the most fundamental component of any natural resource, and the crisis of fresh water has posed a formidable challenge worldwide. Among the sources of drinking water rivers play an important role, and in the peninsular river system in India, the River Brahmani plays a pivotal role. 
Effluents from industries & factories contaminate the water source (Source: Wikipedia)
Ultratech Cement mines limestone (and villagers) in Chhattisgarh
The people of Parswani were promised jobs, healthcare and water. Now, after signing an MOU, they just about get polluted water for irrigation purposes.
Makarand Purohit
Posted on 13 Dec, 2015 03:38 PM

Paraswani village in Balodabazar district, Chhattisgarh contains vast reserves of limestone, a sedimentary rock that is a primary ingredient in the cement manufacturing process. Since 1992, Ultratech Cement Ltd. (UTCL) followed by four other similar companies, have begun excavating this rock within a 30 km radius of the village.
A view of the Ulratech Cement factory from Paraswani
From toilet to tap: Is that the future of drinking water?
Singapore's done it, and so has Orange County USA. Even astronauts do it. Drink recycled wastewater, that is! So will it become a reality in India?
Amita Bhaduri
Posted on 09 Dec, 2015 12:47 PM

An article in India Today three years ago was titled ‘Beware Delhi!
Yogendra Singh, an operator, explains how the 'Toilet to tap' plant functions
Choppy waters and a calm river voyager
Emmanuel Theophilus was awarded the ' Bhagirath Prayas Samman' at the India Rivers Day 2015 for his valiant and untiring effort to safeguard the integrity of the Mahakali River.
Amita Bhaduri
Posted on 06 Dec, 2015 12:31 PM

The epic voyage--Nadisutra--along the Ganga may have been the high point of Emmanuel Theophilus’s recent work, but there have been many more peaks and valleys for this fervent mountaineer cum ecologist. Theo lives in a remote village near Munsiyari in Uttarakhand.
Theophilus being awarded the ' Bhagirath Prayas Samman' (Source: Kush Sethi)
Understanding the connect between caste and sanitation
De-linking the relationship between the two and not acknowledging the contribution of sanitation workers can limit the goal of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan to clean India and achieve total sanitation.
Subhash Gatade
Posted on 05 Dec, 2015 11:14 PM

Of the one billion people defecating out in the open globally, 66% live in India of which as high as 92% live in rural areas.
Factors affecting sanitation outcomes (Source: Sourabh Phadke)
Water vending machines: How equitable are they?
Water ATMs have been in use in India for a decade but who are they helping and are they fulfilling their objective, which is to provide safe and clean drinking water to the poor at a low cost?
Makarand Purohit
Posted on 05 Dec, 2015 02:34 PM

A water ATM, as the name implies, is a sort of a water vending machine similar to bank ATMs except that in a water ATM, money goes in to the machine in return for water. These machines, which run on a cash as well as a prepaid card or smart card system are built, owned and operated by private companies that have rights over public resources such as land and water.
Water vending machines at work (Source:Sarvajal)
Springs are more than just a source of water for humans
Springs exist in the most biodiverse regions of the country and anchor entire ecosystems. That fact must be respected while undertaking springs conservation work.
Chicu Lokgariwar
Posted on 02 Dec, 2015 09:04 PM

"If you do good work on the ground, policy will happen", says Himanshu Kulkarni of ACWADAM. This has proven to be in true at least in the case of springs.
Springs not only provide humans with water but anchor entire ecosystems.
Undisposed toxic waste still haunts Bhopal’s groundwater
A report says that many locals in Bhopal are dealing with “high rates of birth defects, rapidly rising cancer rates, neurological damage, chaotic menstrual cycles and mental illness".
Amita Bhaduri
Posted on 02 Dec, 2015 03:06 PM

“When cool air blows over the city and it rains in Bhopal bringing welcome respite to its people, I fear that toxic waste is spilling into its groundwater”, says Rajesh Kumar who shows me around the 68-acre plant site of Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL).
A poem that describes how the city was left destroyed is written on a wall near a memorial for those killed & disabled by the Bhopal gas tragedy, 1984
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