UP emerges as the top state in the country to give employment under MGNREGS

Under the rural employment guarantee scheme, the Uttar Pradesh government has engaged 57.13 lakh workers and thus become the top state in the country to give employment under the scheme. Uttar Pradesh is followed by Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal and Madhya Pradesh. In April, with the onset of the nationwide lockdown, nearly six lakh workers were engaged across the country which rose to about 41 lakh till last week with the easing of the lockdown. While these workers are being engaged in different works, a large number of them are engaged in water conservation projects like deepening of ponds and river rejuvenation projects. (The Indian Express)

Jal Jeevan Mission: Maharashtra, West Bengal and Odisha asked to step up efforts

Taking note that Maharashtra, West Bengal and Odisha are among the states which are unable to reach their respective targets of 2019-20 for the scheme Har Ghar Jal, the Union Jal Ministry has asked them to step up their efforts for a speedy implementation of the scheme. In a letter to the Maharashtra Government, the Centre has urged the state to involve local village community and user groups to achieve drinking water security as 62 percent of the 1.42 crore rural households in the state still don’t have functional tap connections. While Odisha could complete 27.97 percent of its target to provide tap water connection in 2019-20, West Bengal came as a worst performer with providing only 4,750 tap water connections against the target of 32 lakh households this year. (The Times of India)

Andhra and Telangana failed to submit DPRs on proposed irrigation projects on Krishna and Godavari rivers

Both Andhra Pradesh and Telangana governments have failed to submit detailed project reports of the irrigation projects being taken up by them on Krishna and Godavari rivers to the concerned River Management Board, while they were supposed to submit it in June for the evaluation of the Apex Council, which is the final authority on deciding the status of the projects. Both of them have blamed each other for continuing the construction of the projects without the permission of the Apex Council, which seems like an attempt to delay the process. The states are of the view that the Apex Council may stop the construction of the projects and this would damage their interests since they have gone much ahead in the construction of these projects. (The Hans India)

NBWL recommends cumulative impact of sand mining in Uttarakhand

Raising concerns about extensive sand and boulder mining projects in Uttarakhand and their impact on river ecology and wildlife, the National Board for Wildlife (NBWL) has recommended a cumulative impact study of the mining for consideration of future projects. NBWL had received three proposals for sand mining along the Asan Wetland Conservation Reserve and five along the Rajaji National Park’s boundary near Haridwar and few of them have been deferred as they did not meet the environmental guidelines. The Board has made some recommendations so as to ascertain the impact of mining in upstream and downstream and for understanding the impact of mining on the natural flow of the river and health of adjoining forests. (Hindustan Times)

NGT seeks Centre, Gujarat responses over mangrove destruction

Issuing notices to Ministry of Environment and Forests, Gujarat government, Gujarat State Coastal Zone Management Authority and others, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) has sought responses from them on the allegation that Deen Dayal Port Trust in Gujarat's Kutch district was not executing the directions issued to protect the mangroves in its vicinity from destruction. The notification came following the petition filed that alleged rampant clearing of the mangroves in Nani Chirai and Moti Chirai areas of Bhachau Taluka in Kutch district by the Deen Dayal Port Trust led to the destruction of habitat of the indigenous Kharai camels, which has inturn affected the livelihood of villagers dependent on the mangroves. (Outlook India)

This is a roundup of important policy matters from June 12 - 23, 2020. Also, read news this week.

As the Covid-19 pandemic was leaving deep scars around the globe, it forced governments to take measures to protect citizens and ensure food security for its people. In India, initially, it looked as if the remote rural areas would skirt the pandemic. But soon, cases emerged in tribal areas as well as in semi-rural pockets following the return of the migrant workers, leading to social panic.

Covid-19, reverse migration and rural lives

Irregular income, lack of livelihood opportunities, pressure on resources with the return of migrants, difficulty in procuring agricultural inputs and decline in market demand have worsened the rural crisis. There is also increased uncertainty about wage employment in formal/ informal systems.

Estimates point to arrival of more than five lakh labourers back to Chhattisgarh as a fallout of the sudden lockdown. Several efforts are being made by the government, civil society organisations (CSOs), women led collectives, panchayati raj institution (PRI) members and the local administration to facilitate this process. These include provision of food and transport, creating shelters, and building awareness in the interior areas.

There is a high chance that the returnees might not want to return to cities anytime soon, thus short term measures might not be very effective. As a result, state governments are facing the twin challenges of preventing spread of disease in the short run and of accommodating them in the village economy in a productive manner in the long run.

A lot of these people had been gone for years and hence had very less social and economic footing in the villages, which increased their insecurities manifold. In such conditions, MGNREGA and agriculture can play an important role in integration of migrant labour in the rural economy.

MGNREGA, the single largest government sponsored scheme aimed at providing employment and reducing migration, if properly leveraged can provide some support to the labours who have returned to villages. This is possible only when communities and field staff have capacities to plan for their villages and are aware of the provisions made under the act for the most vulnerable sections of the society.  

Additional allocation of 40,000 crores for MGNREGA is a welcome move but it might need an upward revision and higher allocation for areas with more returnee migrants. In Chhattisgarh, till now in financial year 2020-21, 873.13 lakhs persondays have been generated, which is almost 65% of the total approved labour budget of 1350 lakhs (as on 27^th June, 2020). This highlights the need to allocate more funds before the present budget is exhausted.

Accommodating migrants in the long run

With the sudden return of the migrants, it became difficult to gear up the rural economy to gainfully employ them. At present such possibilities exist only in the agriculture sector and MGNREGA, which engage large number of workers every year.

In Chhattisgarh, there is a provision of total 150 days of wage employment to all households where adults are willing to do unskilled labour work. The average days of employment provided per household was only 56, 57 and 52 in financial years 2019-2020, 2018-2019 and 2017-2018 respectively. This indicates that there is an immense scope to increase the average days of employment per household in the coming years.

Additionally, in 2019-20, only 10% of the households completed 100 days of employment and 776 gram panchayats had nil expenditure proving that the pace of implementation of work is not uniform across the panchayats and the full potential of the schemes is not being utilised in the present framework. The labour budget has also increased, from 900 lakhs to 1350 lakhs from 2016-17 to 2020-21 and in 2019-20 utilization of budget was 104.76% indicating the keen interest of rural communities in MGNREGA works.

If MGNREGA is used to enhance the abysmal irrigation facilities existing in the villages, it can change enhance the income of many farmers in the long run. It will also provide immediate employment and give them an opportunity to work within the village.

On ground implementation of MGNREGA can be further strengthened by -

• Increasing the limit for person days from 150 days to 200 days to ensure that each household has an opportunity to earn substantial amount
• Making work available at hamlet level and simplifying demand generation process so that more and more people engage on a regular basis
• Increasing budget allocations where high level of migration is expected to accommodate all the labours

Assetization through MGNREGA and opportunity for improved agriculture

Monsoons are about to start, and this time agricultural productivity will matter more to ensure availability of foodgrains for the entire year as other avenues of income will be disrupted due to Covid-19 menace. Strengthening farm and non-farm livelihoods can pave the way for food and nutritional security, which can be effective in fighting the pandemic and ensuring a robust rural economy.

Intense soil erosion from uplands and deposition in fertile lowlands further declines the agricultural productivity rendering the efforts put by farmers useless. Water harvesting structures, plantations, canals, and land development activities will lead to decrease in runoff, increase in water percolation, increased cropping intensity and effective usage of barren lands.

Additional measures to strengthen field level implementation

Some steps that can make MGNREGA a stronger weapon in fighting Covid-19:

Doorstep cash availability of MGNREGA payments

Financing of kharif is a capital intensive activity and involves procurement of inputs such as seeds, fertilisers, pesticides and preparation of land for sowing. Cash is also needed for transportation and payment of labour involved in transplanting and weeding. In the present scenario, transportation from villages to banks and maintaining social distancing norms in the banks can be incredibly challenging.

Innovative ways for simplifying cash payments and transactions at bank are needed. MGNREGA payments should be made cash based instead of direct benefit transfer specifically in the interior areas where financial institutions are located faraway.

Secondly, Banking Correspondent and Bank Sakhi model should be strengthened. Model of Banking Correspondents as a link between banks and people has been successful in Telangana and can be replicated in Chhattisgarh. In this, people withdraw money on a need basis through digital transactions.

Investment in people

There is a need to develop systematic plans to build capacities of people and MGNREGA staff on key principles of watershed planning, water budgeting, utility of various watershed structures and simplify planning processes. It also helps community visualise the landscape level changes through the land and water treatment measures and increases the ownership towards the assets created.

Creation of ground level cadre, which is technically sound, will also ensure that MGNREGA is leveraged to create maximum potential for water harvesting and the benefits reach out to the most vulnerable families.

Migrants as agri-entrepreneurs and farmers collectivisation 

Returnee migrants can be trained as resource persons for farm and non-farm livelihoods using resources from NRLM or collective resources. The capacity building and training can be done by the agriculture department officials and civil society organizations working in the region.

Another step which can improve the net output income is collectivisation of the farmers to farmer producer groups and formation of agriculture production clusters. Such approach will lend better bargaining power to farmers both during input procurement as well as during sale of produce. Scale and collective approach can drastically increase the net profit of farmers. 

To deal with fluctuations in prices, farmers should have option of godowns and cold storage facilities, which can be developed at block level through convergence with MGNREGA. These long-term options can lead to productive engagement of the extra workforce that has returned to villages.

The following table presents a systematic picture of the role that can be played by different stakeholders in implementing above activities -

High impact mega watershed project and its relevance in Covid-19

A mega watershed project has been initiated by Chhattisgarh state government in collaboration with CSOs to increase income of 1 lakh small and marginal farmers through water conservation and land treatment measures. Supported by Axis Bank Foundation and Bharat Rural Livelihood Foundation, the project aims to strengthen the present systems and make them more people centric and robust.

Its focus is on building capacities of ground level functionaries involved in implementation and of the rural communities in planning on watershed principles and land restoration. Since the inception of the project, many trainings have been organised for CSO staff members, Rozgar Sahayaks, PRI representatives and self-help group members on various provisions under MGNREGA and watershed principles.

This project is being implemented in 26 blocks across 12 districts spread across central, north and south Chhattisgarh. Of the 26 blocks, 13 are intensive blocks where CSOs are directly engaged in field level community mobilisation and implementation of works with the MGNREGA cell.

The project uses ridge to valley approach in planning for water harvesting structures and for protective irrigation measures and uses water budget for assessing the overall water requirements in the village. CSOs have ensured that the 5 year plans with annual prioritisations are extensive and take account of concerns of vulnerable communities. For each gram panchayat, a detailed project report (DPR) is prepared with active participation of the community members outlining details of all the plans and beneficiaries.

Planning for works that can be carried out in monsoons under MGNREGA has also started and process of documentation is underway. Such phase wise planning for different seasons enables gram panchayats to open work throughout the year and reduces delay.

Emergence of integrated livelihoods

Access to water has enabled medium and small-scale farmers to diversify livelihoods and also explore non-traditional methods of income generation such as fishery and plantation activities. Fishery is gaining popularity in the project areas as the income is good and family can also use it for fulfilling nutritional needs of the families. In addition, goat rearing and backyard poultry has also emerged as new options for generating additional income and support is being extended for increasing its scale. Improved agriculture especially vegetable cultivation and millet cultivation is also being done by more and more farmers in the region.

Way forward

Rural livelihoods majorly revolve around water availability which can be ensured by creating assets under MGNREGA. In a crisis like this, MGNREGA can play a pivotal role in providing employment as well in creation of large-scale assets which can improve agricultural productivity and ensure prosperity in villages for the years ahead.

There is a need to implement more mega watershed projects, which make community members and PRI representatives confident and provides them opportunities of rejuvenating their natural resources and strengthening livelihoods.

Sneha Kaushal is a rural development professional embedded within the State Project Management Unit set up under the High Impact Mega Watershed Project in Chhattisgarh set up by PRADAN and has experience of working with rural communities on livelihoods and MGNREGA. She was previously associated with the Aspirational District Program at NITI Aayog. 

Ashutosh Nanda is the team leader of the PRADAN Narharpur team and has extensive experience of working with women self-help groups and has been instrumental in integrating watershed development with MGNREGA in in Chhattisgarh. In addition, he has led capacity-building activities in the region for SHG members and community resource persons. 

Water, for India, has profound impacts on the health and wellbeing of our citizens; perhaps more so, considering how intertwined it is with various facets of our life, be they social, economic, gender-based, political, or even religious. The evolution of the National Water Policy and the ensuing national debates/ critiques have reiterated how challenging it is to build a common policy with national consensus.

From the journey of regarding water as an ‘economic commodity’ (2002) to a ‘common pool resource’ (2012), we as a country have traversed the long and arduous path of understanding some of our limitations and short-sightedness when making policy recommendations for the vast expanse of our extremely diverse nation.

This retrospection brought us to 2020, and the time for a “new and improved” National Water Policy (NWP), one which has derived lessons from the past and can envision an inclusive and sustainable water future for India.

The planning of NWP 2020 is novel for being the first water policy that includes the voices of youth from all walks of life. This representation was achieved by enlisting the help of the members of the Indian Youth Water Network (IYWN). This is a network of young representatives from various research disciplines of engineering, ecology, policy, social sciences, and law as well as practitioners and grassroots stakeholders. We are determined to establish a common platform for dialogue by transcending the silos that currently exist in the water discourse.

The seeds of IYWN were sown back in late 2019, but the network officially launched its platform and vision in May 2020. With about 100 members enlisted currently, the first official task for IYWN was in fact imagining a water future, and translating those ideas into actionable goals under the NWP 2020.

Our discussion on the NWP, much like the foundation of the IYWN, began with an acknowledgment of the fact that the priority needs and the voice of the youth are grossly underrepresented in water dialogues today. Having said that, it was quite challenging to imagine our “ideal water future”, which would be beneficial to all stakeholders. After several intense brainstorming sessions led by the network members and supervised by senior water professionals, IYWN was able to submit its recommendations to the NWP working committee in June 2020.

We are very excited to share some of the salient points of these recommendations with the readers of India Water Portal and demonstrate the perspective of the youth on two vital areas of the NWP 2020 -- data and research, and water education.

Data and Research

Ask any water researcher today, and the primary concern they would have is on the availability of grounded, reliable spatio-temporally congruent data. Government agencies usually cite budget or technical capability restrictions on the hosting and updating of data access web portals. Where such portals do exist, there may be discrepancies in format, and data is often uploaded in a way that restricts programmatic access. Qualitative information on water pertaining to history, politics, and culture is even harder to find, effectively discouraging the development of hydrologic models incorporating these complex interactions.

These limitations in the current framework motivated the IYWN to propose building a sound Decision Support System (DSS) where watershed level data is nested within the larger basin level information.  This is formulated as a medium with bidirectional feedback regarding data collection, knowledge creation, science communication, and decision making. Good data governance and consciousness would ensure transparency and accountability. This will facilitate the inclusion of deterministic as well as heuristic approaches, whereby the needs of researchers for proper diagnosis of catchments and making sound overall prescriptions are met.

The DSS would follow a four-layer schema as -

• Qualitative and quantitative data (from various sources such as government and private sector, community/crowdsourcing, researchers, etc.), and the associated metadata
• Data governance system (with necessary codes for transparency, reliability, and ethics in place), relevant models (hydrological, social, behavioral, ecological, etc.)
• Ensemble models can be used accordingly by various stakeholders to generate a suite of decisions relevant to their sector.
• User interface (UI) for decision making. When decisions and “secondary data” are generated from the UIs, they can be fed back to the data layer to iteratively improve the decision-making process.

This DSS structure proposed can foster an institutional space where data can be shared, discussed, or disputed. It is also designed to “upgrade” or improve using over time, given the feedback nature of the design. In our opinion, this creates a sustainable and equitable data-sharing platform, mutually beneficial to all water researchers.

It goes without saying that timely maintenance, management, and troubleshooting is vital to ensure that the DSS meets its intended goal. In addition to the DSS, the network recommended governmental support for multidisciplinary research (including exploratory research for understanding the ramifications of water use and availability on human life), science communication, and semi-urban and rural water research.

The handling of such DSS should be given in the hands of youth networks encompassing young professionals in civil society organisations, think tanks, tech-entrepreneurial spaces as well as academic institutions in the basin. This, we believe, will ensure sustenance and timely updating of the portal so that it does not become a ghost entity after its launch. This can also lead to an overall paradigm shift in decision making and conflict resolution over sharing waters.

Water and education

IYWN members were also vocal about the limited, piecemeal, uncoordinated nature of water education in India and wanted to advocate for strong measures to further awareness and water literacy among all ages and educational backgrounds. We also wanted to stress the importance of participatory learning, where communities across professions, age groups, and strata of society feel empowered to manage their own resources and contribute to the water paradigm at large.

Water users should be educated on basic hydrological concepts like the connections between surface water and groundwater and watersheds. Water education must involve awareness of local water resources, issues in their watershed, vulnerabilities, the local climate, local problems like saltwater intrusion, the importance of maintaining low water flow in rivers for ecological sustainability, etc. This will help them develop a contextual understanding of their water resources and ground them to their biophysical settings. Knowledge of the local water system can help generate sensitivity towards the importance of regulating water use.

Water education in schools should be integrated into environmental education, with a special focus on inculcating critical thinking among students on ideas around sustainability and equity, and to generate curiosity among children about the natural environment. Discussions on ancient water wisdom and modern methodologies could also be included in the curriculum.

At the university level, dedicated water science degree courses need to be introduced to provide students from a variety of backgrounds (such as science, technology, policy, law, public health, etc.) the ability to leverage convergent skills for growth in the water sector. More emphasis should be placed on handling local projects and bridging the gap between theory and practice.

Individuals and organisations in field-based water sectors like agriculture, disaster management, health and nutrition, women and child welfare, and rural development should be given an opportunity for knowledge exchange, for them to learn from each other and external sources. Active participation from the governmental sector is also sought in these recommendations, wherein Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs), Gram Panchayats (GPs), and/or other rural water departments should be entrusted with capacity building. Marginalized groups should be the focus of these capacity-building programmes.

This could be by training individuals to become ‘barefoot technicians’ and water educators employed by the local municipality. Interested individuals can also be engaged in initiatives like a compilation of the local water heritage and history. Creating such roles can help generate meaningful and dignified employment, especially among youth, in the post-COVID world.

Professionals in government water departments should also be trained in the social and ecological aspects of water management. Their training should also include field visits and exchanging knowledge with end-users like farmers. Lastly, soft skill development and interpersonal training programmes should be built for encouraging water leadership and mentorship preferably for women to create more empathetic and inclusive workspaces.

The opportunity to contribute to NWP 2020 was a moment of revelation for us network members - where we debated our priorities and collectively visualized the water future we had a chance to engineer ourselves. The willingness of the draft committee to include young voices for the first time is a welcome change from how seasoned professionals are usually handed the reins of policy reform.

We live in times of sweeping global change, most of which is being led by the youth. Our fresh perspectives, unrelenting enthusiasm, and intimate connection with grassroots-level scenarios lend us the potential to dismantle the status-quo and nudge the system out of its comfort zone. As some of the most passionate champions of water equity and sustainability in India, IYWN is hopeful that these ideas are just the beginning of a meaningful transformation. 

The contributors to the article include Anav Vora, Anu Sridharan, Apoorva R., Bihu Suchetana, Craig D’souza, Devadatta Tengshe, Divya Sharma, Karthik Seshan, Lakshmikantha NR, Manjunath, Nakul Heble, Neha Bhadbhade, Neha Khandekar, Prakriti Prajapati, Rashmi Kulranjan, Rinan Shah, Ruchi Verma, Sai Veena, Satish Regonda, Sumita Bhattacharya, Tarun Bisht, Tanvi Agrawal and Yaswanth Pulipati.

India has the highest population of any country in the world without access to safe drinking water and adequate sanitation. According to WaterAid and the World Health Organisation (WHO), 163 million people still lack access to safe water and millions still defecate in the open.

Global engineering and design consultancy, Arup, and leading UK water charity, FRANK Water, have launched the WASH Connect mobile app and WASH Basins Toolkit – to help water, sanitation and hygiene (WaSH) professionals, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and government agencies facilitate safe sustainable and equitable water and sanitation services.

The Wash Basins Toolkit is a six-stage water security process based on Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) principles, as aligned with SDG Target 6.5.1 calling for the implementation of IWRM at all levels by 2030.

IWRM is ‘the coordinated development and management of water, land, and related resources, to maximise economic and social welfare in an equitable manner without compromising the sustainability of ecosystems.’  

The organisations worked together with communities to understand local issues and develop their own answers to securing safe, clean drinking water and sanitation. 

The toolkit empowers local government and communities to jointly control and manage water resources in a way that meets the real needs of their local area while considering the national and international context including river basin and aquifer pressures as well as climate change. It has the potential to change attitudes towards water resource management across India.

The toolkit and app use digital tools such as the KoBo Toolbox and India Space Programme technology to help develop accurate assessments of the water situation on the ground and follow a structured six-stage water security process.

The WASH Connect app and toolkit are part of the outcomes of a three-year partnership during which FRANK Water and Arup have joined forces with Samerth Charitable Trust and the People’s Science Institute (two of FRANK’s India-based partners) to find answers to India’s water crisis.

“Unequal allocation of water is one of the world’s most urgent problems and the outbreak of Covid-19 has only served to further highlight the need for equitable, sustainable safe water. The WASH Connect app aims to directly help communities to understand and manage their water better, ensuring they have access to resilient water resources for generations to come,” says Jon Shepherd, FRANK Water India Programme Manager.

Over the last three years, the project has worked with more than 40 vulnerable communities in the Indian states of Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, empowering them to develop their own answers to securing safe, clean drinking water and sanitation by mapping water resources, sharing data and facilitating groundwater recharge.

Project partners adopted a multi-level approach, working with individual communities and local government agencies to empower them to jointly control and manage water resources.

“Technology plays a fundamental role in the way we access and learn new information. The methodology we have developed in the toolkit and app aligns with global best practice in water management and integrates with the latest developments in information technology and open-source satellite data whilst keeping the tasks and actions achievable and repeatable at a community and NGO level. This app will help other NGOs and local governments apply the principles of integrated water resources management (IWRM) to their own programmes across India and other parts of the world where water is in short supply. It has the potential to change attitudes towards water resource management across India and beyond,” says Vera Ngosi, Arup Project Lead.

The WASH Connect app and toolkit have been developed against the national and international context including river basin and aquifer pressures, as well as climate change.

View and download the toolkit and associated mobile application

About the organisations

UK water charity, FRANK Water aims to alleviate global water poverty, enhance health, and protect the natural environment by improving the way that people understand and use water to encourage global water security.  Since 2005, FRANK Water has provided safe water, sanitation, and hygiene training (WASH) to more than 400,000 people in 550 villages across India and Nepal.  FRANK Water’s work contributes towards Sustainable Development Goal 6 - providing access to safe water and sanitation for all by 2030. 

Arup (Ove Arup and Partners International Limited) is a multinational professional services firm headquartered in London which provides engineering, design, planning, project management, and consulting services for all aspects of the built environment.

Samerth Charitable Trust is an Indian non-profit development organization that works towards accelerating a humane, sustainable, and equitable society. Samerth has invested in over 16 years towards society in the areas of education, water security, women’s empowerment, and livelihoods in different parts of the country especially in the state of Gujarat and Chhattisgarh. The focus is on improving the conditions of marginalized communities and to that extent, Samerth helps vulnerable communities to gain access to their social and economic rights. 

People’s Science Institute’s activities are spread all over India with a focus on the central-western Himalayan states of Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh and the poverty-ridden districts of western Orissa. 

It is an annual episode that plays itself out. Assam is, once again, reeling under flood – loss of human and animal life, severe damage to agricultural crops, property, millions of people displaced from their homes, absence of flood preparedness or early warning systems, delayed relief action by the government and the silent apathy of the mainstream media.

This time, however, it’s a double whammy for Assam, as the floods wreak havoc against the backdrop of the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak. It is a crisis that calls out for necessities like safe water, sanitation, and physical distancing to be in order.

A flood-like situation definitely compounds the vulnerabilities of the people. For the communities who have lived alongside rivers for decades, the disaster is not merely the rushing waters of the flood, but also the reduced capacity to cope with them.

In this photo feature, Akash Basumatari, a film-maker, and photographer based out of Assam captures this lived reality of the people in Matia and Simlitola areas of the Goalpara district. These photographs tell a story of the indomitable spirit of the people in their struggle for survival against all odds in Northeast India.

This article has appeared in The Water Practitioners Network. View the original here 

Uncertainty - the pervasive feeling that all of us have been living with from the middle of March 2020. It's the same in our partner villages in Odisha and Jharkhand. Communities we work with have been facing and overcoming uncertainties all through their lives. But this time, the crisis has put unusual stress on their abilities to cope.

As a community development organisation, we find ourselves caught in the currents, and our abilities to effectively support our partners are constantly being put to test. However, we quickly adapted to shifting circumstances. This enabled us to remain relevant to their needs.

These past 15 weeks, we worked in solidarity with the marginalised rural poor communities, who took the biggest hit from the pandemic and the lockdown.

We supported them in many different ways - food, entitlements, livelihoods, a crisis helpline, health awareness, and strengthening local government efforts. We also mobilised funds from our resource partners and continue to reach out to new ones to help the communities. But, the struggle does not seem to end.

The words from Maya Angelou, the American poet and civil rights activist are apt for the times. “My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humour, and some style."

As always, we will face the crisis head-on, in solidarity with our community partners, walking hand-in-hand with them.

Every day brings new challenges to our resolve and capabilities.

Little work, little income

While the monsoon farming season is active in most parts of Odisha, cash incomes are hard to come by. MGNREGS or similar wage-earning opportunities are available but at the cost of working in one’s own farms and future food security. The localised lockdowns in different parts of the country due to the continuing spread of the Covid-19 virus and lack of travel options mean that migrant workers wanting to go back to workplaces are unable to do so.

The livelihoods challenge continues to be acute despite the best efforts of the government and civil society organisations.

Ongoing efforts by the Gram Vikas team and leadership of the village development committees have initiated MGNREGS works in 53 gram panchayats in 23 blocks of nine districts, benefitting 4,951 households. So far, 41,235 days of work, worth INR 85.54 lakh, have been generated.

We continue to engage with migrant workers to build their skill-competency profiles to help them find suitable jobs as soon as possible. The Migrant Resource Centre (MRC) based out of Bhawanipatna in Odisha's Kalahandi district is coordinating this work. The MRC already has a database with experience and aspiration details of more than 2000 workers.

A season of hunger

Working hard through the summer to save cash and food for the monsoons has not been possible this year due to the lockdown. Households, especially in the tribal-dominated, hilly areas, face a looming food crisis.

There is increasing food stress, particularly among the more vulnerable households in our partner villages. While most of them received their public distribution system food grain entitlement, they have not been able to buy other essential foods like cooking oil, pulses, salt, and spices due to the lack of work and incomes.

With the onset of monsoon, there will now be limited access to other sources of nutrition, such as forest produce. At least 15% of the households in tribal-dominated, hilly regions are likely to face a food crisis in the coming days.

No school, no internet, no learning

Schools in Odisha are unlikely to open anytime soon. Many first-generation learners, in Classes 9 and 10, from remote, hilly areas are facing a crisis. Their urban counterparts are having access to education technology platforms aided by seamless internet access. With little or no internet access, their inability to access distance learning puts their education on hold. Lagging behind in education has serious implications for the learning outcomes and the future of these students.

The glaring digital divide continues to leave children in rural Odisha behind; particularly, the school-going children from remote tribal villages that Gram Vikas works with. Poor network connectivity along with frequent power outages makes learning through smartphones, computers, or television impossible.

In the coming days, our work will focus on:

• Ensuring access to adequate food for the most vulnerable households.
• Strengthening dignified income-earning opportunities, locally and for those wanting to migrate.
• Helping children from tribal communities access supplementary learning opportunities.

What we have done till now

• Facilitating mobilisation and awareness generation among rural communities and supporting the local administration for effective handling of the pandemic crisis in 348 villages covering 14,979 households.
• Awareness generation, follow-up, and lobbying with the local governments to ensure that people receive their food and employment entitlements, benefitting 18,012 households in 388 villages.
• Direct support for meeting immediate needs for food, essential items, and personal protection equipment for 4,822 households in 129 villages.
• Reaching out to migrant workers stranded in different locations with physical and emotional support and planning for effective livelihood rehabilitation covering 13,812 households from 853 villages.

Ongoing support to the communities is critical to reassure them and help tide over the crisis with dignity and hope. The best way you can help us now is to donate as much as you can to our Covid-19 Response support. Or be ambassadors for our efforts to help raise money to keep the families hunger-free, children learning, and create opportunities for dignified work. In usual times, in-person, non-financial support would have been equally valuable. But today, your support in raising resources will amplify our abilities to deliver on the ground.

Donate for Covid-19 response

For more information, visit: Gram Vikas COVID-19 Response Updates Reach out to us at c19@gramvikas.org

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The update can be accessed below

Every year, incessant rainfall during the monsoon causes floods in the state, with North Bihar being the worst affected. Even this year, with the monsoon peaking up, fear of floods is looming over the state and some areas in the region have started witnessing a rise in river water levels.

The rising floodwaters lead to breach of river embankments which causes severe floods in many villages and thousands of people are left homeless. However, this year, along with constantly monitoring all the flood prone areas in the state, the Water Resources Department (WRD), Government of Bihar, has initiated the effort #HelloWRD, in order to tackle floods owing to the river embankment breach. For this, the department is seeking help from local people who can inform the former of any crack or breach in the embankment of their area so that appropriate actions could be taken for the complaints received.

Launch of the campaign

The initiative was first launched on social media. The department has requested the people in the state to reach out to them on Twitter using the #HelloWRD, if they notice any breach in embankment or there is a need of flood fighting work in their area.

As per Sanjay Kumar Jha, Minister of Water Resources Department, Government of Bihar, “the aim of this initiative is to receive complaints with respect to floods, river embankment breach, cracks in embankments or any other issue/s from the people instantly.”

He further said “People can inform the department regarding any issues related to the embankment in their area by posting at Twitter by tagging @WRD_Biharand #HelloWRD, so that authorities could take immediate and appropriate actions.”

Along with posting at Twitter, people can also reach out to the department via Toll Free Helpline Number: 1800-3456-145, which is working 24X7 to take up flood-related complaints from people. An app will also be launched soon through which the complaints can also be made”, he added.

Awadhesh Jha, Public Relations Officer, Disaster Management Department has informed that although the government has taken up several flood-protection works, but, this year, for more participation of people in the efforts to tackle floods, the twitter campaign has been initiated. 

He also said  ”In every zone administration officer, engineers and home guards have been posted. Any embankment-related complaints received on Twitter will be notified to the respective administration officer so that they can look into the matter immediately.” One of the officials from the department has also informed that the appropriate actions would be taken within 4-5 hours of receiving the grievance. 

People's involvement key to success of the campaign

The #HelloWRD was created on June 29 by the WRD Bihar and soon it started receiving updates from the people. Just a day after the campaign was started, a Twitter user informed with an image that the embankment on the Kamla River in Madhubani district could breach which can cause damage in Gopalkha village. He further posted that the breach is an annual event in the area and even this year a leakage can be observed. The same day another user posted that a playground attached to his village, which is part of the Badgaon Panchayat in Saharsa district, has been eroded by the river and the erosion threat looms over a school in the vicinity. This post received an immediate response from the department which assured that an official will soon visit the place and carry out the necessary repair works.  

Another official from the department has also informed that the people who do not have a social media account or are not using a smartphone can use the toll free helpline number which will be working round the clock for registering embankment-related complaints from the people. 

According to India Meteorological Department (IMD), this year Bihar has received 305.9 millimetres rainfall in June which is 82 percent more than normal (167.7 mm). However, the excess rainfall has created flood-like situations in northern districts as some major rivers have started flowing above the danger mark. The rising water level is posing a threat to thousands of people living in low-lying areas. As per Sanjay Kumar, meteorologist at the Patna Meteorological Centre, at least 28 of the 38 districts in the state received large excess rain; seven districts recorded excess rain and three recorded normal rain in June.

Reaching out

To support the Water Resources Department, Government of Bihar and the people of the state, India Water Portal wishes to lend its support by creating awareness about the campaign. Also, if you come across any embankment-related issues in your area, you can inform us via

Email | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Post to us 

We will take your complaints to the department so that necessary actions to combat floods can be taken. While posting your grievance, please do let us know your location to avoid any delays to the repair work.

You can read the article in hindi here. Authored by Umesh Kumar Ray; Translation to English: Swati Bansal

Flood situation in Assam continues to remain grim

A second wave of floods have gripped the state and so far around 16 lakh people have been affected across 22 districts with Barpeta district worst affected. The death toll owing to floods has also climbed up to 34. The floodwaters have submerged nearly 72,717 hectares of croplands and affected 2,053 villages under 60 revenue circles in the flood-hit districts. A total of 12,597 people have taken shelter at 163 relief camps and many others still taking shelter on roads, embankments and other safer places. While the water levels are currently receding, Brahmaputra, Dhansiri, Jia Bharali and Kopili rivers are still flowing above danger level in many parts of the state. (India Today)

Odisha prepares itself to battle floods

As part of its calamity preparedness, the Odisha government has identified 49 vulnerable points in river embankments which could breach in the event of floods during this monsoon. Along with this, the state government has kept in alert 20 OFRAF teams from June 1 to November 30 for any flood in identified vulnerable districts and measures are being taken to set up temporary VHF centres where telecommunication may not be possible during the floods. As the meteorological department has predicted a good monsoon this year, the state has prepared a standard operating procedure if floods take place after July. Also, the state has stored medicines and essential food items at the gram panchayat level and as many as 879 multi-purpose cyclone and flood shelters are being kept in readiness for the possible eventualities. (Outlook India)

Global E-waste Monitor 2020 report informs that the world recycled only 17.4 percent of e-waste

According to the UN-led Global E-waste Monitor 2020 report, the world dumped a record 53.6 million tonnes of e-waste last year and recycled just 17.4 percent of the e-waste. Passing on the message that the way the world produces, consumes and disposes e-waste is unsustainable, the report informed that even countries with a formal e-waste management system in place are confronted with relatively low collection and recycling rates. Further, China, India and the United States together accounted for nearly 38 percent of the world's e-waste last year. China being the biggest contributor to e-waste generated 10.1 million tonnes, followed by the US, with 6.9 million tonnes and India, with 3.2 million tonnes. (NDTV)

Pandemic turns into a boon, helps revive Madakas in Kadoor Panchayat, Udipi

With the water conservation efforts being taken up, the Covid-19 pandemic has turned out to be a boon for Kadoor Panchayat of Udipi district. In Nadoor and Kadoor villages, youth who returned home from Mumbai and Bengaluru following the lockdown, have been involved under MGNREGA for the revival works of five madakas- a traditional rainwater harvesting system. The people who were generally reluctant to work under the scheme have now come forward to take up works related to de-silting and there have been instances of people earning upto Rs 600 per day, informs the panchayat development officer Mahesh K. De-silting of ponds and madakas helps recharge groundwater and so far about 12 madakas and six lakes have been de-silted while a few more have been identified. (The TImes of India)

Chennai: Plastic waste piling-up near rivers posing a hazard to aquatic life

River beds in Chennai are facing the brunt of tonnes of plastic waste piling up near them. This is because the entire state government machinery is busy with the containment of coronavirus spread which has led to no proper clean-up works taking place. Pet bottles, parcel containers, wrappers, plastic bags, disposed face masks and gloves are found at the Adyar river bed and the situation is equally bad near the Cooum and Kovalam river mouths. The situation is going to worsen with the advent of rains as all the accumulated plastic waste in the river mouths will enter the ocean and wreak havoc on marine ecosystems. (The New Indian Express)

This is a roundup of important news published between June 24 - July 7, 2020. Also read policy matters this week.

Draft EIA notification 2020 attracts criticism from experts

In March this year, the Environment Ministry had issued the draft environmental impact assessment (EIA) notification. However, as per the experts, the new draft is non-transparent, undemocratic, unjust and unaccountable as it ensures no monitoring of development projects. Many provisions of the draft EIA Notification 2020 seem to tilt the scales in favour of infrastructure over the environment. The new proposal which will allow retrospective approval for projects that don’t have green clearance, seems to be very damaging, fear experts. The experts call for wide and deep deliberation of the draft notification before it is finalised. (The HIndu, Financial Express)

NGT slaps a fine of Rs 25 crore at Oil India over Baghjan oil well fire incident

In connection to a massive fire which exploded from OIL's Baghjan well, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) has ordered the government-owned Oil India Limited (OIL), to deposit an initial amount of Rs. 25 crore with the District Magistrate, Tinsukia District, Assam, for causing damage to the environment, biodiversity, humans, wildlife and public health. Along with this, the bench has also constituted an eight-member Committee to look into the matter and submit its preliminary report within 30 days. While NGT has fined OIl India for causing destruction in the region, another news report has informed that the mixing of condensate with floodwaters in the Maguri-Motapung Beel close to the blowout site has killed fish in large numbers as the floodwaters have turned acidic. (National Herald, The Telegraph India)

Public outcry leads to panchayat refusing to allow mining in Neugal river

Bathan panchayat in Himachal Pradesh were left with no choice but to refuse the issuance of no-objection certificate for the allotment of a part of the Neugal river for mining and setting up a stone crusher after the public outcry. The residents of Thural and Bathan panchayat had lodged a protest over the government’s decision to open a part of the river for mining activities and setting up a stone crusher subject to the issuance of an NoC from the panchayat and local environmental groups. When a special meeting was called to discuss the issue and seek public opinion, the panchayat members unanimously rejected the proposal as it would lead to environmental degradation in the area. (The Tribune)

NGT raps NMCG for failing to save Ganga river from pollutants

The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has reprimanded the National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) for failing to control pollutants entering Ganga river and other water bodies. As per the panel, NMCG report does not show any meaningful action and merely refers to certain meetings and field visits by the officials of the Ministry of Jal Shakti. Moreover, the report hardly mentions compliance of law and rigorous steps which are expected against law violators when violations are rampant and patent. The NGT has ordered the Central Pollution Control Board and Secretary in the Ministry of Jal Shakti to ensure no pollution is discharged in water bodies and violators are to be dealt with as per mandate of law without any deviation from timelines. (Outlook India)

Tribal protests creates a roadblock for Bodhghat project in Chhattisgarh

In a bid to provide irrigation facilities to farmers in the three Communist Party of India (Maoist)-hit districts of the Bastar region, the Chhattisgarh government had started conducting a survey for the multi-purpose Bodhghat project on the Indravati river. The project, worth Rs 22,000 crore and likely to generate 300 megawatt of hydel power, envisages to construct a dam near Barsoor village in Dantewada district to irrigate 3,66,580 hectares (ha) of farmland in Maoist–affected Dantewada, Bijapur, and Sukma districts. However, the local tribes in the Bastar division stood up against the project due to fears of displacement and deforestation and the project's survey was stalled. Also, the activists have demanded that the project should be approved by state’s tribal advisory committee first because it is being constructed in tribal-dominated areas. (Hindustan Times)

This is a roundup of important policy matters from June 24 - July 7, 2020. Also, read news this week.

Akbarbhai (35), a Maldhari (semi-nomadic cattle herder) is struggling to survive as the lockdown to check the spread of coronavirus has hit demand of dairy products badly and led to prices crashing in Bhuj. He lives in Gandhinagari, an informal settlement in Bhuj that is home to around 30 cattle herders. His joint family of 15 members includes his two brothers and three sisters. Together they rear 60 cows, 17 buffaloes, and 20 goats.

Akbarbhai’s father migrated from the Banni area of Kutch, Asia's largest tropical grassland southwards to Bhuj in 1970. Banni is a vast landscape dominated by small shrubs typical of desert regions, but droughts have led many to migrate with their cattle for greener pastures.

At Bhuj, the cattle rearers were a part of the city’s economy from the pre-independence era and were mostly employed by the king or mahajans (merchants/ tradesman). They resided on the land where they took up rearing activity. Post-independence, these lands came under government control but the cattle rearers continued to dwell on it, though many like Akbarbhai had a set-up in the outskirts of Bhuj.

As per a study by Sahjeevan in 2015, there are around 335 cattle rearers in the city of Bhuj having approximately 6,295 cattle. Many of them have set-up their dairy activities like Akbarbhai, who for the last three years sold milk in the Defence Colony of Airforce in Bhuj. The monthly income generated from the milk sales was good prior to the lockdown. He managed to sell about 120 litres of cow milk and 80 litres of buffalo milk. Two-thirds of the cow milk and half the buffalo was sourced from other cattle rearers.

But with the Defence Colony, trying to restrict the entry of milk sellers to curb the spread of coronavirus, the cattle rearers got affected. The colony people opted for packed milk. Most customers paid charges for milk at the beginning of the month. With the announcement of the lockdown in March-end, Akbarbhai was unable to get payments from over half of his customers. Distribution and sale of milk were exempted from restrictions during this period, yet he saw a drastic fall in sales.

Now, Akbarbhai does door to door delivery of around 50 litres of milk every morning to new customers whose contacts he got through his kin. Part of the milk produced in the evening is sold to neighbours, while the rest is used to make buttermilk and ghee.

Fodder became expensive during lockdown by around fifty percent while earnings from milk had fallen. In normal times, Akbarbhai sold milk worth INR 1,38,000 a month while the expenditure on fodder and other essentials was INR 64,600. During the lockdown months of April and May, his monthly earnings reduced to INR 98,400 while the expenditure on fodder and other essentials was INR 89,600.

To cover these losses, he took a loan of INR 1 lakh at 3 percent monthly interest rate for a period of one year from a moneylender by mortgaging his wife’s jewellery of equivalent value. Otherwise, the interest charged would be a whopping 5 percent a month. The loan agreement says that if Akbarbhai is unable to pay this amount in a year, the moneylender would sell his cattle to recover the principal plus interest. The price of the cattle would be decided by four local cattle rearers. The moneylender would recover his money and return the mortgaged jewellery to Akbarbhai.

This is the plight of most cattle rearers at Bhuj. Though cattle rearing is the oldest profession in Kutch and Bhuj, no specific policy has been framed by the state to protect their livelihoods. Consequently, they are gradually losing their resources like grazing land, water bodies etc. If timely action is not taken to protect the sector, it will be quite difficult for them to survive in future. 

A need assessment of the cattle rearers was done during the lockdown by Homes in the City, which had been working with the group since 2016. They had been instrumental in registering an organisation ‘Bhuj City Cattle Rearers’ Association’, which works on protection of grazing lands, water bodies, milk marketing, fodder, etc.

The need assessment was based on semi-structured interviews with eight cattle rearers and structured interviews with 28 cattle rearers, who are members of the cattle rearers’ association. It suggests the following set of measures:

Short-term measures

• Contact nodal persons in government offices and residential areas where demand for unpacked milk fell during the lockdown. Convince them about the quality of milk and follow requisite standard operating procedures while delivering milk in these areas.
• Engage in dialogues with the representatives of the local dairy (Sarhad dairy) to convince them to collect milk from unregistered milkmen too, till the situation normalises.
• Assist cattle rearers to purchase dry fodder in to reduce costs.
• To deal with decreased grazing lands, Homes in the City can with the help of partner organizations develop a plan to cultivate native grass species, which are healthier for cattle. Helping the cattle rearers’ association with deciding on native grass species, land availability, cultivation practices, maintaining the growth of grass and taking the yield for the cattle, etc., are some key steps in this direction.

Medium-term measures

• Demonstrate a green fodder plot near a water body in grazing area dedicated for cattle, which would be managed by cattle rearers, themselves.
• Construct awadas - huge water pots built of cement and concrete - at two to three prominent places in the city wherein water can be easily supplied from operational municipal water lines.

Long-term measures

• Provide tenure security on public lands where the cattle rearers reside.
• Construct animal hostels for housing the cattle.
• Protect existing water bodies and grazing lands that the cattle rearers have been depending on and ensure their access to these.

Way forward

With changing times and concerns, the return to the pre-Covid scenario is currently quite difficult, especially in India. In the current context, the Indian economy is driven by the ‘new normal’ with many social and ecological rollbacks including dilution of labour laws, environmental laws, human rights violation, loss of rights especially for the poor.

Given the state of discontentment and deficits faced by the marginalised sections of the society prior to Covid-19, the impacts of the pandemic on the informal economy, as evident from the need assessments in the city of Bhuj, would certainly be dramatic, pushing millions back to destitution given the exodus of migrant labour from urban areas, loss of wages, employment and livelihoods, health crisis and starvation.

Albeit this desperate situation, the pandemic has highlighted a multitude of opportunities in understanding these risks for the state as well as civil society organisations. New margins dealing with the impacts of climate change and for urban transformation lie ahead coupled with re-envisioning the existing social and environmental boundaries. This could mean something as simple as connecting to the local people, and giving meaning to ‘the local’ — be it local water, local markets, local food, etc.

In the specific case of cattle rearers, it would mean creating market chain linkages for groups involved in production and supply of perishable items such as milk, vegetables, fruits, etc., in order to protect their livelihoods as well as prevent a food crisis.

Tank systems of India

Reservoirs, artificial or natural, play an important role in securing water for lives and livelihoods. India has about 580,000 tanks of various sizes spread over across the country, of which 150,000 tanks are located in the semi-arid region of Deccan plateau. In Maharashtra alone, there are highest number (42 per cent) of irrigation dams. Tank systems are greatly useful in recharging groundwater, providing drinking water for livestock, and irrigation for crops. Tanks are also a useful source of silt for fertilisation and construction material and are complex ecological systems that are influenced by a range of factors such as urbanisation, agricultural patterns, land use and managerial institutions around them.

Community-based tank rejuvenation is of critical importance, mainly in drought-prone and arid as well as semi-arid regions and is an essential way in which water can be conserved for both surface and groundwater irrigation. These systems however need to be continuously maintained, repaired and monitored. Local communities took keen interest and undertook collective efforts in periodic repair and maintenance of these structures, in the pre-British era, although ownership remained restricted to the rich in most cases. However, In post-independent India, the tanks came under the ownership of the state government and the consequent lack of integrated approach and poor involvement of communities, led to the decline of these irrigation systems.

Revitalising small dams and water tanks in Maharashtra

Efforts are now being undertaken by the state governments to revitalise the small dams and tank systems and improve their utility. For example, in Maharashtra, activities such as construction of tanks and removal of silt through the Employment Guarantee Scheme (which later converted in Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act) are regularly taken up during drought years. Desilting and rejuvenating of water bodies was also taken up under the Jalayukt Shivar Yojana initiated in 2016.

The state has now designed and has been implementing a specific program for desiltation known as ‘Gaalmukt Dharan, Gaalyukt Shivar Yojana’ (silt free water reservoirs and silt applied farms) (GDGS) policy since 2017. It has set up a ‘Desilting Policy Committee’ which recommended that 31,459 small dams and water tanks be desilted in the state. The revised state water policy in 2019 promotes GDGS as an important strategy for drought mitigation.

A number of studies have looked at the impact of desiltation activities of tanks on the economy, but very few have looked at the impact of desiltation activities on environment, agriculture, equitable outcomes and institutional mechanisms.

This study 'Gaalmukt Dharan, Gaalmukt Shivar (tank desiltation) scheme in Maharashtra, India: Policy concerns and the way forward' published in the journal Law, Environment and Development evaluates the impacts of tank desiltation activities from two drought prone districts of Marathwada namely Beed and Nanded on agriculture and livelihoods. Seven percolation tanks desilted by the local NGOs from both districts were selected for the study.

The study found that:

• Small farmers found the silt deposition activity costly and inconvinient

The beneficiary farmers had to bear the transportation cost and the cost of spreading silt and levelling their farms. A large number of farmers (58 percent) who took silt for farm application belonged to the small and marginal category having less than 5 acres of land. Many of them took loans for this from informal sources like friends, relatives or money lenders.

While, large farmers used the highest quantity of silt, the landless and artisans such as pottery makers, local and noncommercial brick kiln makers were left out and did not benefit from the silt that was removed from the tanks.

Absence of proper roads also posed a problem and many a time, the vehicle carrying silt had to travel through another farmer’s land for which many landowners charged money for allowing the vehicle to transit through their farm, which also increased the transportation costs.

• Water levels improved

Desiltation of the tanks helped recharge the groundwater tables and increased the duration of water availability in the tanks during the summer months due to their increased storage capacity.

• Silt application improved soil quality

The results obtained from soil analysis showed that the silt application had a mixed impact on soil texture, bulk density and water holding capacity of the farm soil and it varied from the tank to tank.

• Area under irrigation increased

The area under irrigation (of 33 households) increased from 57 acres to 75.3 acres (32 per cent) in the Kharif season for the three main crops (cotton, soybean, and bajra). A similar trend was observed in the Rabi season where the irrigated area of the three main crops (jowar, wheat and Bengal gram) increased from 18.7 acres to 26.7 acres (43 per cent).

• Increase in agricultural yield

Farmers reported that silt application increased production by about 50 percent and at the same time reduced the the need for fertilisers thus reducing fertiliser cost by about half. The crops also looked visibly healthy. A shift towards more cash crops with more households cultivating soybean and cotton was observed.

• Impact on land use

Area under cultivation and seasonally irrigated area increased by 3 percent and 5 percent respectively. The perennially irrigated area showed a significant increase of 112 percent. Rainfed area and wasteland reduced by 7 percent and 11 percent respectively.

• Fertiliser use showed marginal decrease

A slight reduction in the use of chemical fertilisers was observed for major crops. The per acre cost of chemical fertiliser use reduced by 8 percent and 9 percent in the case of cotton and soybean for the Kharif season while per acre cost reduced by 15 percent and 6 percent for jowar and Bengal gram respectively during the Rabi season. In the case of perennial crops like sugarcane, a reduction in per acre cost by 31 percent was found for chemical fertilisers.

• Migration from the village declined

A slight reduction in migration was also observed in the area due to improvement in farm yields. For example, in Moha village, farm prices doubled as they became more fertile and had increased water availability. More crop residue also increased fodder for cattle. It also led to creation of additional income generating activities such as fishing.

• Lack of attention to participation, sustainability and equity issues

The Government Resolution (GR) on GDGS clearly mentions that in each village where tank desiltation is planned, the ‘Village-level Monitoring Committee’ has to be formed for planning, executing and monitoring tank desiltation activities.

However, except for two villages, there was no consultation and the desiltation activities were planned with village key leaders, Sarpanch and their close followers. Diverse groups such as rainfed farmers and small landholders were not included in the planning and implementation of desiltation activities in most villages. Distribution of silt was inequitable with rich farmers having easy access to large quantities of silt in contrast to rainfed and small farmers who lacked the financial resources to procure silt.

Modifications proposed in the Government Resolution (GR)¹ on GDGs in Maharashtra

The paper suggests some modifications in the GR-1² and GR-2³ issued by the Government of Maharashtra on the GDGS scheme:

• There is a need to include groundwater recharge potential of the tank as a criterion in addition to present criteria of age of the tank and its command area, while prioritising tank for desiltation.
• There are situations where the GR prohibits undertaking or selecting the tanks for desiltation work, such as tank with irrigation potential of 0 to 100 hectare, tank area under private ownership of a farmer or when there is no clarity about land ownership. In such cases, amount of silt deposited should also be considered as important criteria for selecting the tank along with the irrigation potential of the tank. If tanks are silted to around 75 percent of its full water storing capacity, then the government should consider desiltation.
• Tanks under private ownership should also be considered for desiltation as it can lead to groundwater percolation benefits and silt availability. In such cases, the Gram Panchayat can take the written permission from the owners of land prior to submission of the proposal to the Tahsildar.
• While tanks with more quantity of sand will not be considered for desiltation according to the GR, a list of such tanks should be created and made available.
• For the effective implementation of the tank desiltation work in villages, the GR-2 has suggested formation of a Village-level Monitoring Committee (VMC). The VMC should also ensure inclusion of women SHGs, women farmers, landless households, and of minority communities (SC/ST/OBCs). All village level members of VMC should be selected through Gram Sabha. Along with the formation of VMC, there should be clear provisions about conducting periodic meetings and documenting the procedure of meetinsg during the project.
• In addition to the existing responsibilities mentioned in the GR, the VMC must i) undertake awareness activities in the village regarding the desiltation plan ii) display and update information about the plan and execution of the desilting activities at public places iii) Nearby villages can also be invited to take away the silt for their farms in case of extra silt iv) sort out the issues related to making temporary roads where it requires vi) suggest ways and means to compensate the farmers getting affected by temporary roads vii) give priority to small and marginal farmers for silt import and ensure that all sections of farmers benefit from this activity.
• Rather than NGOs and groups of farmers, Gram Panchayat needs to be treated as an important agency to approach Tahsildar and as the key agency in planning and executing the desilting activities with help of VMC. 
• The GDGS should be included as a part of the Integrated Watershed Management Programme (IWMP) at the national level.
• Existing policy instruments in the water and agriculture sector, such as Maharashtra Irrigation Act, 1976, Maharashtra Water Resource Regulatory Authority Act, 2005 and, Maharashtra Management of Irrigation Systems by Farmers Act, 2005 do not fit well with the tank desiltation activities carried under GDGS.

There is a need for formulating a special comprehensive law devoted to the desiltation issues to regulate the planning and execution activities which will benefit all stakeholders, and will ensure safety of ecosystem services in the long run.

Notes

¹ Implementing Gaalmukt Dharan and Gaalyukt Shivar (GDGS) Yojana 2017 ; Formation of monitoring committee at village level for GDGS scheme 2017

²(Government Resolution (dated May 6, 2017)- Government of Maharashtra (GoM) (Code number of GR is 201704101302368426) for Tank Desiltation)

³ (Government Resolution (dated December 6, 2017)- Government of Maharashtra (GoM)  (Code number of GR is 201712061616303426) for Village Monitoring Committee for Tank Desiltation)

The paper can be accessed here

India stares at a Covid-19 induced waste management crisis and there is a need to strengthen waste management services. An important sanitary barrier to prevent the dissemination of illnesses and diseases, waste management’s impact on the world’s healthcare systems, and the economy are significant. Keeping this in mind, the Centre for Environment, Climate Change and Sustainable Development (CECCSD), Impact and Policy Research Institute (IMPRI), New Delhi organized a panel discussion on‘Waste management during Covid-19: Challenges and the way forward’ recently.

“The question of how to ensure scientific waste management of solid waste, biomedical waste and hazardous waste during the pandemic is critical. A meticulous mechanism is required to deal with the waste and ensure the degree of efficiency and safety of the citizens during times of Covid. There is a need to document the changes introduced by the municipal bodies in solid waste management and also monitor the processes through periodic assessments, “ says Dr. Simi Mehta, CEO and Editorial Director, IMPRI.

Suddenly the country’s waste management infrastructure is unduly burdened and is creaking under pressure. There are multiple challenges being faced by institutions, hospitals, and care centers in the light of Covid. “There is a lack of clarity on who to turn to for addressing the challenges related to waste management. Also, it is unclear as to who takes the responsibility to control it? Even then, the efforts of the various international organisations, government agencies and research organisations working in the field of waste management in India have been commendable,” says Dr. Keith Alverson, Director, International Environmental Centre, United Nations Environment Programme, Japan chairing the session.

The various sources of Covid-19 waste are from containment zones/red zones; quarantine facilities/Covid care centers; isolation homes; home quarantine; and health care facilities/hospitals/labs. The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) had prepared guidelines for handling, treatment, and discharge of Covid-19 biomedical waste, which was to be segregated into various categories such as yellow, red, white, and blue.

“We weren’t prepared to handle a situation like this and during the pandemic, it is all the more difficult for the local municipal bodies to come out with a comprehensive plan to deal with waste. Prior to Covid outbreak, government and private hospitals would typically produce 500 grams of biomedical waste such as syringes, urine bags, gauze, etc., per bed daily. This figure has increased to between 2.5 to 4 kg per bed, daily, according to a Common Bio-medical Waste Management and Treatment Facility (CBWMTF) at Delhi. This waste is not limited to hospitals, but is generated from isolation homes or quarantine centers leading to a large amount of waste being generated,” says Swati Singh Sambyal who works on sustainable waste management, UN-Habitat Regional Office for Asia and Pacific.

She also pointed to the multiple challenges in waste management such as the availability of workers and staff for collection and disposal of CBWMTF as well as the huge quantity of general municipal solid waste getting mixed with contaminated Covid waste at the quarantine centers and isolation wards.

Sambyal discussed the need to move towards better segregation of waste at source into wet, dry, and household hazardous wastes such as gloves, masks and other personal protective equipment (PPE) and gave examples from Panaji, Panchgani, Ambikapur, Thiruvananthapuram and Vijaywada to highlight best practices. Prof Brajesh Kumar Dubey, Associate Professor, Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur too stressed that for effective waste disposal, segregation is the key.

Suddenly single-use plastics, whose use was being curtailed or rolled back, are all over the frontlines of the Covid-19 response. “The increased generation of plastic and other medical waste considering the hygiene concerns during the pandemic has knocked long-planned measures off course and is going to be a problem for the society in the times to come,” says Dr. Alverson. 

There are fears that we will be pushed back several years in terms of the progress that had been made to reduce plastic consumption and use. “The increased generation of plastic waste can be attributed to online delivery, panic buying, stockpiling, and PPE disposal. There is a sudden spurt in the use of single-use plastics like gloves, masks, and apron, which are high in demand among consumers. At the same time, there are factors that are discouraging the plastic recycling sector such as the slump in oil prices, transport restrictions, and staff shortage due to pandemic,” says Prof. Dubey.

“Manual scavengers are not ‘sanitary slaves’ and their work needs to be recognized. The stigma attached to the work being done by ragpickers needs to be discarded in these crucial times, where they collect and sort through mounds of garbage from the affected homes thereby exposing themselves to the risks of contracting Covid. Thus, the testing of municipal workers should be done on a priority basis. Also, solid waste management workers should be provided online training to improve their capacities for managing this new volume of bio-medical hazardous waste from households and in order to sensitize them about protection from Covid,” says Sameer Unhale, Additional Commissioner, Ulhasnagar Corporation.

Highlighting the serious threat posed by Covid on the frontline sanitation workforce, Dr. Alverson too stressed the need to ensure safety, security, and hygiene of frontline staff working on waste management.

“The sanitation workforce of a thousand people cannot handle the huge volumes of biomedical hazardous wastes being generated during the times of the pandemic,” says Ulhane. There is a need for individual participation and community engagement to manage waste. Awareness materials in local languages by international agencies and the private sector can be helpful in sensitizing the people on the ground. The collaborative efforts from the private sector, international agencies, and government departments will bring the required change.

“There is a need to reinvent systematic waste management that leads to cost-saving for the government as also promote entrepreneurship and decentralization of technology. We also need to move towards a circular economy as an alternative to a traditional linear economy. This will involve sustainable production and consumption processes, reduce waste, and recover resources at the end of a product's life. This can then be channeled back into production, thus significantly reducing pressure on the environment. Waste management should be a non-negotiable priority for urban departments and municipal bodies in the post-pandemic era,” says Dr. Arjun Kumar, Director IMPRI.

IMPRI #WebPolicyTalk: Waste management during COVID-19: Challenges and the way forward

#HelloWRD: A social media campaign

Recently, the Water Resources Department launched the #HelloWRD campaign on social media to get information about the breach or erosion in embankments. The campaign calls out to people to inform the department if they notice any embankment breach or crack in their area through social media.

Using drones for surveillance

The Disaster Management Department has decided to monitor the embankments through drones. The officials of the department have informed that monitoring through drones will provide real-time information about the embankments, so that immediate repair works of embankments can be carried out. Along with monitoring the embankments, the drone will be also be utilised to find accurate location of people stranded in floods.

At present, the rescue operations are carried out on the basis of information received from the stranded people, but, as this location is known roughly, the search gets tough sometimes. However, with the help of drones accurate location of the stranded people will be available and they can be recovered immediately and taken to safer places.

District-level authorities informed to use drones

In this regard, Principal Secretary, Disaster Management Department Amrit Pratyay has written a letter to the District Magistrates and Divisional Commissioners of all districts.

In the letter, Amrit Pratyaya writes, "In view of the difficulties encountered during the search and rescue operations in an event like floods or other disasters, need for the use of drones is being felt. When people are stranded in remote areas during floods, there arise difficulties in the evacuation efforts due to unavailability of the exact position of the stranded people. However, with the help of drones, it will be easier to obtain the status of people trapped. Guidelines have already been issued regarding the operation of drones."

According to officials of the Disaster Management Department, the decision to make the use of drones for the aid of people stranded during floods and other disasters was approved in a meeting of the State Executive Committee which was held on June 22. The information regarding the decision has been disseminated to all the authorities at the district-level.

An official associated with the Disaster Management Department told India Water Portal, "At present, in the absence of a flood situation, our officials can reach to any location easily, so use of drones are not required at the moment. But, when the floods will arrive and our reach in the flood-hit areas will get limited, we will be making use of drones."

According to a bulletin issued by the Water Resources Department on the evening of July 8, Kosi River was flowing above the danger mark at Balatra station in Khagaria, but at the remaining flood monitoring stations in Bihar the rivers were flowing below the danger mark.

He further added, "There are 20-25 sensitive places in the entire state, where the breach of embankments are observed every year and severe floods are caused. In such sensitive places, drones will be put to use. ”

State suffers the fury of floods year after year

Floods occur almost every year in Bihar, especially in North Bihar, causing heavy loss of life and property. 76 percent of Bihar is flood prone. Last year, floods affected 88.46 lakh people of 1269 panchayats across 13 districts in the state while causing 130 deaths. Earlier in the 2018 floods, 15 blocks of three districts of Bihar were affected. Moreover, in these 15 blocks, there were 127 villages which were surrounded by flood waters from all four sides. Also, the crop worth Rs 513.65 lakh were completely destroyed in these floods and 23 people died.

Earlier in the year 2017, 214 blocks of 22 districts were hit by floods. In this flood, 815 people lost their lives and 8,57,036 people were taken to relief camps. Crop worth Rs 6,85,87 lakh were destroyed in this flood. Also, in the year 2016, floods had affected villages in 185 blocks in 31 districts and 458 lives were lost.

Experts believe that it is not possible to save crop losses from floods, however, the lives of people, cattle and people's property can be saved to a great extent, provided the information about the breach of embankments or rising water level is received in time and timely action is taken. In this sense, monitoring of embankments and locating stranded people through drones would prove to be an effective solution if implemented appropriately.

Reaching out

To support the Water Resources Department, Government of Bihar and the people of the state, India Water Portal wishes to lend its support by creating awareness about the campaign. Also, if you come across any embankment-related issues in your area, you can inform us via

Email | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Post to us 

We will take your complaints to the department so that necessary actions to combat floods can be taken. While posting your grievance, please do let us know your location to avoid any delays to the repair work.

You can read the article in hindi here. Authored by Umesh Kumar Ray; Translation to English: Swati Bansal

Lead image source: Water Resources Department, Government of Bihar, Twitter handle

Nested amongst the Satprura hills lies Kapoti, a village in the Dindori district of Madhya Pradesh. This region is known as Baiga Chak and is inhabited by Baigas, a vulnerable tribal group. Following a simple lifestyle, Baigas have been a self-provisioning, self-determining and nearly self-sufficient community residing in the resource rich highland forest regions in small hamlets for generations. The dense forest, its flora and fauna and water are the main sources of sustenance for this community. Rice and millets form their staple diet and they supplement it with seeds, grains, roots, leaves and fruits of numerous wild plants, which abound in the forest. 

Across generations, the Baigas have lived in close harmony with nature and relied on natural resources for their sustenance. Protection of nature and natural resources is a way of life and the Baigas take pride in conserving forests, bio-diversity and water resources. 

Things have however, changed in the past few decades. The village elders recall the time when streams flowing in the forests were full of water for most part of the year. Springs, which are a major source of drinking water used to yield freshwater all through the year. Ravnu Singh, an elderly villager recalls how he as a child used to see a number of springs flowing through the village, some of them were even perennial and sufficient to meet the water needs of the villagers. However, all this is changing and they are now grappling to meet the basic requirement of water for its residents. Anthropogenic pressures resulting in loss of forest cover coupled with changes in the micro-climate of the region has impacted the availability of water. Declining water tables and degradation of the catchment have made people vulnerable. The impact of water scarcity has manifested in girls and women spending hours to fetch drinking water, often walking miles to reach the source.  

Speaking of the time spent in collecting water, Sombati Bai says that the whole exercise of fetching water has not only taken away their valuable time, it has also increased their drudgery and physical pain. She adds that the scenario has led to girls in their village either missing school and at times dropping off from school altogether.

While the scarcity of water remains a problem, residents face a double whammy with contamination of water sources, becoming an issue, especially during the rainy months which impacts the health and wellbeing of the communities. Increased incidences of water borne diseases like diarrhoea, cholera and typhoid further accentuate the problems for the villagers.

While handpumps have been installed by the Public Health Engineering Department, the Baigas prefer springs as their preferred source of drinking water, because they feel it tastes better as compared to water from deep aquifers. However, the approach of protecting and conserving springs and their catchment as a preferred source of drinking water has not found many takers within the government. 

In 2017, when WaterAid India began work across 52 villages including Kapoti in 3 blocks of Dindori district in Madhya Pradesh, our approach was to revitalise the springs ensuring year-round availability of drinking water for the Baigas. We realised that the conservation of springs has to be seen as going beyond a drinking water supply programme. It was imperative to link spring shed management with forest conservation, protection of the catchment and community participation. 

Working with communities, gram sabhas, National Institute of Women, Child and Youth Development (NICWYD), a civil society organisation and the district administration, we devised a programme which on one hand worked on repair and renovation and on the other worked on strengthening the local institutions and building awareness on safe handling of water and management of water resources. 

Engaging communities in each and every activity was fundamental to our aim of ensuring water security. We constructed a spring chamber - a square-shaped mini pond like structure at the source of the spring to ensure its protection. A pipeline bought water from this chamber to the filter tank. This system works on the simple principle of gravity. Water from this spring chamber is directed into a three-chambered distribution tank where it is filtered using the slow sand filtration technique. Finally, the filtered water is stored in a tank having a capacity of 9,600 liters from where it supplied to individual stand posts placed in front of every household in the village.

While we were excited with our efforts, we realize that we have a bigger task at hand. For villages like Kapoti nestled in the Central Indian Landscape, springshed management is a way to go if we are to ensure drinking water security for the primitive vulnerable tribal groups. Our efforts going forward will be centered around working with the different departments, district administration, local institutions and communities. Also, learnings from Kapoti clearly underscore the importance of springshed management especially in the hilly areas and this could be an important lesson for stakeholders engaged in the implementation of Jal Jeevan Mission. 

As Bhagwati Bai fill water in her pots, she has a message for us, ‘conserve our natural resources if we have to sustain our future generations, we owe it to them. 

See more pics here.

Amar Prakash is Programme Coordinator at WaterAid India. Email: AmarPrakash@wateraid.org

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the policy or position of India Water Portal.

Around 1 in 3 children – up to 800 million globally – have blood lead levels at or above 5 micrograms per decilitre (µg/dL), a level that the World Health Organization and the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have stated requires global and regional interventions. India accounts for 275,561,163 of these children.

Lead poisoning is affecting children on a massive and previously unknown scale

A joint report ‘The Toxic Truth: Children’s exposure to lead pollution undermines a generation of potential’ by United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and Pure Earth, a non-profit organisation notes that lead is a potent neurotoxin that causes irreparable harm to children’s brains. It is particularly destructive to babies and children under the age of 5 as it damages their brain before they have had the opportunity to fully develop, causing them lifelong neurological, cognitive, and physical impairment.

Lead levels in the blood of children show they score three to five points lower on intelligence tests, compared to their counterparts who did not have such elevated levels. A meta-analysis of lead levels in the blood of Indian children showed they could lose four intelligence quotient points each because of lead exposure, said the report.

The analysis of childhood lead exposure synthesized the results of 31 individual studies representing the blood lead levels of 5,472 people in nine states of India, finding a mean blood lead level of 6.86 μg/dL for children and 7.52 μg/dL for adults with no known occupational exposure.

Childhood lead exposure has also been linked to mental health and behavioural problems and an increase in crime and violence. Older children suffer severe consequences, including increased risk of kidney damage and cardiovascular diseases in later life, the report says.

“With few early symptoms, lead silently wreaks havoc on children’s health and development, with possibly fatal consequences. Knowing how widespread lead pollution is – and understanding the destruction it causes to individual lives and communities – must inspire urgent action to protect children once and for all,” said UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore.

It is estimated to cost lower - and middle-income countries, $1 trillion in the lost economic potential of these children over their lifetimes.

It is clear from evidence compiled that lead poisoning is a much greater threat to the health of children than previously understood. Although much more research needs to be conducted, enough data has recently emerged for decisive action to begin – and it must begin now.

Sources of lead exposure

A leading contributor to lead exposure is informal and sub-standard recycling of lead-acid batteries, the report pointed out. Sources of childhood exposure include the lead in water from the use of leaded pipes, lead from active industry - such as mining - lead-based paint and pigments, and leaded gasoline.

Lead solder in food cans, as well as in spices, cosmetics, ayurvedic medicines, toys, and other consumer products, are also to blame. Parents whose occupations involve working with the lead often bring contaminated dust home on their clothes, hair, hands and shoes, inadvertently exposing their children to the toxic element.

The report also cited folk remedies and cosmetics used by households that contained lead. Ghasard, an Indian folk medicine in the form of a brown powder used as a tonic, contained lead. Sindoor (vermillion), a traditional red or orangish-red cosmetic powder worn by women on the Indian subcontinent, can contain lead.

Lead paint was yet another source of exposure, said the report, citing the lack of regulations in countries as a source of concern. Cameroon, China, Ethiopia, India, Israel, Kenya, the Philippines, Tanzania, and Thailand have laws against lead paint for industrial uses as of 2015, according to the report.

Lead in water

Lead in drinking water, most commonly from decaying or corroding pipes and fixtures or from the solder that connects pipes, continues to be a risk. Although lead was more expensive than iron, lead pipes had two significant advantages over iron ones: they lasted much longer than iron (about 35 years compared with 16) and, because lead is more malleable, the pipes could be more easily bent around existing structures. The degree to which lead dissolves into water depends on the temperature, pH, and time that water has been in touch with corroding lead pipes.

The report notes that countries should include strict parameters on lead in their drinking water quality standards. The World Health Organization provides a provisional guideline value of 10 μg/L in drinking water for analytical purposes, but, in regard to health, the organization suggests lead levels should be as low as possible.

Canada has updated the drinking water guideline to reduce the maximum acceptable concentration as low as possible but to a maximum of 5 μg/L. The US Environmental Protection Agency has a zero-exposure limit.

The long-term solution to eliminating the source of exposure is replacing pipes. However, replacing the pipes and mains of entire water systems is very expensive and in lower-income countries might be prohibitive. Hence, water providers can introduce additives (orthophosphate and pH) that reduce the corrosion of pipes and over time reduce the likelihood of lead getting into the water as it passes through the customer’s service line, indoor pipes, and plumbing to the faucet.

Drawbacks to using orthophosphate include the ripple effects of adding this nutrient into the larger water supply that, under the right conditions, can set off a chain of problematic events such as accelerating the growth of algae. Areas of intervention can include the regulation and the capacity of service providers to manage the lead-related risks of drinking water safety.

Recommendations

The report notes that governments in affected countries can address lead pollution and exposure among children using a coordinated and concerted approach across the following areas:

• Monitoring and reporting systems including building capacity for blood lead level testing.
• Prevention and control measures including preventing children’s exposure to high-risk sites and products that contain lead, such as certain ceramics, paints, toys, and spices.
• Management, treatment, and remediation including strengthening health systems so that they are equipped to detect, monitor and treat lead exposure among children; and providing children with enhanced educational interventions and cognitive behavioural therapy to better manage the negative effects of lead exposure.
• Public awareness and behaviour change including creating continual public education campaigns about the dangers and sources of lead exposure with direct appeals to parents, schools, community leaders, and healthcare workers.
• Legislation and policy including developing, implementing, and enforcing environmental, health and safety standards for manufacturing and recycling of lead acid batteries and e-waste, and enforcing environmental and air-quality regulations for smelting operations.
• Global and regional action including creating global standard units of measure to verify the results of pollution intervention on public health, the environment, and local economies; building an international registry of anonymized results of blood lead level studies; and creating international standards and norms around recycling and transportation of used lead acid batteries.

The report is available here

Through no fault of their own, migrants were forced to leave the cities after the government imposed a Covid-19 induced national lockdown in late March. After losing their work, fearing they would run out of cash and food they trudged back along with their families to the villages in search of humanity, food, and a place to live.

Most rural-urban migrants work in the unorganised sector and many are seasonal workers. They bore the brunt of economic closure and the fear of an uncertain future. The plight of the stranded migrant workers in the cities was discussed as part of a special lecture organised by Impact and Policy Research Institute (IMPRI) on July 11, 2020.

“They do not enjoy the same benefits and security such as employment contracts as tenured employees and thus paid the highest price during the pandemic. Even the non-seasonal workers employed at Surat, Gujarat as well as Tamil Nadu in the power loom, handloom, brick kiln industries got affected as they were employed in contract jobs, which are highly vulnerable in terms of job security and social protection,” said Prof Shakti Kak, Chairperson, Center for Work and Welfare, IMPRI in her opening remarks.

The pandemic has caused food and nutrition shortages. Civil society organisations provided meals to migrants, but it is the responsibility of the state, which fell short in its duties. This is evident from the fact that these workers had to approach the Supreme Court to demand safe passage to their homes.

Below are the excerpts of the special lecture by Prof Irudaya Rajan, Centre for Development Studies, Thiruvananthapuram where he highlighted the multiple hardships faced by migrants.

Facilitating safe migration requires data and policy, both of which do not exist in our country. There is no central registry of migrant workers, despite the existence of the Inter-State Migrant Workmen Act, 1979. Migrants in today’s scenario are concerned more about livelihood than the Covid-19 pandemic since they had to deal with the loss of income, food shortages, and uncertainty about their future.

Many countries experienced lockdown but migrants in India were seen dying on the railway track, begging for food and flocking to railway stations as the state failed to provide free relief and transport to them. Yet, the country lacks data on the number of people who suffered the brunt of lockdown.

The government should have given the hint of one-week time before the lockdown like in Bangladesh. It should have arranged for special trains, buses, flights to get migrants to move back.

According to the Census 2011, there are 450 million people living in the place they were not born in the country. About 150 million people are predicted to have been added to the migrant population in the last decade. So, it can be projected that in the 2021 census, about 650 million people would be living at the place they aren’t born.

Out of these, one-third of the people i.e. 200 million accounts for interstate/inter-district migrants. Of these, only 140 million migrants would actually be working and were affected by the lockdown. The Economic Review says that 9 million people move back by train and buses in a year. We were never aware that these people were moving, but the pandemic underlined this.

Distress migration is common. On the one hand, there are policies to promote urbanisation and on the other, there are policies to retain poor people in rural areas. People are provided 100 days of employment under MGNREGA, but it is unlikely to succeed in curbing labour mobility significantly.

People are pouring into cities because they want to earn more money than the state guarantees in rural areas. This shows the discontent of these workers and the failure of the state to provide them vital facilities and meet the incoming demand for employment.

The middle-class residing in urban metros and other cities with the ability to work from home continued to earn a living while the income sources of the poor have dried up. Trains doubled up as Corona Express as they moved back migrants.

A migrant when interviewed said “I went to my village and was transported like livestock. I travelled in a lorry. Nobody seems to care about the migrant, that’s why they are walking on the streets.” Migrants are not beggars; we made them beggars because we don't have policies for them.

PM Cares Fund is being used for buying ventilators to deal with Covid-19 patients. This is important, but so is spending on efficiently providing food to the migrants, who are starving.

Who is responsible for the plight of migrants? Employers, their state of origin, or the state providing them work? Covid-19 showed that all of these simply abdicated their responsibilities towards the migrant underclass, which continued to suffer. The migrants, who were the heroes of their families all these years, have been made just zeros. Because overnight, from being the biggest source of support to their families, for the first time the migrants left the cities empty-handed only accompanied with the stigma that they are the carriers of coronavirus.

Migrants have faced a permanent loss of their incomes and large cash support is what is needed, and it would have much larger fiscal benefit as it would boost consumption demand.

“Decline in the overall income would lead to the decline in the living standards of the people and not many will be able to stay afloat during the severe downturn. They won’t be able to invest in better education and health facilities. Even if the government were to create an enabling legal and political framework that addresses the needs of migrants, questions would remain on the weak implementation and monitoring in our country,” said Prof RP Mamgain, S R Sankaran Chair, National Institute of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj, Hyderabad while speaking at the webinar.

“Safe migration needs planned and well-managed policies which are the responsibility of the state. Though policies mention migrants but their implementation is lacking. The four Ds – dirty, dangerous, difficult and discrimination are the characteristics of migrant workers. There is no registration or secondary data resource that provides updated data of migrants. Also, in most of the policy discourse, migrants are invisible,” said Prof Arvind Pandey.

The country failed miserably to aid stranded internal migrants, but it’s time that public policies provide migrants decent and dignified livelihoods and life in cities that are inclusive.

"All of a sudden, water entered the house at night. Goods and cattle were submerged. There is no place to eat or drink. We have been in trouble for three days, but no one has come to help us.” The elderly Gauri Singh complains, with mixed feelings of anger, pain and helplessness. 

Gauri Singh lives in Satjoda village of Satjoda panchayat of Panapur block in Chhapra district. He is about 80 years old, but he has not seen so much water in his village since he last remembers. 

He informs,” Many embankments have breached this time, causing a lot of water to enter the village. All has been destroyed  by the floods, but no one is listening. The government does not even know that the flood water has entered our village.”

Shatrughan Singh of this village says,

“We are surrounded by flood water and there is no safe exit. It’s been three days that we are expecting help from the government, but we are unable to reach out to them. There is nothing to eat at home."

Locals have informed that on the late night of July 25, water entered the village due to sudden breach of embankments. People were sleeping, and had to suddenly wake up as they felt the movement of water. They hurriedly, tried to save all essential goods from getting washed away in water. Local ward member Ramkeval Kumar told the India Water Portal,

“People have taken shelter on the roofs of concrete houses. Food and water supplies are about to finish, but there is no help from the government so far.”

It is not the only the panchayat in Panapur block of Chhapra district where flood water is causing trouble for the people. Flood water has also entered more than half a dozen panchayats including Belor Panchayat, Totaha Jagatpur. Apart from Chhapra, 14.95 lakh people in 10 districts of Bihar (as of July 27) are severely affected by  floods. The flood water has spread over 625 panchayats across 11 districts and so far seven people have died due to floods.

Most of the people trapped in the floods have complained that government relief supplies have not reached them.

Embankments crashed at many places

In most of the areas, breaking of embankments is the main cause of flooding and this is happening when the government claimed to have repaired the embankments ahead of time and conducted monitoring of the breach using drone.

There has been a lot of damage due to breach of embankment in Lahladpur-Tetria block of East Champaran. More than four lakh population of East and West Champaran are in the grip of floods.

With 5,36,846 people affected, Darbhanga is worst-hit by the floods. Even here, the embankment breach has caused the flood waters to spread. According to local sources, the panchayats of several blocks were submerged due to the breach of the Dumri-Guthali embankment on the Kamala Balan river which passes through the district. The embankment break at Sakra in Muzaffarpur has also led to flooding in several blocks including Bariarpur. In Kishanganj too, the flood situation has become critical due to the breaching of the embankment. The flood waters have penetrated many villages as the Kosi embankment broke down at Kadaba Diara in Bhagalpur. Similarly, water has entered many villages due to the breach of embankment at the Kareh River in Samastipur.

Air Force helicopter comes for the aid

With the entry of flood waters, many villages have lost contact. The administration has been  unable to reach these villages;. However, three Indian Air Force helicopters have been deployed now for distribution of relief material.

Chief Secretary of Disaster Management Department Amrit Pratyay said,

"On the appeal of the state government, help of three choppers was taken and relief material was distributed to the affected areas."

According to the information received, the helicopters were deployed in the three worst affected districts-- Darbhanga, Gopalganj and East Champaran-- and relief material distributed.

In Darbhanga, District Magistrate SM Tyagarajan did an aerial survey and distributed food items.

An official from the Disaster Management Department said, on the condition of anonymity that 25 teams of NDRF (National Disaster Response Force) and SDRF (State Disaster Response Force) have been deployed in the affected districts and so far 1,36,464 people have been safely evacuated and sent to relief camps. Community kitchens are also operational for providing food to people in the affected areas.

Movement to more than 500 roads disrupted

Many roads have been submerged while some have been completely damaged, due to the rising water levels and river erosion. This has resulted in many districts and villages losing contact with each other.

According to the information received from the Road Construction Department, movement on about 500 roads has been severely affected. Of these, 50 roads are from the Road Construction Department. According to a report published in Prabhat Khabar, the maximum numbers of affected roads are in Gopalganj and East Champaran.

It has been revealed that the movement has come to a standstill for a 650 km road in Gopalganj district, 200 km in Kishanganj, 200 km in Araria, 100 km in Supaul, 50 km in Purnia, 100 km in Katihar and 125 km in Darbhanga. Principal Secretary of Road Construction Department Amrit Lal Meena has said that the movement of vehicles on these roads will get started as soon as the water recedes.

Status of water level of the rivers

Due to the intermittent rains, the water level of major rivers in Bihar is still above the danger mark. The Ghaghra River is flowing above the danger mark in Darauli and Khadda.

Similarly, the Budhi Gandak River is flowing above the danger mark in Lalbegiyaghat, Ahirwalia, Sikanderpur, Rosda, Samastipur and Khagaria. A further increase in the water level of the river has been noticed at many gauge stations.

According to a bulletin issued by the Central Water Commission, the Bagmati river is flowing below the danger mark on the Dhenge Bridge, and its water level is expected to rise. However, the river’s water level is above the danger mark at Runnisaidpur, Beniabad, Hayaghat, Kamatoul, Ekimighat. Similarly, while Kamala Balan River is flowing above the danger mark in Jayanagar, its water level is below the danger mark in Jhanjharpur.

Known as the sorrow of Bihar, the Kosi River is also flowing above the danger mark in Balatara, Kursela, Dengraghat, Jhawa. Likewise, the Parman River is also flowing above the danger mark in Araria.

Your cooperation

In case you notice any cracks or other problems in the embankments in your area, then call the helpline number 18003456145 and share the information immediately.

You can also report on Twitter by tagging #HelloWRD, @WRD_Bihar (Department of Water Resources). On obtaining the information, the department will immediately inform the officials of the concerned area and prompt action will be taken.

You can also share this information with India Water Portal via

Email | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Post to us

While sharing the information, please share your name, location, mobile number, email and photo. Your personal information will not be made public.

You can read the article in Hindi here. Authored by Umesh Kumar Ray; Translation to English by Swati Bansal

Two weeks ago, the Kanakai River flowing through Kishanganj rendered dozens of families homeless. While the people in the region are staying under plastic sheds, the government has turned a blind eye to their plight.

Mohammadin is also one of them. He tells the India Water Portal,

“I have a family of 20 members, including women. We were living here for 10 years but from past three weeks, we have been living in a polythene shed.”

"Where will we go in the floods?", he asks." We are surviving on food and water provided by people in the vicinity. However, we have not yet received any substantial help from the government." 

Mohammadin received two and a half kilograms of flattened rice, one kilogram of gram and half a kilogram of sugar two weeks ago from the government, a very meagre amount considering that he has a family of twenty people to feed. Mohammadin feels that the government should arrange for a house for them. He says

"We want the government to at least give us land to build houses, so that there is a permanent roof over our heads."

Mohammadin lives in Satmeri village in Bahadurganj block of Kishanganj where about 40 houses are completely submerged while the rest are filled with knee-deep water. People have moved to dry places or to their kin with goods and furnishings.

Local Public Representative Shahbir Alam who lost his house in the flood informs that he notified the local administration of his loss. They conducted a survey, but all he received was polythene, flattened rice, gram and sugar. No one came to see their condition.

He says, "Most of the people living here are poor. After the destruction of their houses, some families have taken shelter in other people's houses, while some are living in the open by setting up polythene sheds. The houses on the other side are now facing the threat of erosion and the threat of submergence due to the swelling river”, he adds. "

56.63 lakh people affected by floods, 13 dead

The flood situation is worsening day by day. Thousands of people have lost their homes in the floods amidst the government claims of flood protection measures undertaken. An official from the Disaster Management Department who is monitoring the flood situation says, "So far, 56,53,704 people have been affected by the floods and the flood has now spread to 14 districts. Seven people have lost their lives in Darbhanga, two in Muzaffarpur and four in West Champaran due to drowning in flood waters. ”

According to data received from the Disaster Management Department, 18.61 lakh people in 199 panchayats of 15 blocks have been hit by floods, with Darbhanga being the worse affected. Following Darbhanga, Muzaffarpur is the most affected as the flood waters have entered into 213 panchayats of 13 blocks, impacting 12.98 lakh people.

However, out of 56.53 lakh people affected by the floods, only 4,18,490 people have been evacuated so far. The rest have been forced to live by the roadside or on the embankments under polythene sheds waiting for the flood waters to recede. Despite the impact of floods in 14 districts, relief camps have been set up in only four districts-- Gopalganj, Khagaria, East Champaran and Samastipur. A total of 19 relief camps have been set up covering all the four districts, in which only 17,554 people are living.

An official associated with the Disaster Management Department informs that many of the affected people do not want to leave their homes while there are many others who have returned after waters have receded from their houses. Thus, the number of operational relief camps have been less, but as high as 1358 community kitchens have been running in the affected districts where 9,43,293 people are being fed daily.

An officer from Darbhanga district says,

“The district has been flooded due to Adhawara Samuh and Kamala Balan River. Two teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and a team of State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) have been deployed in the district, and are keeping a close watch on the situation.”

Rivers flowing above the danger mark

Rivers continue to flow above the danger mark at more than a dozen gauge stations and floods are expected to spread to more areas. Officials of the Water Resources Department inform that the Gandak River is flowing 1.12 meters above the danger mark at Dumariaghat gauge station in Gopalganj while the Budhi Gandak is flowing above the danger mark at the gauge stations of East Champaran, Muzaffarpur, Samastipur and Khagaria. In the Rosda gauge station of Samastipur, this river is flowing about four meters above the danger mark. Similarly, at the two gauge stations of Bagmati / Adhwara river in Sitamarhi and three gauge stations of Darbhanga the water levels are above the danger mark. The Kamla River is also flowing above the danger mark at Madhubani's three gauge stations Jayanagar, Jhanjharpur Railpul and Jhanjharpur. The Kosi River has risen above the danger mark at Balatara in Khagaria and Kursela in Katihar. Like Kosi, the Mahananda River is also flowing above the danger mark in Purnia and Katihar.

Leakages and breach of embankment continue to occur. Recently, an embankment broke in Darbhanga district, causing panic in the surrounding villages. In two weeks, the embankments breached at seven places in the district's Kewati block. According to locals, the embankment broke at Gopalpur on 19 July, Madhopatti on 24 July and Karjapatti on 31 July. Locals proactively informed the administration about the situation. 

Kishore Kumar Jha, the head of Karjapatti told the India Water Portal, “We received  news of embankment breach around 11 pm on 31 July. As soon as the news was received, people of the village reached the spot and tried to repair the embankment on their own. We also informed the administration, who arrived and repaired the embankment.” He further said that owing to the embankment breach many houses in the village got inundated.

Due to heavy rains, the Gandak River embankments in Gopalganj and East Champaran also broke, which have been repaired. The Sirisia-Sironia embankment in Samastipur district was also damaged due to the rising river water. However, the Samastipur officials informed that the broken embankment has been repaired.

Along with this, the embankment at Bagmati breached at three places in Muzaffarpur on Monday. DM of the district Chandrashekhar Singh has ordered an inquiry into the breach of the embankment. He said that the surveillance on the embankment has been increased and that the possibility of deliberately damaging the embankment cannot be ruled out, so an inquiry has been ordered.

Your cooperation

In case you notice any cracks or other problems in the embankments in your area, then call the helpline number 18003456145 and share the information immediately.

You can also report on Twitter by tagging #HelloWRD, @WRD_Bihar (Department of Water Resources). On obtaining the information, the department will immediately inform the officials of the concerned area and prompt action will be taken.

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You can read the article in Hindi here. Authored by Umesh Kumar Ray; Translation to English by Swati Bansal

Groundwater fulfills the drinking water requirements of nearly 85% and 50% of the rural and urban Indian population, respectively. 65% of the total irrigated area utilizes groundwater. It also caters to the water needs of the industrial sector in India. However, this intensive and unregulated extraction and utilization of groundwater has led to a sharp and severe decline in the groundwater levels. To arrest the decline in groundwater levels, Atal Bhujal Yojana or Atal Jal - perhaps India’s largest community-led groundwater management program to date - was launched in December 2019. 

It will be implemented across 8353 Gram Panchayats across 7 States of India i.e. Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh, and the selection of blocks was done using a challenge method. The program is based on PforR model (Program for Results) which drives the fund allocation under the program. Of the total 6000 crores allocated to the program (with 50% share of the World Bank), Atal Jal is designed to disburse funds to States only after they are able to demonstrate achievement of results on the ground using reliable data against predefined indicators called Disbursement Linked Indicators or DLIs. There are five DLIs in the program. 

Atal Bhujal Yojana: Overview

Atal Bhujal Yojana: Roles and responsibilities

   Atal Bhujal Yojana: Capacity building 

Atal Bhujal Yojana: Districts and blocks

Detailed program guidelines are available on the Ministry of Jal Shakti website.

Acknowledgments: To the participants of Programme in Rural Management (PRM), Batch 40 of the Institute of Rural Management, Anand (IRMA) for their help in simplifying the guidelines.

National Water Mission’s (NWM) has launched a campaign ‘Catch the rain’ on a pan India basis to nudge the states and stakeholders to create appropriate rainwater harvesting structures (RWHS) suitable to the climatic conditions and sub-soil strata before the onset of monsoon.

The campaign launched in February 2020 with the tagline ‘Catch the rain, where it falls, when it falls’ aims to promote the construction of check dams, water harvesting pits, rooftop RWHS etc. Efforts are on to remove encroachments and desilt tanks to increase their storage capacity; remove obstructions in the channels which bring water to them from the catchment areas etc.; repair step-wells and use defunct borewells and unused wells to recharge water back to aquifers.

The campaign aims to complete the activities well in time through the active participation of people. To facilitate the activities, states have been requested to open ‘Raincenters’ in each district - in Collectorates/Municipalities or Gram Panchayats offices.

During this period, these ‘Raincenters’ will have a dedicated mobile phone number and will be manned by an engineer or a person well trained in RWHS. The center acts as a technical guidance center to all in the district as to how to catch the rain, as it falls, where it falls.

Efforts are being made to ensure that all buildings in the district have rooftop RWHS and most of the rainwater falling in any compound is impounded in it. The basic aim is to allow only limited amount of water to flow out of the compound. This will help in improving soil moisture and in raising the groundwater table. In urban areas, it will reduce water gushing onto roads, damaging them and will prevent urban flooding.

Under the ‘Catch the rain’ initiative, all water bodies in the districts are to be enumerated (checked with revenue records) and encroachments are to be removed.

All District Collectors, heads of institutions like Indian Institute Management, Indian Institute of Technology, Central Universities, Private Universities, Railways, Airport Authority, PSUs, Central Armed Police Force etc., having large tracts of lands with them have been requested to take steps to ‘Catch the rain’.

In order to sensitize various stakeholders such as industries/corporates for active participation in this campaign to initiate water conservation activities, the National Water Mission has collaborated with the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) to take forward the campaign. FICCI has a well-established water division which is actively working in the water sector since long and its water mission of promoting water stewardship is aligned with the National Water Mission.

FICCI also aims to bring different corporate experiences around water harvesting and water conservation measures in order to share good practices that corporates have embarked on and for others to carry messages in terms of how they could implement similar initiatives.

Jal Pay Charcha

Four webinars were held by the National Water Mission in collaboration with the FICCI in July 2020. The series of webinars was initiated with introduction to the ‘Catch the rain’ campaign in the first webinar which dealt with ‘infrastructure preparedness and awareness generation’. Thereafter, in the second and third webinar, subjects like ‘groundwater recharge and aquifer management’ and ‘3Rs of water conservation – reduce, reuse and recycle’ were taken up. The fourth webinar was held on ‘increasing water use efficiency in agriculture sector’ with the theme ‘sahi fasal’. 

The speakers and panelists in the webinars included Ms. Naina Lal Kidwai, Chairman, FICCI Water Mission; Ms. Sangeeta Thakral, Head CSR & Sustainability, Diageo India; Shri S Vishwanath, Advisor, Biome Environmental Trust; Prof. A.K. Gosain, IIT Delhi and various champions of water intensive industries.

Water security

Groundwater extraction in India far exceeds that in countries such as China and USA, and therefore, replenishing the groundwater is crucial. As irrigation is the highest consumer of groundwater, there is a need to focus on ‘sahi fasal’ to nudge the states to use appropriate crops based on agro-climatic conditions. A 10 percent water use reduction in agriculture could result in significant saving of water and therefore, water use efficiency is critical to water conservation.

There is a need of working closely with local governance institutions for successful implementation of mass water replenishment as well as a conservation project which includes restoration of ponds, construction of check dams, borewells, door to door connection, and installation of water ATM etc.

The issuing of byelaws for water harvesting at city, state and at water utility level and the access to rainfall data at watershed, sub-watersheds and sub-aquifers level plays a critical role in implementing water harvesting initiatives. For example, in the state of Karnataka, byelaws for rainwater harvesting have been made at the three governance levels - state authority, water utility, and city corporation and are well synchronized.

There is also a need to redefine stormwater drain systems to infiltrate rainwater into the ground. Recharge wells need to be created in the stormwater drains and all the water from the pavement can flow into the drain and get filtered, and percolate into the ground. It also provides livelihood and employment opportunities to the various communities who have been digging wells over centuries.

Some leading corporates (such as Diageo) have water stewardship programmes as part of their corporate social responsibility work. They are working on various interventions such as water for productive use, improving irrigation practices, creating water recharge structures across different states, integrated water management programme, and replenishment projects (like RWH, pond desiltation, water storage ponds).

As a part of this, they are engaging with NGOs, Gram Panchayats, village watershed committees, and are handing over the structures created to the Gram Panchayats to ensure sustainability of the water stewardship programmes.

The key learning outcomes of series of webinar are:

• Redefine stormwater drain systems to infiltrate rainwater of urban areas into the ground for groundwater recharge.
• Institutionalise the usage of drought tolerant crops, which consume less water in water stressed areas.
• Promote village level governance for water conservation activities with active people’s participation.
• Provide subsidized microirrigation systems to poor and marginal farmers after improving their awareness about its significance in order to improve water use efficiency for onfarm land irrigation. 
• Well synchronized byelaws for rainwater harvesting could be made compulsory at all three governance levels - state authority, water utility, and city corporation.
• Regular monitoring of change in groundwater level using piezometers following development of water conservation works on field.
• Create more ambassadors and village champions who can be evangelists to amplify the ‘Catch the rain’ campaign.

Water webinar series - Catch the rain campaign - Effective way of rainwater harvesting

Water webinar series - Catch the rain campaign - Groundwater recharge and aquifer management