Voluntary Citizen or Civil Society Sector

Content and Image Courtesy: BBC World News

The finalists of World Challenge will be profiled on BBC World News in six 30 minute programmes. You can vote for your favourite project/business on this website. Voting will open on 27th September 2010 and will close at midnight (GMT) on 12th November 2010.

One of the oldest "People's electricity" systems I have ever seen (Please read the notes for each of the videos).  Of course this trip had even better high points - wine made from Gooseberry and Nutmeg - all locally brewed.  So travelling in the midst of hills, sipping local wine, seeing some great work, (and providing perspectives for someone-else to write - is this work or what?

Water law and policy framework in India has undergone significant changes in the last couple decades. Given the complex nature of the law and policy framework, the awareness among common people is minimal or nil. This is an irony given the fact that recent law and policy changes call for ‘users’ to be as a key player in the management and development of water.

This paper published in the journal Conservation and Society reassesses/debates the decision taken by the government to dredge a new sea mouth in the Chilika Lake in Orissa, India, which was based on Geographical Information Systems (GIS) studies.

The paper argues that decisions such as these need to be understood and evaluated by taking into consideration not only the underlying technical aspects, but by also exploring the political and historical contexts in which decisions are taken. 

Narmada valley is facing yet another crisis beyond the gigantic dams, which has arisen due to the huge canal network of the Indira Sagar and Omkareshwar canals. The canals of these two dams are not yet fully planned, yet certain estimates, which are not yet final by the Narmada Valley Development Authority show that not less than 10,000 hectares of agricultural land is to be acquired, but a larger acquisition is yet to come up in numerous villages, where even a basic socio-economic survey of the affected land and families is yet to be undertaken.

Organizer: Pentagon Consultants

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Please consider signing this online petition drafted by the Environmental Support Group, who have been AID's partner for 10 years now (esgindia.org). This letter is regarding a 'Draft Paper' on 'Monitoring Compliance of Environment/CRZ clearance Conditions – A New Approach' drafted by an in-house Review Committee constituted on 25th August 2010 by the Ministry of Environment and Forests.

This manual has been developed by the Central Public Health and Environmental Engineering Organisation (CPHEEO), a department under the Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD) and  serves as a standard guide in public health engineering by providing a code of day to day practice for public health engineers to follow.

Content and Image Courtesy: Arghyam

Arghyam is a non-profit foundation, based in Bangalore and focussing on water issues.

We are looking for a consultant who will work with us on creating decision-making tools for practitioners in the field of urban water. We are specifically looking at creating easy-to-use tools that administrators or engineers, especially in towns and smaller cities across the country, will find useful. This is part of our Integrated Urban Water Management project, where we are looking at interrelating the planning and management of all aspects of urban water (surface water, groundwater, wastewater and stormwater management, equity and access for the poor, institutional aspects, governance aspects etc.)