In June 2011, Swami Nigamananda Saraswati died after a four month fast in protest of sand mining on the banks of Ganga. His death is a warning. If reckless sand mining continues, the Ganga and the people whose lives and livelihoods are fueled by it will face serious consequences. (See Down To Earth article, A swami and sand mafia, http://www.downtoearth.org.in/content/swami-and-sand-mafia)
A film by Tarini Manchanda Vikaas ki kahani gaon-gaon se hai dur kyun? Nadi toh hai paas, yeh paani dur –dur kyun? Why is the story of development so far away from each village? Why is the river close by and the water so far?
Time for Solutions: 12-17 March, 2012 The 6th World Water Forum is scheduled to take place in Marseille, France between 12th and 17th March, 2012. The focal theme for this Forum is “Time for Solutions”. It aims to deliver a “Marseille Framework for Action” by the end of the week.
Anyone having water connection must pay tax: court A Division Bench of the Madras High Court affirmed that the Chennai Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (CMWSSB) can demand water charges from all owners/ occupants of an apartment even though the apartment has only a common sump and no individual water connection has either been applied for by such owners/occupants or provided by the board.
In this issue of the newsletter, the second part of the PPP story looks at small informal water service providers, taking the example of Delhi. More than 50% of the population of Delhi is actually served by these informal water service providers. Although the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) is mandated to supply water to the poor living in unauthorised colonies, JJ clusters, resettlement colonies and urban and rural villages, the reality is that people living in these non-planned areas pay more than 750 times of what DJB charges the well-off living in planned colonies.
The first part of this article focussed on the recent initiatives by the government to involve big and established private players for municipal water supply. The argument behind the privatisation moves is that private players need to be brought in to recover costs and bring in improved efficiency and service in urban water supply.
The global water footprint is 7450Gm3/yr, which is in average 1240m3/cap/yr. The United States of America has an average water footprint of 2480m3/cap/yr whereas China has an average water footprint of 700m3/cap/yr. The factors that affect water footprint are: 1. Total volume of consumption, which is generally related to gross national income of a country. (eg. USA, Italy and Switzerland)
Mr. T Sampath Kumar, a chartered accountant by profession has developed an innovative product to clean up lakes. His idea in simple: hasten the growth of diatom algae, which in turn provides oxygen to bacteria that consume lake pollutant substances, thus cleaning up lakes. This process is very similar to what happens naturally -- blue-green algae provide oxygen to bacteria to decompose nutrients.
Qanats and surangams are examples of water accessing systems which have similar technologies. Qanat technology originated in Iran and was used extensively in the dry, arid desert regions of the Middle East and surangam technologyis used in the hilly terrains of the Western Ghats. Both systems essentially consist of underground tunnels that source the aquifer and use gravity to convey the water to groundlevel.
Himalayan Gram VikasSamiti
Mr. Tulasi Prasad Sitaula, Honorable Secretary, Ministry of Physical Planning and Works (MPPW), Nepal addressing the participants
CSE jointly with Centre for Integrated Urban Development (CIUD), Nepal organized a briefing workshop on ‘New Paradigms of Urban Wastewater Treatment – Challenges and Options at Kathmandu, Nepal on February 13, 2012.
February 12-15, 2012
March - May 2012 This fellowship is supported by Jamshedji Tata Trust In 2009-10, 51 tigers were killed in India, in spite of all the conservation programmes, awareness drives and public campaigns to save them. India hosts the majority of the world’s tiger population -- about 1,700 tigers, according to the May 2011 census.