A NEW BEGINNING

 






Urban wetlands meet
CSE initiates a core committee

  

IN FOCUS

Null and void?
A success story?
The flouride menace
 

CAMPAIGN

Lake in news
From the courtroom
To save this tal
Operation Baikal

INITIATIVE

Stories from Dewas
Meerut meet
Initiating change
Sensitising regional media
Doosra dasak
Glimmer of hope
History rewritten
HLL harvests
Water soliders
The kiwi connection
Exploring Ahmednagar

FACE TO FACE

For my home....

TECHNOLOGY

Bamboo-supari pits
Countering flouride
Techno tit bits

CSE'S LATEST DESIGNS

Meet the new harvesters!

JAL YODHA

T R Sureshchandra
Arun Mathur
Shivanajayya
K G Vyas

R Ramani

NEWS FROM CHENNAI

Recharge maps
Bank loans for RWH
Harvesting in Nilgris
The Vengaivasal model

'Water wisdom' in schools

JAL BIRADARI

No to bore wells
Ghagara revived
Jal bhai, Jal bahen

NEWS FROM GUJARAT

Charting future
City's pride

CLASSROOM

FUNDING AGENCY

WATER  WISDOM

NEWS FROM ABROAD

WATER IN NEWS

READERS SPACE

AN OPPORTUNITY

BOOK/DOCUMENTS

VISUAL WATCH

WEB INFO

EVENT


   
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Vol. 4                                     No. 5               October-November 2002

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Urban wetlands meet

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CSE initiates a core committee

To promote the movement to revive dying urban wetlands, CSE organised a workshop on October 3-4 in New Delhi. "Our objective is to motivate the urban population to understand the manifold uses that these decaying water bodies once served, and to emphasise the urgent need to protect and revive them," specified CSE director Sunita Narain.

Individuals and organisations from across the country, who have made significant efforts to conserve ailing lakes, ponds and tanks in their respective cities, shared the experiences. Case studies from Udaipur, Rajasthan; Delhi; Chennai, Tamil Nadu; Srinagar, Kashmir, Uttranchal and Kolkatta, West Bengal were presented. Technical, legal and institutional experts also took part in the vibrant enriching dialogue.

In the course of the deliberations some of the crucial hurdles commonly faced by all litigants came to the forefront. It became apparent that lack of access to scientific data and technology acts as a hurdle. "In order to revive a lake it is necessary to identify, first, the area it originally covered, and second, its catchment area. In a built-up area, it is almost impossible to accomplish both these tasks, as the government is reluctant to impart information of any sort," specified CSE's National Water Harvester's Network chairperson A Vaidyanathan.

CORE COMMITTEE

A Vaidyanathan
Bharath Jairaj
Devaki Panini
Gurunadha Rao
Mohit Ray
M K Ramesh
Sandeep Virmani
Shyam Parekh
Sunita Narain
Tej Razdan
Videh Upadhyay

"The traditional wisdom of water conservation has been neglected with our growing dependence on state-led piped water supply - further aggravating the crisis, " says VKJain, chairperson of Tapas, a New Delhi-based NGO. As a result most of the water bodies are being encroached and destroyed in the relentless pursuit for urbanisation.

The workshop concluded with a mandate to form a core committee. It facilitates a dialogue and action among the litigants as well as the members of civil society (See box: core committee). The eleven - member committee will work on the issues flagged during the meet.The emphasis will be on strengthening the role of the civil society in protecting urban waterbodies.


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