The great water rip-off

URBAN India faces a water crisis Madras to Jodhpur, most cities are already facing the crippling effects of scarcity. There is hardly any city in India that canboast of a 24-hour water supply. But much of this crisis may be totally bogus. And there is no better example than Delhi: pampered capital of India. Delhi, Indeed, has a problem as far as water is concerned. But, as the cover story in this issue of Dowm to Earth brings out, the problem is less of scarcity and more of utter callousness that grips its administrators and elite

A thirsty city in the desert

IN THE wake of a severe drought in Jodhpur in 1970, the public health engineering department (PHED) decided to obtain water from the countryside around the city as an emergency measure. Rampura-Mathania was chosen because of its high water table.

Jodhpur's future in jeopardy

"JODHPUR has a future only if the Indira Gandhi canal is brought till here," says J Venkateshwarlu, director of the Central Arid Zone Research Institute. Come it certainly will, but no one will vouch for the ability of the Jodhpur branch of the canal to deliver sufficient water to the thirsty city.

Villagers fight a losing battle

THE PLIGHT of the people of Bichhri, whose groundwater was rendered unfit for consumption by the effluent discharge from Silver Chemicals Ltd, may have been forgotten in Udaipur, with the case moving at snail's pace through the courts. But the industrial threat to the area's groundwater has not receded.

People's participation in resource management

WHATEVER their area of work, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have made the most headway in involving people in managing their natural resources. Says one NGO activist, "Local people are very smart. They know that if an NGO is merely doing something for them, it will leave them in the lurch after the project is completed. Only if they work with the people can projects be sustained."