In December 2010, the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) notified the Wetlands (Conservation and Management) Rules, under the Environment Protection Act of 1986. This was an attempt to fill a longstanding gap, as there was no specific legal mechanism to protect freshwater or inland wetlands (unlike coasts, which have had a Coastal Regulation Zone Notification since 1991).

From Kulwant Singh, UN-HABITAT, New Delhi

Posted 28 August 2007

Dear Members,

Under the Water for Asian Cities Programme, UN-HABITAT is working in four cities of Madhya Pradesh (Bhopal, Gwalior, Indore and Jabalpur) for improvement and expansion of urban water supply, sewerage and sanitation, water drainage and solid waste management. UN-HABITAT has set up a revolving fund for financing small community managed water and sanitation initiatives in the project towns of Madhya Pradesh. A set of guidelines for the revolving fund, duly endorsed by the State Government of Madhya Pradesh, have been developed for this purpose. The revolving funds are so far working quite satisfactorily.

From Sarita Thakore Centre for Environment Education (CEE), Ahmedabad

Posted 27 May 2008

I work for the Centre for Environment Education. We are implementing ‘School- Water, Sanitation, Hygiene' (S-WaSH) in 21 schools of Raipur, Chhattisgarh.

From Gyanendra Mishra, UDAAN, Aligarh

Posted 19 April 2007

Dear Sir/Madam,

I work for an NGO called UDAAN in Aligarh and neighbouring districts. We provide training to Gram Pradhans, motivators, village functionaries and other stakeholders on water and sanitation issues. We also support the Government in the Total Sanitation Campaign in mobilising the community for construction of low cost leach pit toilets at village level. Additionally, we implement force lift handpumps in schools to lift and store water without motor and electricity. This has made many school toilets usable, which had become defunct due to non-availability of water.

From Bhawna Vajpai, The Loomba Trust, New Delhi

Posted 7 July 2008

I work for the UK based Loomba Trust, committed to upgrading and constructing water supply, sanitation and hygiene facilities in schools under its WASH initiatives. We aim to work in 1,000 schools across India (rural areas and small towns) in collaboration with state governments.

Original Query: V. Kurian Baby, Socio-Economic Unit Foundation (SEUF), Kerala

Posted: 3 August 2006

Reforms in water and sanitation (watsan) sector have by now become institutionalized through: (a) pilot testing of alternate service delivery models by donors and GoI in selected locations and subsequent scaling up into programmes such as Swajaldhara and TSC across the country; (b) evidences of community acceptance, confidence and credibility in genuine reforms (c) demonstrated willingness to pay for assured, reliable and quality water services demonstrated at community level and (d) vesting watsan governance as a desirable responsibility to PRIs.

Original Query: Prema Gera, United Nations Development Program (UNDP), New Delhi

Posted: 22 November 2005

UNDP has been supporting NGOs working in the area of community-based water resources management for some years now. The local communities comprising self-help groups, community-based organisations, water-users groups and federations have been experiencing a range of conflicts over water use both within communities as well as with external stakeholders in the area.

“ARE THEY BEING SERVED?” written by Dr. Sita Sekhar, Dr. Meena Nair and Venugopal Reddy published in 2005 by the Association for Promoting Social Action (APSA) and Public Affairs Centre (PAC) with support from the WaterAid India, is citizen report card on public services for the poor in peri-urban areas of Bangalore.

Over-exploitation of groundwater resulting in falling water tables in many regions of the country threatens the sustainability of drinking water sources. To address some of these issues, “Evaluation of the Environmental Protection and Water Resources Management Project”, published in 2004 by United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) promoted strategies for Environmental Protection and Water Resources Management (EPWRM), between 1995 and 1998, by supporting demonstration projects in Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.