Water Management

As part of its committment to provide safe drinking water to its rural communities, the Karnataka State Government as part of its World Bank-assisted Jal Nirmal Yojana program, implemented through the Karnataka Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Agency, took an initiative to adopt a Geographical Information System (GIS) approach to develop a Spatial Information and Knowledge base on groundwater quality of Karnataka.

The following case studies on drinking water management, describe the efforts of Pravah and its partner organisations, in organising drinking water at the village level, along with rural communities of Gujarat.

https://www.downtoearth.org.in/full6.asp?foldername=20091015&filename=croc&sec_id=10&sid=1

This research study, by Veena Srinivasan, addresses the challenge of supplying water to rapidly growing cities in South Asia, using evidence from the water-scarce city of Chennai. Chennai (formerly Madras) is a rapidly growing metropolis of over 6.5 million people, whose infrastructure has not kept pace with its growing demand for water. In the year 2003-2004, Chennai experienced a severe water crisis, the piped supply for the entire city was virtually shut down for a 12-month period. Consumers became dependent on private tanker suppliers trucking in untreated groundwater from peri-urban areas.

Picture from https://www.thehindu.com : (https://www.thehindu.com/2009/10/14/images/2009101451490301.jpg) , drinking water being supplied by tanker in Bellary district

No fresh flood threat:

https://www.thehindu.com/2009/10/13/stories/2009101353490400.htm

Several articles cover the post-mortem of the floods, triggered by CWC statements that their warning to the government of AP was ignored

PIL filed alleging negligence on the part of AP government

http://www.mumbaimirror.com/index.aspx?page=article&sectid=3&contentid=20091014200910140355037187a9b2d4c

Rosaiah reacts:

https://www.thehindu.com/2009/10/14/stories/2009101450460100.htm

https://www.thehindu.com/2009/10/13/stories/2009101359070300.htm

The proceedings of the Consultation on “Emerging Water Regulatory Frameworks and Related Reforms in Water Governance in Karnataka” that was held on 02 September 2009 at Bangalore. Please do send us your comments.

In continuation with our efforts within Karnataka we have taken up two initiatives:

1. Review of the ongoing reform processes in Urban Water Governance, with a special focus on the establishment of the Karnataka Urban Water Supply and Sanitation Council.
2. Preparation of a general reader on water governance in the form of a booklet with a special focus on regulatory reforms in Karnataka, available both in Karnataka and Kannada (targeted at non-academic audiences such as NGO's and CSO's).

Water is a complex subject that gives rise to many issues, and several of them have legal aspects. The book proceeds from various water-related problems and issues to the legal questions that arise in those contexts, examines the adequacy and appropriateness of the relevant existing laws, if any, and considers the changes and reforms that are needed. It seeks to cover the ground extensively. The book also briefly raises and explores the case for a constitutional declaration on water and an over-arching national water law. This compendious volume thus straddles two domains, viz.,

(i) water-resource policy, management, conservation, conflict-resolution, etc (in itself a multiple domain encompassing many concerns and disciplines); and

(ii) water law

In 2008-2009 Arghyam conducted an extensive household survey of water and sanitation in rural Karnataka, covering 17,200 households and 172 Gram Panchayats.

Roundup of news - October 7, 2009

The Andhra Pradesh Government on Tuesday assured people that the flood threat, now mostly centered around the Prakasham barrage in Krishna district and Vijayawada, will improve in the next 24 hours.

CWC official pointed at neglect by the Andhra Government of repeated recommendation for flooding of Kurnool town:

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/5094923.cms