ALTERNATIVES
J. Harsha, Director, Central Water Commission, writes: India fails to deliver water in time, and in adequate quantities to small landholdings (< 1 hectare) belonging to marginal farmers (constituting 85 per cent of total farmers) cultivating in 43.64 million hectares of canal-irrigated areas. The impact of this great Indian irrigation deceit is enormous on agriculture…
Read More about The great Indian irrigation deceit
ALTERNATIVES
Dr Latha Anantha, an expert on rivers and one of the first names to crop up in the struggle to protect them, is no more. The founder and moving spirit behind the River Research Centre, Kerala, she was best known for her efforts to save the Chalakudy river. She’d been diagnosed with cancer in 2014….
Read More about ‘Nature gives us hope’: A tribute to Latha Anantha, river guardian
Representative pic
Conflict/Dispossession
Himanshu Thakkar writes: Can we expect any improvement in state of our water resources under the new minister Shri Nitin Gadkari? It was interesting that after taking over the portfolio from Uma Bharti, Gadkari’s first stop was Maharashtra, to offer the Chief Minister Rs 55 000 crores for same corruption-ridden irrigation projects in three years….
Read More about India’s big dam mania brings achche din to its corrupt dam lobby
Conflict/Dispossession
It’s been said that the Sardar Sarovar dam would provide many with access to water and power. But there’s no such thing as a free thaali, as Gujaratis, of all people, must surely know. Someone has to bear the cost, and that cost, as with all major development projects, has been borne by the poor….
Read More about Salil Tripathi: The real cost of big development projects
ALTERNATIVES
From The Wire: As the Gujarat government rushes to close the Sardar Sarovar dam gates ahead of elections, 40,000 residents of the Narmada valley are facing a nightmare of submergence. It’s this injustice and violence, and the development paradigm debate –development for whom and at what cost– that makes Narmada a litmus test for India….
Read More about Medha Patkar: Politics over Narmada, once again
Save Western Ghats group/Facebook
ALTERNATIVES
From The Hindu: Straddling six states, the 1600-odd kilometre-long Western Ghats is home to an astonishing diversity of life and supports innumerable communities and cultures. This year marks the 30th anniversary of the remarkable 100-day ‘Save Western Ghats March’, a landmark event in Indian environmental activism, which became the model for numerous campaigns to follow….
Read More about Tribute: A mountain and a movement: the Save Western Ghats March
Busting apart this aging dam in Connecticut opened up 27 kilometers of salmon habitat
Lia McLaughlin/USFWS
ALTERNATIVES
From Hakai Magazine: For almost 15 years, Harold and Gephard have removed five dams from Connecticut waterways. They spend most of their time meeting owners whose ties to their dams can go back centuries. “It’s about trying to get dam owners to do something that they can’t quite decide. You have to basically say, ‘trust me.’”…
Read More about Dam busters! The nascent green movement liberating rivers and freeing fish
Protests gather pace across Narmada Valley after the Supreme Court asks the government to relocate all affected families by July 31
Narmada Bachao Andolan
Conflict/Dispossession
Fifty-six years after the foundation stone for the Sardar-Sarovar dam on the Narmada was laid, the Gujarat government has got permission from the Centre to shut its gates. It will open the gates of misery for more than 100,000 people, whose houses and land are likely to get submerged. A Down To Earth ground report….
Read More about What Gujarat govt calls ‘historic’, could be catastrophic for 1,00,000 villagers
Jemima Rohekar
Conserve/Resist
Jemima Rohekar writes: So secluded is Silent Valley that there is no written record of any human habitation in its core area. It is also the site of the first and most bitterly fought ‘environment vs development’ debate in India. Silent Valley reinforces the fact that forests and their resident biodiversity are our greatest wealth….
Read More about Sounds of silence: a forest that survived ‘development’ALTERNATIVES
T. Hanumantha Rao, irrigation engineering expert and the brain behind a participative method of water management based on his ‘Four Waters’ concept, passed away on Sunday. The Four Waters concept, explained in this video, brought rich benefits to Rajasthan, where even drought-affected areas improved over the years. Several other states are actively pursuing his recommendations….
Read More about Tribute: T. Hanumantha Rao, champion of water management alternatives
CLIMATE CRISIS
Hydropower is a significant source of greenhouse gas emissions: a new study shows that the world’s hydroelectric dams are responsible for as much methane emissions as Canada. The study finds that methane, which is at least 34 times more potent than carbon dioxide, makes up 80% of the emissions from water reservoirs created by dams….
Read More about The hydropower paradox: is this energy as clean as it seems?Health/Safety
Nehmat Kaur writes: The National Green Tribunal covered new ground for the ‘polluter pays’ principle by invoking it in two landmark judgments recently. Activists are hopeful that this will help deter corporations from functioning with impunity, under the cover of governmental apathy. The judgments in both cases acknowledged governmental inaction in dealing with environmental damage….
Read More about Landmark NGT judgments hold private firms, not god or government, responsible
Archival photo of a boat rally in protest against the Sardar Sarovar dam
Bookshelf
The Narmada Bachao Andolan began 31 years ago as a protest against the Sardar Sarovar dam on the Narmada river, and went on to raise questions about the very development model India has embraced. Today, with the NBA reviving their landmark struggle for justice, we are re-publishing author Arundhati Roy’s landmark 1999 essay on the topic….
Read More about Flashback: Arundhati Roy’s classic essay on the Narmada resistanceCLIMATE CRISIS
The heat and the death toll are rising in India. Is this a glimpse of Earth’s future? The Guardian UK India is struggling to cope with one of the deadliest heatwaves to hit the subcontinent. And its attempt to do so is raising a question for the whole planet – how can humans cope with…
Read More about News updateCLIMATE CRISIS
Why the Fracking Phenomenon Will Leave Us High and Dry Asher Miller, Post Carbon Institute A new, landmark report shows that hopes of a long-term golden era in American oil & gas production are unfounded. Eight Pieces of Our Oil Price Predicament Gail Tverberg A person might think that oil prices would be fairly stable. Prices would…
Read More about News update
