California offers valuable lessons for meeting freshwater needs in the face of climate change

If we want water security, we need to diversify our water sources to include underground storage, stormwater capture, recycled wastewater and more.

IIT Kharagpur to steer Saraswati 2.0 for reuse of treated water

The institution will steer three pilot projects to treat wastewater, make it re-usable and also explore its usage in compost or value …

Our Commonwealth

Pee, poop and paani

Bharat Lal Seth recounts his experience of drinking water reclaimed from sewage

From water to water

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

An integrated approach can bring healthy coordination between all stakeholders

Municipalities responsible for dirty India, says NITI Aayog CEO

Amitabh Kant says civic bodies are entering various businesses while forgetting that their primary job is to clean their jurisdiction

How to reinvent the sanitation wheel

The city “shit-flow” diagram shows that the situation is grim as all cities either do not treat or safely dispose the bulk of the …

Effluent music

'78% of sewage generated in India remains untreated'

Analysis and reporting by Centre for Science and Environment and Down To Earth magazine reveal how Indian cities are disposing of excreta in an …

Is sewage farming safe?

Madhya Pradesh's order to destroy crops cultivated using sewage has triggered a debate over the age old practice of using wastewater for irrigation

New plan, old problem

The proposed Sewerage Master Plan 2031 that promises to end Delhi's drainage troubles underestimates the wastewater volume of the city

New study maps how much energy, nutrients and water are locked in world’s wastewater

Efficiently treating wastewater can help meet SDGs: UN-backed research

Watch before you eat

Air pollution contributes to heavy metals in vegetables

Why restoring water systems should be top priority for Biden administration

Healthy rivers can no longer be separated into the ‘nice-to-have’ column of environmental progress

Using tannery waste in fields turning soil toxic: study

Researchers studied soil and groundwater samples from farms irrigated by tannery effluents in and around Kanpur city in Uttar Pradesh

Capacity building for water conservation needs: A young mind at work

How an architect implemented rainwater harvesting and greywater reuse projects in urban and peri-urban areas of Maharashtra and Gujarat

‘Wrap, trap, zap’: New strategy to kill antibiotic resistant bugs in wastewater

Microspheres wrapped in graphene oxide help destroy antibiotic-resistant bacteria and free-floating antibiotic-resistant genes in wastewater plants

Global Eco Watch: Ice Age woolly rhino unearthed in Siberia

Down To Earth brings you the top happenings in the world of global ecology

Restoring lakes not an engineering task: How some communities did the job

Local bodies and activists in Bengaluru, Pune are coming together to deal with lake pollution, de-silting, encroachment 

How an urban planner undertook green recovery in Telangana’s 72 ULBs

Extensive mapping, designing of parks with detailed cost estimates and implementation frameworks were prepared as part of the project 

Why better sewage management in Chennai will help fight floods

Down To Earth Editor Sunita Narain explains how the city's three rivers and 320 tanks and lakes that worked as flood barriers are used mostly for …

CPCB flags railway stations on green parameters

The Central Pollution Control Board assessed 36 stations or 5% of the major stations in India

Gutter will sparkle

Ludhiana is going all out to clean up Buddha Nallah, the sole receptacle of its industrial filth

Letters