Politics of irrigation

Most irrigation bureaucracies believe problems of farmers end once water is delivered on to a block of land. Irrigation is an essential component of agriculture but it is not neutral. More often than not it reaches rich farmers. This can affect poor farmers unless there is concerted social action to counter the effect. Introducing farmer managed irrigation systems (FMIS), too, has not helped.

Cauvery tribunal award notified

Coal blocks on offer

Letters - November 30, 2012

Think Small

Rs 1,86,000 cr illusion

Six sins that make drought invincible

It’s drought time again. Nothing new in this announcement. Each year, first we have crippling droughts between December and June, and then devastating floods in the next few months. It’s a cycle of despair, which is more or less predictable. But this is not an inevitable cycle of nature we must live with.

Why excreta matters? Sunita Narain answers

For the modern Indian city, the principle behind management of water and waste is a simple one: flush and forget. Not surprisingly, most cities are drowning in their excreta. Our cities face a twofold problem—shortage of water and the crippling health consequences of dirty water. This is decidedly not the way to the future

The flush, the city and the river

India’s cities are on a deadly spiral. On the one hand, water is growing scarcer; on the other hand, it is getting increasingly polluted, escalating the cost of treatment or leading to more illnesses and deaths. Diarrhoea and other water-borne diseases remain some of the most common causes of death among children under age five.

Grand distraction called river interlinking

In deep water

Conflict over Krishna Third floor of Trikoot Bhawan in Delhi’s Bhikaji Cama Place, which houses the second Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal, will turn into a war zone by February-end. A battery of lawyers, technical staff and irrigation department officials from Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh will fight hard to win the maximum allocation of the Krishna river water for their respective states.