Dream stuck in pipeline

The Melamchi project promised to end Kathmandu’s acute water shortage. But 15 years later, it is nowhere near completion

A tale of two cities

A holistic water management system in urban areas for a sustainable future

An integrated approach can bring healthy coordination between all stakeholders

Karnataka pinning hopes on unseasonal rain to tide over drought, water crisis

The state is staring at a severe drought for second consecutive year with coastal Karnataka experiencing a shortfall in southwest and northeast …

Slums on rent

Dhaka has seen a sharp rise in privately owned slums. Are these a better alternative to 'squatter settlements' common in India?

On privatising water

What about privatising water? Should India move to do it? What tips the scales in its favour, and what doesn't? In 2003, two editorials in Down …

THROWBACK: How China’s ‘sponge cities’ aim to re-use 70% of rainwater

Even as Indian cities become increasingly water-scarce, they get flooded — as Mumbai is getting now — by a few days' intense rainfall.…

New Age Approach

We need to go back to the drawing board to reinvent a green toilet. If necessary, to go back to our past and find technological innovations that …

Drowning In Human Excreta

Sanitation for urban India means building flush toilets and linking them to sewer systems. But the price of chasing this dream is leading to an …

Water management practices dismal in states: Niti Aayog

Gujarat, Andhra, MP, Himachal keeps up tight water management

Quality of life in informal settlements: Basic sanitation services a luxury

The SC/ST community had the highest proportion of those who did not have access to a toilet

How smart is a smart city?

Ecologically mindless

The flush toilet system and the sewage system, which goes with modern day personal hygiene and cleanliness, are part of the environmental problem …

I am green by choice , not by chance

Probably the first chief minister of Delhi to have taken a keen interest in the environment, Shiela Dixit has got a mixed response for her …

Can COVID-19 inspire a new way of planning African cities?

Colonial use of planning for cultural and structural isolation, as well as for socio-economic and spatial segregation, limited Africa’s …

Residents’ lives in this Jodhpur basti revolve around water

Only downhill houses have water connections, others walk for several kilometres or are forced to use plastic pipes, pumps 

Curse of excess

Once a parched city, Jodhpur is today facing a deluge

Jal Jeevan Mission Urban launched in Union Budget 2021-22

An outlay of Rs 50,011 crore was announced for the urban and rural water supply scheme, over 4 times the revised budget for 2020-2021

Development handcuffed

Confidential audit exposes financial, planning lapses in Andhra’s urban renewal mission

Why excreta matters? Sunita Narain answers

UN 2023 Water Conference: 46 years after Mar del Plata, it’s time to examine the successes and failures

Access to clean water and sanitation remains a significant challenge in many parts of the world, particularly in low-income countries and …

Water quality deteriorating in Kochi, reveals audit

Only 24 per cent households implement water conservation measures like reuse and recycling

Addicted to groundwater

High Court order fails to wean Gurgaon off illegal wells

Unreal in pampered India

With NDMC winning the smart city challenge, the contrast between where the government lives and where the rest of the citizens live could not …

Parched capital

While Delhi struggles to make rainwater harvesting compulsory even after 13 years of amending byelaws, Chennai shows the way