Water & Sanitation

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Eco-friendly sanitation wins proponent civilian award

Subburaman, who is credited with constructing India’s first community eco-san toilet, besides successfully installing various eco-friendly sanitation solutions, gets recognized with a Padma Shri

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How rural India showed resilience, synergy during lockdown

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Republic Day is an ideal occasion to celebrate rural India’s positive progress. VillageSquare recollects how communities used the lockdown productively, despite difficulties and loss of livelihoods.

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Smart water management mitigates coastal salinity

Rainwater harvesting, groundwater recharge through ponds and desilting of check dams have curtailed salinity ingress in coastal Gujarat, increasing freshwater availability

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Vasai volunteers recharge ponds to raise water table

Volunteers in the villages of Vasai-Virar have revived traditional water ponds that were originally dug for irrigation. It has resulted in recharged aquifers and increased water availability for farming

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Battling social fault lines in rural water supply

The laudable aim of supplying piped water to all rural homes will have to tackle the existing power equations that deeply divide our society, and are tilted in favor of the elite in villages

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Water availability and quality in rural water supply

The aim of delivering clean water to rural homes has to address the twin challenges of sufficient local availability of this depleting resource and ensuring basic quality standards

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Tap water in rural homes will increase consumption

Once the central government navigates the tricky issue of water governance, we would need to recognize that tap water in every rural home will expand domestic water usage dramatically

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Peri-urban villages shrivel in expanding rings of dryness

The rapidly expanding cities in western and peninsular India are soaking up water from the surrounding countryside for their own needs, leaving peri-urban villages drier in an already water-scarce region

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Drought-hit farmers grow crops with treated wastewater

After Karnataka government pumped Bengaluru city’s treated wastewater into Kolar’s tanks last year, farmers made use of the raised groundwater table to grow crops amidst concerns of contamination

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Piped water allows rural women to bathe in private

In Odisha, where a high number of rural households lack enclosed bathing spaces, construction of bathrooms and piped water supply help women avoid bathing in the open

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Hilsa fishers driven to the edge by overfishing

The hilsa fishermen of Howrah district in West Bengal are struggling against declining catch, stiff competition from mechanized trawlers and non-traditional fishermen entering the lucrative occupation

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Coastal farmers tackle salinity with innovative measures

Farmers in coastal Tamil Nadu are countering salinity caused by droughts and groundwater depletion through rainwater harvesting and by reviving traditional organic farming practices

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Marathwada farmers harvest water in streams, reap rich yields

Farmers in the Marathwada region of Maharashtra that is prone to droughts have made agriculture remunerative by harvesting rainwater in pond-like pockets in streams, leading to groundwater recharge

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Sinnar farmers breathe life back into irrigated farming

By collectively reviving a colonial-era irrigation system, farmers in 19 villages of Sinnar in Maharashtra have transformed a water-starved area into productive and prosperous farmlands

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Next-gen Kashmir farmers turn to water wisdom

A new generation of Kashmiri farmers are adapting to extreme weather events such as more frequent droughts by creating water harvesting infrastructure to irrigate their land

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Rural community at receiving end of temple town’s sewage

Commercial establishments catering to religious tourism in the temple town of Guruvayur have contaminated the ground and surface water of a village in Thrissur by releasing raw sewage into natural drains

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Why do villagers often ignore obvious yet valuable things?

We need to figure out ways in which people in rural India are able to make reasoned and sustainable choices to lead their lives rather than flow with trends that are more expensive or patently unsuitable

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Dharmapuri has forgotten the many names for rain

Rising temperatures and erratic rainfall in the drought-prone dry land farms of Dharmapuri in Tamil Nadu is making rain-fed agriculture non-viable but some women farmers are adapting by growing millets

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Declining catch forces Chilika fishers to become migrant laborers

A significant fall in fish stock due to environmental and human made reasons, combined with stringent laws aimed at restoration of the Chilika Lake, has forced local fishermen to migrate seasonally in search of work

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Tarapur villages use saltpan to harvest water

Although land and groundwater around the Tarapur atomic plant had turned saline due to seawater ingress and presence of a saltpan, villagers have successfully redeemed and reclaimed the land