Reflection in a pond
As urban residents switch to municipal water, the labour class struggles with disappearing ponds, their main water source. Sorit Gupto …
Double whammy
Increasing pollution, depleting water table make groundwater in Kathmandu unfit for drinking
Water scarcity may cause upto 6% loss in GDP: World Bank
Water shortage may also increase migration and conflicts in some regions, finds a World Bank report
Review finds ADB's policy doesn't hold water
Since 1998, adb has invested us $960 million in urban projects in India.
Sanitary insights
January 2, 2017, is the 15th death anniversary of Anil Agarwal, founder of the Centre for Science and Environment and Down To Earth. This year, …
Asian, African cities rank low on water sustainability
Poor quality of water and inability to withstand natural disasters are affecting sustainability index of cities
A slum's daily struggle with water
A 17-year-old boy, a resident of Jagdamba Camp in South Delhi's Malviya Nagar captures how his community deals with the lack or excess of water. …
The flush, the city and the river
For the modern Indian city, the principle behind management of water and waste is a simple one: flush and forget. Not surprisingly, most cities …
Dream stuck in pipeline
The Melamchi project promised to end Kathmandu’s acute water shortage. But 15 years later, it is nowhere near completion
Water crisis not due to of lack of resource, but mismanagement: Union minister at CSE conference
The minister was speaking at the 2023 Policy and Practice Forum, an international gathering of water, wastewater and sanitation management …
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?
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 …
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
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
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
Water quality deteriorating in Kochi, reveals audit
Only 24 per cent households implement water conservation measures like reuse and recycling
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 …
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 …
Rivers, up close and personal
Over centuries people have learnt to live with rivers. They are part of our lives but over the past 150 years this association has weakened. A …
Bhutan’s experiments with happiness
The idyllic Buddhist kingdom believes that peace and happiness should take preference over material growth. In a world beset by inequities and …
COVID-19: Here's what decentralised planning teaches us to curb pandemics
Decentralised infrastructure and services provide a range of benefits for all stakeholders