An oasis put to test

Backed by three decades of water conservation measures, semi-arid Saurashtra is driving Gujarat’s agricultural growth. Will it be able to …

Second-generation bioethanol: It is time to launch it headlong

Reactive pipeline technology could be a game changer for bioethanol production; it can reduce crude oil imports and bolster India’s energy …

City water plans: How to get more data smart

Designing tools and resources to help decision makers gather and analyse data cost-effectively may allow cities to generate sound water plans  

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 …

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 …

'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

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

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

Cities journey beyond ODF: India moves to sustainable sanitation for all

Indian cities are currently plagued by multiple challenges to water, sanitation and hygiene. At present, 163 million people do not have …

COVID-19: Can wastewater help in tracking outbreak in India

Wastewater research can help determine how much the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) occurs in the Indian population

COVID-19: The need is to decentralise how we manage wastewater

The water crisis in India is dire: By 2030, the country’s water demand is projected to be twice the available supply

COVID-19 clues in a community’s sewage: 4 questions answered about watching wastewater for coronavirus

Wastewater monitoring could inform all sorts of public health intervention and disease surveillance programmes

Sponge it clean

Scrap the waste