Central to the achievement of the Agenda for Sustainable Development is an adequate, equitably distributed and fully supported health workforce. Nurses are the largest occupational group and represent an indispensable force with which to combat inequities in access to health services and progress towards health-related Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), while …
November 22, 2005, saw the launch of a vocal public campaign against a move by the Karnataka state government to hand over water supply in the suburbs of Bangalore to private operators. Over 40 non-governmental organisations (ngos) and trade unions, working on civic amenities for slum dwellers, called upon the …
a debate is going on in Bangalore over distribution of water to its adjoining eight municipal councils. The popular understanding of the debate focuses on
I write this because of the continued ineptness of its policies. It makes us lose time and direction again and again. Just look at the latest so-called water privatisation programme of the Bank and the Delhi government. It is a 24x7 water distribution scheme. Parts of the city will be …
This article looks at the emerging policy context on irrigation and drinking water supply in Jharkhand, the position of water rights in state legislation, the importance of water user groups, the critical issues of access to water for both the rural and the urban poor and the legal implications.
five more farmers have been killed in police firing while protesting against water scarcity. Over 20 were injured, many seriously, on June 13, 2005 at Sohela village in Tonk district, when about 3,000 villagers blocked national highway 12, which links Jaipur to Kota. They were demanding water from Bisalpur dam, …
Delhi has been waiting. For its neighbour, Uttar Pradesh (up), to release water to its swank Sonia Vihar water treatment plant. The prime minister himself intervenes in the matter. He persuades up to release water. Only to be rebuffed by up political leaders, who say their farmers and cities need …
function graph() { var popurl="image/20050415/36-graphbig.jpg" winpops=window.open(popurl,"","width=380,height=350,scrollbars=yes") } In February this year, a high level meeting of the Maharashtra government
People who understand water management will tell you that India is a traditional water economy and that it has to make the transition to a modern water economy. In other words, the water sector has to become part of the formalised economy. As with any feel-right challenge, this is normally …
A cruel summer has been left behind. Pipes are gurgling to life and the surge of water tankers on Chennai's streets is on the ebb. People and leaders are now free to discuss issues non-aqueous. There are even days when Chennai's papers skip the almost mandatory columns devoted to water. …
If we are doomed to witness water wars in the coming years, as many experts predict, they would perhaps begin thus. Four farmers were killed and about 30 were injured in police firing in Rawla and Ghadsana towns of Rajasthan's Sriganganagar district on October 27, 2004. They were protesting an …
The third round of negotiations among the 10 African riparian states of the Nile to establish an institutional and legal framework on the sharing of the river's waters was held in Kampala, Uganda, from May 31 to June 4. In the parleys on the issue, countries are continuing to put …
function map_table() { var popurl="html/20040531_cover.htm" winpops=window.open(popurl,"","width=780,height=500,scrollbars=yes") } In Kerala, land of 44 rivers and backwaters and a state with over 3,000 mm of annual rainfall there was a drought this February and March
Living amidst rivers and lakes and blessed by bountiful rain, the people of Kerala are yet to realise that they face a water crisis. Droughts come, but are treated as aberrations. On the one hand water usage is shooting up, on the other rains are playing truant. Unless it gets …
All places in Kerala, except a few in Palakkad, got more rainfall this summer than the national average. “Considering that India receives only 1,100 mm of rainfall as long period average, isn’t it absurd to say that Kerala suffered acute water scarcity even after getting 2,270 mm of rain in …
In these times of water scarcity, it is perhaps salutary to look at water systems built in the past. In February this year, one such system, dating to the eighteenth-century, was uncovered in Pune, Maharashtra. While this 15-kilometre long, 30-feet deep, 5-feet wide underground waterbody was not exactly unknown, it …
Under the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) of the United Nations (UN), it has been agreed to halve the number of people without access to safe drinking water by 2015. The Johannesburg Plan of Implementation, agreed at the World Summit on Sustainable Development, added a similar global sanitation target. All this …
function map() { var popurl="image/20040515/60-map.jpg" winpops=window.open(popurl,"","width=475,height=300,scrollbars=yes") } • As the world moves from the International Year of Freshwater (2003) to the UN Decade of Freshwater (2005-2015), two billion people in over 40 nations face freshwater shortage (see map) • 2.5 per cent of Earth's water is freshwater. Less than one …
On December 23, 2003 the World Bank approved us $166 million for three projects in Afghanistan to rebuild rural areas, improve farmers' water supply and beef up the customs system. A major chunk of this money (us $95 million) will be for rural reconstruction, for projects communities themselves are to …
