Conservation - Reducing Water Usage

Featured Articles
December 13, 2019
Trading in virtual water
A study highlights the need to scale down the export of rice, maize, buffalo meat and other items to conserve groundwater in India.
A farmer uses a hosepipe to irrigate crops at her farm in Nilgiris mountains, Tamil Nadu (Image: Hamish John Appleby for IWMI, Flickr Commons, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
December 11, 2019
Replacing rice will improve India’s climate resilience
A study calls for solutions that can benefit farmers and the environment and positively impact India's nutrition indicators.
Rice field in Karnataka (Image: Guldem Ustun, Flickr Commons, CC BY 2.0)
December 6, 2019
Holistic approach needed to clean the Ganga
A report by the India Rivers Forum highlights the need to focus further than the main stem of the Ganga river.
Distant snow clad mountains, the smaller hills and the Ganga river (Image: Srimoyee Banerjee, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0)
December 4, 2019
In wake of climate change, prioritise and invest in water security and clean drinking water
To adapt well & build resilience, climate change strategies need to factor in efforts towards water security, writes Vanita Suneja, Regional Advocacy Manager (South Asia), WaterAid.
Image credit: WaterAid/Prashanth Vishwanathan
December 2, 2019
Water stewardship approach to minimizing risks for businesses
Water stewardship is an approach predicated on the concept that water is a shared resource and so water risks are also shared risks that everyone in a catchment will face
Picture credit: Romit Sen
November 18, 2019
BWSSB’s workforce woefully inadequate, says Chairman Tushar Girinath
Bangalore's water utility is understaffed, under financed and unable to service the city's water needs.
Image credit: Citizen Matters
Data-driven ‘water and agriculture’ planning: The big picture
If data was better organized and available for download in more ‘user-friendly’ formats, its utilization would improve manifold. Amita Bhaduri posted 6 months 3 weeks ago

India is fortunate to have a rich tradition of public data collection and compilation.
The quality of our public data is highly variable, yet if analyses and interpretation are done keeping in mind some of the limitations, the datasets can be a precious resource at the meso and macro level. (Image: Pixabay)
Where does the water in a well come from?
In the water sector, the focus on fixing demand and supply is taking us away from the real problem - the unnoticed groundwater dependencies in ever-expanding urban India. Aarti Kelkar Khambete posted 7 months 1 week ago

The environment versus development debate has increasingly become more polarised, with discussions in the public domain revealing a stark contrast of views. Development has increasingly come to symbolise ‘doing something’ and ensuring ‘visible outputs’, largely in the form of infrastructure.
An open well in Maharashtra (Image Source: IWP Flickr photos) Image used for representational purposes only.
IUKWC Virtual User Engagement Initiative 2020
The India UK Water Centre welcomes you to a free, online event to engage with new water research tools and methods that could contribute to your operational practice. Swati Bansal posted 8 months 1 week ago

IUKWC has put together a set of interviews with researchers from six Indo-UK projects that provide an overview of their research outputs and how these can support water operations, management and/or decision making.

Fully interactive - interviewees will be available to answer your questions during two hour windows
Tank desiltation scheme in Maharashtra: Policy concerns and way forward
Maharashtra has been implementing the Gaalmukt Dharan, Gaalyukt Shivar Yojana (GDGS) scheme since 2017. How has it fared and what needs to be done to improve it further? Aarti Kelkar Khambete posted 10 months ago

Tank systems of India
Desiltation activities undertaken under the GDGS in Maharahstra (Image Source: NASHIKONWEB.COM)
Repurposing microirrigation to deal with water woes
Microirrigation does not often bring about a change in cropping patterns, with farmers continuing with water-intensive crops. Amita Bhaduri posted 10 months 2 weeks ago

India is likely to face stark water scarcity in the coming decades as a result of excessive use, according to the World Resources Institute (WRI)’s Aqueduct Water Risk Atlas - a tool to visualise and assess water stress and drought and flood risk covering
Irrigation pump supplying water for drip irrigation (Image: IWMI Flickr, (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0))
Digital tools to tackle water scarcity
FRANK Water and Arup launch the WASH Connect mobile app and WASH Basins Toolkit to empower local government and communities to jointly manage water resources. Amita Bhaduri posted 10 months 2 weeks ago

India has the highest population of any country in the world without access to safe drinking water and adequate sanitation. According to WaterAid and the World Health Organisation (WHO), 163 million people still lack access to safe water and millions still defecate in the open.
About 200,000 people die each year in India from diseases related to unclean water (Image: FRANK Water)
Villagers in Rajasthan show resilience during national lockdown
Continuing to prepare rural communities for the most unprecedented events in Alwar. Amita Bhaduri posted 10 months 3 weeks ago

India’s national lockdown to curb the fast-expanding community transmission of coronavirus led to life coming to a standstill across the country. The long pause of over three months is starting to ease, and the new shift towards “normal” gives health and hygiene ultimate attention.
Repairing the school infrastructures before students return to their classrooms (Image: Sehgal Foundation)
Priorities for the Revised National Water Policy
There is need to evolve a National Water Policy that establishes a framework and pathway to sustainable, efficient and equitable management of surface and groundwater resources. Aarti Kelkar Khambete posted 11 months ago

The Department of Water Resources, under the Ministry of Jal Shakti, has constituted a drafting committee on 5 November 2019 to revise the existing National Water Policy (NWP). Dr. Mihir Shah, a renowned water expert and a former member of the Planning Commission is chairing the committee.
The need for sustainable, efficient and equitable management of surface and groundwater resources (Image Source: India Water Portal)
Northeast fights Covid-19
While Northeast appears to be better off than the rest of India in the number of Covid cases, how are migrants from the North East coping? Aarti Kelkar Khambete posted 11 months ago

While Covid-19 has left many countries including India in the line of fire, the situation in India is now getting particularly alarming with the number of people infected by Covid-19 rising at a rapid pace.
Ration distribution to the migrants (Image Source: Sunbird Trust)
Agricultural crop substitution can bridge rural and urban water needs
Rural and urban water crisis in India can be addressed through adaptive changes in current agricultural practices, as per a study in Maharashtra by the Indian School of Business. Amita Bhaduri posted 11 months 1 week ago

With 85 percent of water being utilized for agriculture in India, a gradual shift in agriculture towards water-intensive crops have exposed the country to an increased threat of water crisis. The erratic nature of monsoons adds to this exposure and calls for judicious use of water resources, especially in the dry regions.
Cropping pattern in Maharashtra over the past 40 years has shifted towards water-intensive crops like sugarcane (Image: Terry Sunderland/CIFOR)
Subscribe to Conservation - Reducing Water Usage