Water and Environment Sanitation Network India

	Citizen's Corner

Press Releases

(WES-Net invites contributions to this section from all)

Sajal Gram Puraskar to Promote Water Harvesting
[Date: 31/08/07 Source: DDWS]
The Government is formulating an incentive scheme called “Sajal Gram Puraskar” to motivate the rural communities towards “Saving and Conserving Water” through rain water harvesting, water recharge and waste water management. The scheme will be on the similar lines of the “Nirmal Gram Puraskar” being awarded towards achievements in the sanitation front.

WATSAN in Flood Affected Areas: Consultation Meeting
[Date: 17/08/07 Source: WES-Net India]
WES-Net India in association with Sphere India organised a consultation meeting on “Issues and Solutions on WES for the Flood Affected Areas” on the 17th August, 2007 at Plan Internationals office in New Delhi. The meeting was attended by representatives of the leading agencies involved in the relief and rehabilitation works in the flood affected areas of North India. Guidelines on the aspects of shelter and WATSAN for providing assistance to agencies working in theses areas will be developed and shared as part of the initial response by Sphere India and WES-Net. Suitable follow-up plans will also be developed based on the interactions with these agencies shortly. more>>

Draft Manual on the Right to Water and Sanitation: Call for comments
[Date: 10/08/07 Source: COHRE]
The Manual on the Right to Water and Sanitation aims to provide practical information on how to utilise human rights in order to extend access to water and sanitation. Background information on the project and a full draft is accessible at www.cohre.org/manualrtws. Comments and suggestions of good practices are requested by 27 August 2007. The contents of the draft will be revised based on input. Please contact Virginia Roaf at water@cohre.org, to provide comments or to request copies of the draft in word format.

Fresh Water Scarcity Demands Fresh Ideas
[Date: 09/08/07 Source: India Togather]
A growing world population has led to rising demand for fresh water to ensure a growing supply of food and to meet rising nutrition demands. Where will this water come from? A new publication co-sponsored by CGIAR sheds some light on the narrowing options. Sudhirendar Sharma reviews the report.

Asia Faces Huge Environmental Clean-Up Due to Inadequate Sanitation
[Date: 07/08/07 Source: ADB]
Many Asian countries face huge financial costs to clean up the environment because of a lack of investment in sanitation – which is leading to massive pollution of both surface and groundwater, a senior official of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) said ahead of a global conference on the issue. The financial cost of cleaning a river once it is already polluted with industrial waste or sewage is far higher than the cost of building the infrastructure needed to dispose of the pollutants properly.