‘For effective Disaster Risk Reduction, focus on capacity building at the local level’
By Vikas Prakash Joshi & Arjuna Srinidhi According to some statistics, 68% of India’s land is prone to drought, 60% to earthquakes, 12% to floods
By Vikas Prakash Joshi & Arjuna Srinidhi According to some statistics, 68% of India’s land is prone to drought, 60% to earthquakes, 12% to floods
World Population Day 2018 theme can help build resilience to climate change and ensure it gets the status of a ‘human right’ By Arjuna Srinidhi
WOTR urges state and union governments to go beyond ban on single-use plastic bags and bottles, and look at its growing use in agriculture also. This practice, plasticulture, is extensively used in lining of farm ponds, green houses, micro-irrigation (drips and sprinklers) and plastic mulching and can threaten soil health and potentially enter food chain.
Watershed Organisation Trust recently organized a two-day workshop on residential Transformative Scenario Planning (TSP) at the Krishi Vigyan Kendra Jalna. Titled. ‘Water Situation in Rural Jalna in 2030: For Domestic and Livelihood Needs with the support of Adaption at Scale in Semi-Arid Regions (AASAR), Hindustan Unilever Foundation (HUF), UK Government’s Department for International Development (DfID) and the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Canada.40 participants representing diverse backgrounds like farmers, government officials, NGOs, experts, academic and research institutes, and farmer groups took an active part in the workshop.
Water Stewardship Initiative, in collaboration with Hindustan Unilever Foundation (HUF), is being implemented in 106 villages of Maharashtra and Telangana to facilitate and promote efficient water-use practices that are, economically efficient, socially judicious and environmentally sustainable. As a part of this initiative, the village stakeholder representative teams (VSRTs) are trained to undertake the responsibility of sustainably using local water-resources, for which they prepare water stewardship plans while working with their respective communities. Along with water harvesting and saving plans, water budgeting forms an important component of the water stewardship plans. Moreover, communities collectively decide on social rules and norms to facilitate the implementation of the plans designed by them.
The short film “Under the Blazing Sun” was shot during the summers of 2016 and 2017 in two semi- arid districts of Maharashtra in India. The film attempts to explore the problem of heat stress experienced by rural communities. While urban population is better equipped to tackle the heat problem, is that the case with the rural population? If yes how? If not then, what are their problems?
This week Eshwer Kale, a researcher at WOTR appeared on NDTV India’s Prime Time with Ravish Kumar to discuss the implications of the government’s emphasis on farm ponds in the budget. On the show Eshwer explained that the implementation and use of farm ponds Maharashtra, where farmers fill huge farm ponds, lined with plastic, by pumping groundwater is a cause for worry. This practice, rather than reducing the vulnerability of rural communities, may result in declining groundwater levels and the de facto privatisation of what was once a shared resource.
The construction of farm pond is being portrayed as a miracle strategy by the state as well as by the popular media but, the manner of its implementation and practice in arid and semi-arid regions of Maharashtra needs immediate attention. WOTR’s recent commentary published in the Economic and Political Weekly (EPW) and the Vanrai special edition (Marathi) highlights the need for regulating the overall farm pond practices. It also proposes different strategies as corrective measures to the ongoing implementation of these structures.
WOTR participated at the 22nd session of the Conference of the Parties (COP22) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) that took place in Marrakech, Morocco from the 7th to 18th November 2016.
On September 13, 2016, an award ceremony was organised at Center for Studies in Rural Development (CSRD-Social Work College) at Ahmednagar to appreciate Jalsevaks for their efforts taken to increase the water harvesting potential for the stipulated time frame of the competition (May 2016). These Jalsevaks form a major component of the Water stewardship project being implemented in 106 villages of Maharashtra and Telangana
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