Water-sensitive Urban Design and Planning
Assists Practitioners involved in sectors related to water management as well as urban designing and planning.
Mainstreaming Rainwater Harvesting in Noida
The rainwater harvesting (RWH) potential of Noida is about 27.73 million cubic metres (MCM) (i.e. 27,730 ml), which can meet 26.63 per cent of Noida’s water demand annually.
Why we cannot ignore the poor
One thing is clear—the solutions must work for the poor, for them to work for the rich Some fortnights ago, I had discussed the issue of poverty and environment. I had then said that the question today is not whether the poor are responsible for environmental degradation but whether environmental management works if it does not address inequality and poverty. Why?
If only cities can see wetlands
Sixty People died in a building collapse in Chennai last fortnight. There is much more than the municipal incompetence that needs to be fixed to avoid such tragic incidents. This building was located on Porur lake, a water body that provides services like groundwater recharge and flood management to an otherwise water-starved city. If you care to ask the obvious question how construction was permitted on the wetland, you will get a not-so-obvious response. Wetlands are rarely recorded under municipal land laws, so nobody knows about them.
Rating System for Water Efficient Fixtures
Water is under pressure from increasing demand stemming from growing development pressures, with its manifestations in the form of deteriorating water quality, declining availability and unregulated groundwater extraction.
Public private prank
Growth is back on the agenda, says the government. It is hoping that with pushy announcements foreign and Indian investment will miraculously start pouring in and infrastructure will be the name of the game once again. But this assumption ignores one crucial detail: currently, public-private partnerships (PPPs) in infrastructure are on the cusp of disaster. The country needs a different strategy to build public services infrastructure.
Grand distraction called river interlinking
Last fortnight, the Supreme Court issued a diktat to the government to implement the scheme to interlink rivers. The directions are straightforward.
24X7 water in the 1700's
People living in and around Aurangabad were getting round the clock water supply through underground pipelines at a time when most cities in medieval India relied directly on wells, ponds and rivers. These conduits dating back to the 17th and 18th centuries transported water over long distances through gravitational pull much like the aqueducts of ancient Rome that supplied water to cities, their public baths and fountains.