Wells and Step-wells

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February 24, 2021 Baravas, the unique water harvesting structures of Maharashtra continue to stand the test of time. Urgent efforts need to be made to conserve them and learn from them!
A barav from Limb village in Satara district, Maharashtra (Image Source: Aarti Kelkar Khambete)
November 18, 2019 Bangalore's water utility is understaffed, under financed and unable to service the city's water needs.
Image credit: Citizen Matters
November 13, 2019 News this week
A cyclonic storm that hit India in 2016. (Source: IWP Flickr photos)
November 4, 2019 Despite being the lifeline of India’s water supplies, groundwater is overlooked by policy makers and users alike.
An irrigation well at Randullabad, Maharashtra. Image source: India Water Portal on Flickr. Image used for representational purposes only.
October 25, 2019 Groundwater use has doubled in Pune. Comprehensive mapping of groundwater resources and better management and governance is the need of the hour.
Groundwater, an exploited resource (Image Source: India Water Portal)
September 26, 2019 New report documents India’s rich traditions of water harvesting and sustainable use.
Bandhara (in Nashik, Maharashtra), a low masonry weir of 1.2 to 4.5 m height, which is constructed across a small stream for diverting the water into a small main canal taking off from its upstream side (Image: Shailendra Yashwant, Oxfam India)
Rainfed areas and rice farming Crucial agricultural water issues
Making up-gradation of rainfed areas a priority for food production and poverty alleviation Posted on 25 Dec, 2010 08:30 PM

John Thompson works on power, policy and sustainability issues in food and agriculture, water resource management and rural development. He is a STEPS Centre member, IDS Fellow and joint Co-ordinator of the Future Agricultures Consortium. He presents two crucial agricultural water issues to take priority on World Water Day.

Mining - An increasing threat to our rivers - Article by Nitya Jacob
Mining constitutes a major, and largely unrecognized, threat to our rivers. It takes away what we have and also destroys whatever is left of it. Posted on 20 Dec, 2010 12:29 AM

Content Courtesy: Solution Exchange and Nitya Jacob
Author: Nitya Jacob

India’s arteries are choking. Her rivers, the lifeline of hundreds of millions, are over-taxed, polluted and encroached. They are being mined, dammed and emptied of water. Save for the four monsoon months, most rivers are streams of drains, depending on how many cities they pass through. This year people gaped in awe at the River Yamuna (I am sure they were over-awed by other rivers elsewhere too) as for the first time since 1978 looked like a river and not a drain.

Water management across space and time in India – A working paper by the University of Bonn
This paper links development of water management and its practices with social, religious, economic development with the rise and fall of the ruling regime. Posted on 17 Dec, 2010 10:09 PM

This working paper by the University of Bonn attempts to give a spatial and temporal overview of water management in India. It traces how people and the successive regimes made choices across space and time from a wide range of water control and distribution technologies. The paper divides the water management in India into four periods –

  • the traditional system of water management before colonial times;
  • response from the colonial rulers to manage the complex socio-ecological system;
  • large scale surface water development after independence; and
  • finally, the small-scale community and market-led revolution.

E-newsletter from Indian Farm Forestry Development Co-Operative Limited (IFFDC) - November 2010
The November edition of e-newsletter published by the Indian Farm Forestry Development Co-Operative Limited (IFFDC) features the cultural heritage of step-wells. Posted on 29 Nov, 2010 12:57 PM

Article and Image Courtesy: Indian Farm Forestry Development Co-Operative Limited (IFFDC)

Indian Farm Forestry Development Co-Operative Limited (IFFDC)

The November edition of e-newsletter published by the Indian Farm Forestry Development Co-Operative Limited (IFFDC) has the following highlights:

An illustrated collection of groundwater problems: A guide to a beginner in groundwater hydrology by CAREWATER
Understanding groundwater hydrology. Posted on 18 Oct, 2010 07:53 PM

This report by CAREWATER has been prepared as part of a component on Groundwater Governance in Asia: Theory and Practice under the CGIAR Challenge Programme on Water and Food. The purpose of this collection is to guide a beginner to groundwater hydrology through the basic concepts in this subject. The problems begin with fundamentals of the subject and are followed by those which test the comprehensiveness of understanding. Most problems are illustrated and a real-world situation is related with the problem.

Training modules on planning, development and management of groundwater with special reference to watershed management programmes by ACWADAM
A comprehensive training module on basic hydro-geology and groundwater science Posted on 06 Oct, 2010 08:12 PM

Acwadam

Advanced Center for Water Resources Development and Management (ACWADAM) is a premier education and research institution and facilitates work on groundwater management through action research programmes and trainings. ACWADAM’s main thrust has been on the process of capacity building and facilitation, both founded strongly on its research base.

ACWADAM, with support from the Ford Foundation, has embarked on strengthening civil society capabilities in groundwater management, using the watershed management platform. A comprehensive training module on basic hydrogeology and groundwater science, has been developed, and can be sourced by writing to ACWADAM at acwadam@vsnl.net.

These trainings enable the trainees particularly from Civil Society Organisations to improve the planning, implementation and monitoring of their watershed development and allied projects.

Hydrogeology and sanitation guidelines – A presentation by ACWADAM
A guideline for risk assessment and outlining the two principal routes by which sources of groundwater become contaminated by on-site sanitation systems Posted on 23 Sep, 2010 11:11 PM

This presentation by ACWADAM deals with hydrogeology and sanitation guidelines. Safe water supply and sanitation choices are an important public health measure and source quality improvement is critical to this. The impact of different aspects of water and sanitation appears to be largely dependent on the conditions within a particular community and existing access to other components of water and sanitation.

Groundwater modeling – A presentation by ACWADAM
Groundwater modeling using Water Evaluation and Planning System (WEAP) model, a microcomputer tool for integrated water resources planning Posted on 23 Sep, 2010 08:13 PM

This presentation by ACWADAM deals with groundwater modeling using the Water Evaluation and Planning System (WEAP) model. WEAP is a microcomputer tool for integrated water resources planning and operates on the basic principle of a water balance. WEAP is distinguished by its integrated approach to simulating water systems and by its policy orientation. It provides a comprehensive, flexible and user-friendly framework for policy analysis.

Earth sciences in watershed management – A presentation by ACWADAM
Groundwater cannot be directly observed on these pictures. The presentation outlines the scale as well as how to map for watershed management Posted on 23 Sep, 2010 08:04 AM

This presentation by ACWADAM on earth sciences in watershed management shows how the occurrence of water within a watershed is governed by the rock types occurring both at the surface and within the subsurface, their sequence and their structure. The presentation deals with the basic components involved in the mapping of a watershed –

  • The type of rocks (lithology), and
  • The structure (whether these are folded, faulted, fractured, jointed etc.,)

Type of rocks – A presentation by ACWADAM
Understanding the three basic types of rocks that are found in nature – igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic is essential for better management of water Posted on 11 Sep, 2010 08:07 PM

This presentation by ACWADAM deals with the three basic types of rocks that are found in nature – igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic. Rocks are classified on the basis of minerals & chemical composition, by texture and by the processes that formed them.

Rocks