The World Meteorological Organization’s State of the Climate in Asia 2024 report warns that the region is warming nearly twice as fast as the global average, driving more extreme weather and posing serious threats to lives, ecosystems, and economies. In 2024, Asia experienced its warmest or second warmest year on …
The government of India has for long considered watersheds as catalysts for development activities in rain-fed areas. In 1994, it developed guidelines for implementation of watershed programmes. These were subsequently revised, in 2001, by the department of land resources of the ministry of rural development and circulated as guidelines for …
The sacred does sell. A community in Mawphlang, Meghalaya is showing the way. It has put up a toll barrier on the road leading to the Ka Law Kyntang or sacred grove. You pay a minor but valuable sum to enter the grove. Close by in Makarwat, which falls in …
what do cities like Mumbai, Karachi, Sao Paulo and Johannesburg have in common besides their high population? A strong reliance on forests for their drinking water, reveals Running Pure, a study by the World Bank and the World Wide Fund for Nature. Around a third of the world's top 105 …
Groundwater sustains almost 60 per cent of the irrigated land in India. Most districts in India today have larger shares of irrigated land under groundwater irrigation than under surface-water irrigation. This ominous change in water use patterns in India has been extremely rapid since the 1970s. Extensive groundwater usage has …
When residents of Mansingpura village in Madhya Pradesh's (mp) Betul district successfully cultivated wheat in the year 1996, it was the grand finale of their water conservation efforts. Thanks to the Rajiv Gandhi Watershed Development Mission, the village's groundwater level rose by over 30 feet. The mission was started by …
The Center proposes to consolidate all watershed programmes under a single ministry. The aim of the new programme, called Hariyali, is to streamline work and avoid duplication. "I am totally in favour of the move,' says N C Saxena, former secretary, planning commission. At present, three ministries run programmes related …
http://www.wotr.org The concept of water harvesting is catching like wild fire across the length and breadth of the nation. For those interested in knowing more about the concept and how to implement it, this is the right site. Watershed Organisation Trust (wotr) based in Ahmednagar, Maharashtra, helps rural communities and …
In theory, rainwater harvesting can drought-proof every village in India. In theory, drought-proofing requires strong and functioning village-level institutions. Travelling through Chattisgarh state
Recurrent droughts and floods coupled with mass poverty, chronic unemployment and pervasive malnutrition are the major challenges before India. The Union government usually responds by complaining about truant rains and doles out funds in an arbitrary manner. As an alternative, I propose a nationwide watershed development programme through the statutory …
RAJ SAMADHIYALA: Rajkot, Gujarat Population: 2,000 Initiation of water harvesting: 1986 Water is a major agent of change in this village. Hardev Singh Jadeja, the former sarpanch and the present block president of 90 villages in Rajkot district, is proud that his village has generated an income of Rs 5 …
Flood Studies in India brings to fore several aspects of this natural disaster that are not yet conventional wisdom in policy circles. The book looks at floods from a variety of expertise areas, such as civil engineering, meteorology, hydrology, remote sensing, geomorphology and geography - the only way to do …
Two home truths about irrigation departments across India: they are a fountainhead of corruption and run on huge losses. But July 2002 may prove to be a watershed for rural water supply management. Around that time, the Maharashtra government will hand over control of irrigation facilities to the state's farmers
It is unfathomable why a civilisation that has worshipped water as part of its tradition should suffer from its scarcity. Mainly, because people today don't know the cost of the water used, and they seldom try to conserve or collect water where it falls. The fact that 1.5 million tanks …
This paper critically examines some narratives of water scarcity in Kutch, western India. It argues that images of dwindling rainfall and increasing drought largely serve to legitimize the controversial Sardar Sarovar dam and manufacture dominant perceptions concerning scarcity. This manufacture has naturalized scarcity in the region and largely benefits powerful …
For all the people scripting the success stories, there is a warning: history has seen the death of millions of the country's water structures due to government's apathy. Now, for the first time in the last 50 years governments have really shifted their focus to drought proofing from the adhoc …
Keshubhai Patel Chief minister, Gujarat On overflowing check dams: We needed a permanent solution that not only drought-proofs the state but also provides livelihoods. The effort is to trap every drop of rainwater through check dams. The overflowing dams are a lesson for people to take up more water conservation. …
Digvijay Singh Chief minister, Madhya Pradesh On institutionalisation of structures: They are already public property. They were built according to needs of the people. For example, the farmers themselves have worked on the recharging of wells without any government money. Though loans are given, the wells belong to the people. …
This is not the only hurdle in making water conservation a long sustained movement. To make it a sustainable social movement and to reap its dividend in the form of poverty eradication, the government needs to put in prolonged efforts. Most of India's poverty eradication programmes have failed because they …
Investment in water is an insurance against poverty and drought. Down To Earth reporters visited the eight villages below during the droughts of 2000 and 2001. These villages have several years of experience in water conservation. The inference: the more the years of water conservation, the more the capacity to …
