Rural Water

Featured Articles
October 25, 2019
Mapping Pune’s aquifers
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)
October 24, 2019
How farm ponds in Madhya Pradesh are building agricultural resilience
An intern with Watershed Organisation Trust narrates his field experience from the villages of Madhya Pradesh, where farmers are using farm ponds to conserve water.
A farm pond constructed by Sheshrao Dhurve in Karaghat Kamti village of Madhya Pradesh
October 21, 2019
In conversation with K. J. Joy of SOPPECOM
In this interview, Joy talks about his work as an activist working in rural Maharashtra, and how he came to work on water conflicts in India.
KJ Joy speaks at a felicitation for the late Professor Ramaswamy Iyer.
October 16, 2019
Jal Jeevan Mission: States to bear half the cost, local bodies to decide water charges
Policy matters this week
Women filling water from a tap (Source: IWP Flickr photos)
October 1, 2019
From droughts to floods: India’s tryst with climate extremes
Deconstructing the traditional narrow engineering based policy discourses around floods and droughts and connecting them to social and cultural realities is the need of the hour in India.
Water talk Series at Mumbai (Image Source:Tata Insitute of Social Sciences)
September 30, 2019
The Water Future Conference in Bangalore: Towards a Sustainable Water Future
The recently concluded 4 day conference in Bangalore looked at the current state of global water resource challenges & future pathways to achieve the SDGs, while ensuring equity in access to all.
Charles Vorosmarty, Chair, COMPASS Initiative, Water Future at the opening plenary on advanced water system assessments to address water security challenges of the 21st century.
Women hold the key to dietary diversity
A study finds that women's control over income and better decisionmaking power can go a long way in improving dietary diversity and tackling malnutrition in rural India. Aarti Kelkar Khambete posted 9 months 1 week ago

Evidence world over shows that small scale agricultural production does very little to deal with malnutrition and food insecurity among rural poor.
Empowering women to improve nutritional outcomes (Image Source: India Water Portal)
Data, data everywhere, but where?
Involving the community in a data framework with the right incentives will have the second-order benefit of the community becoming decision makers with respect to water use. Amita Bhaduri posted 9 months 2 weeks ago

A few of us did an exercise where we closed our eyes and thought of the first four words that came to our minds when we thought of water data in India. Here is what we came up with:
The seamless flow of data from one program to another can be enabled if a few principles are kept in mind (Image: José Manuel Suárez, Wikimedia Commons)
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 9 months 2 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)
Request for Proposal- Integrated Baseline Study of Raintree Foundation’s ‘Sustainable Integrated Rural Development’ Program in Rural Maharashtra
The baseline study is an integrated survey that will collect data & information tied with the performance indicators of the SIRD program, mapped out to assess the program’s long- term impact. Swati Bansal posted 9 months 2 weeks ago

Background
Groundwater recharge needs grassroots solutions: A study of two techniques in Kerala
Although groundwater is emerging as a critical issue and has managed to encourage new government schemes, a generic solution of rainwater recharge cannot be applied across different regions. Amita Bhaduri posted 9 months 2 weeks ago

In Kerala, around half the urban population and 80% of the rural population depend on open wells on their domestic water needs. But in the last decade, the majority of observatory wells recorded an average annual decline of half a meter.
Rainwater is captured from the rooftop of the community hall and diverted to the sump before it is pumped into the open well. (Image by Authors)
New groundwater guidelines prohibit industries and mining in over-exploited zones
Policy matters this week Swati Bansal posted 9 months 3 weeks ago

Revised guidelines for groundwater use notified
Centre issues revised guidelines for groundwater use (Source: IWP Flickr Photos)
Dhenkanal gears up for better waste management
Odisha reiterates commitment to urban sanitation by launching pioneering state-wide initiative on solid and liquid waste management. Amita Bhaduri posted 10 months ago

The UNICEF and the Scaling City Institutions for India (SCI-FI) initiative at the Centre for Policy Research (CPR) in collaboration with the Panchayati Raj and Drinking Water Department (PR&DW), Government of Odisha (GoO), and the District Administration, Dhenkanal are making strides towards instituting district wide approach for Solid Liquid Waste Management (SLWM).
Odisha continues with its transformative journey in urban sanitation in areas of solid and liquid waste management. (Image: SCI-FI, CPR)
Data, a reusable asset
Can we design capabilities to ingest, protect and use water data in ways that amplify value for its users? Amita Bhaduri posted 10 months ago

A quick search for the word data on India Water Portal results in a flood of queries - people are looking for water data - for specific villages, cities or for the entire country. 
Water data needs to be liberated from the custody of one set of users and a single programme making it a reusable asset that each programme and actor builds on. (Image: Needpix)
Overexploitation of groundwater highest in Punjab: Government
News this week Swati Bansal posted 10 months ago

Punjab no.1 in overexploitation of groundwater 
Overexploitation of groundwater highest in Punjab (Source: IWP Flickr Photos)
Decision Support Space: A concept
Are we wired to make bad decisions and how can a Decision Support Space (DSSpace) facilitate better decision-making about water systems in India? Amita Bhaduri posted 10 months 1 week ago

Friedrich Nietzsche famously wrote that he who has a ‘why’ to live can bear almost any ‘how'. A strong reason, motivation (why) and curiosity lead to actions that pave the path (how) to achieve any desired goal.
Decision-making on water is a multifaceted and cognitively overwhelming process (Image: Lolame, Pixabay)
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