A trial with too many errors

Infighting within AAP post its brute win in Delhi raises doubts about civil society's tryst with electoral politics

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

Tax rebate to promote rainwater harvesting

Various municipal corporations in the country are offering concession of property tax in exchange of a rainwater harvesting system. Is the scheme …

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. …

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 …

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

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

UN 2023 Water Conference: 46 years after Mar del Plata, it’s time to examine the successes and failures

Access to clean water and sanitation remains a significant challenge in many parts of the world, particularly in low-income countries and …

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 …

Parched capital

While Delhi struggles to make rainwater harvesting compulsory even after 13 years of amending byelaws, Chennai shows the way