Events

Through the cumulative discussions, interactions and field engagement of Arsenic Knowledge and Action Network in Assam, since August 2014, the issue of arsenic in water for drinking came to be understood as a communication problem. The same highlighted the need for affected communities’ to be informed about the issue so that precautionary measures can be taken.

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Country Level Dialogue meeting

A country level dialogue meeting was organized by SaciWATERs and Institute of Water Modelling (IWM) in Dhaka, Bangladesh on 4th June 2016 and was divided into three broad themes i.e. knowledge sharing, economic opportunities and disaster management. The workshop provided a platform for the sharing of knowledge and good practices across the region and also provided a platform to take into account the views of different stakeholders.

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India Water Forum

SaciWATERs along with TERI, co-hosted the panel on International Cooperation and Transboundary Perspectives on Water at the third India Water Forum. The overall objective of the panel “International Cooperation and Trans-boundary Perspectives on water” was to share the experience of the panelists on issues and challenges and seek for avenues for transboundary cooperation.

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Capacity Building Training of Village Waterman to assure safe drinking water and sustainability of water resources in Nizamabad district

SaciWATERs in partnership with the Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Department (Government of Telangana) and WaterAid India is conducting a Capacity Building training of Village Waterman to assure safe drinking water and sustainability of water resources in Nizamabad district, Telangana on 23rd -24th December 2015. The Watermen from 16 villages will participate in the training program organised at Hotel Kapila, Nizamabad. The training is organized as part of the ongoing Water Quality Project in Nizamabad to understand the methods of chlorination and minor repairs of the water supply infrastructures, establish the linkages between drinking water and sanitation, and the methods of bacterial contaminations and to develop the waterman’s skills in understanding water quality reports shared by the district laboratories.

Capacity Building Training on Water rights, equity, and gender issues for working water professionals in South Asia

As part of the ongoing CGIAR WLE Project Poverty Square and Gender Circle the capacity building training program aims to refresh participant’s awareness on water rights, equity and gender issues as emerging nuances with the changing environmental impacts and policies in the Eastern Gangetic plains of India, Nepal and Bangladesh. The workshop encourages participants to practically apply the emerging concept in development projects/programmes. The participants in this capacity building training programs are Government Offices from the three countries working in agriculture and irrigation sectors.

Further details about the workshop can be obtained from Dr. Aditya Bastola (Senior Fellow), and Mr. Manish Maskara (Research Associate).Further details about the workshop can be obtained from Dr. Aditya Bastola (Senior Fellow), and Mr. Manish Maskara (Research Associate).

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Interdisciplinary Research Concepts and Methodologies

As part of the South Asia Water Fellowships (SAWA), a training programme on Interdisciplinary Research Concepts and Methodologies was organized in Kandy, Sri Lanka from 28th November to 3rd December, 2015. The training programme was financially supported by International Development Research Centre (IDRC), Canada and CapNet.

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Inception meeting for the Tanker Economy Project is being organised by SaciWATERs

A Capacity Building Training on ‘Participatory Rural Appraisal’ tools and methods was conducted by SaciWATERs

A Capacity Building Training on ‘Participatory Rural Appraisal’ tools and methods was conducted by SaciWATERs in Rasoolpura, Begumpet on 15-16th June 2015, as part of the ‘Citizen First’ project funded by WaterAid. The training was attended by a total of 25 participants, including Basti Vikas Manch (BVM) members, Society for Participatory Development (SPD), SaciWATERs staff and Social Work students. The Training aimed at enhancing the skills of project staffs to carry out mapping of WASH related information. The two days programme included sessions on, Resource Mapping, Social Mapping, and Focus Group Discussion. During the Training, a small session on GIS (Geographic Information System) was also conducted to help participants understand the basic concept behind the importance of creating maps at basti/slum and household levels. Further, a transect walk was conducted in a slum named Indiramma Nagar in Rasoolpura. The training was a balanced blend of both theoretical class-room sessions and practical on- field sessions.

The sessions proved highly interactive and the participants actively participated in the discussions. The programme concluded with a feedback session on various challenges the participants encountered during the information elicitation process and also a discussion on strategies to be employed to resolve them.

A review workshop on Climate Change and Food Security

A review workshop on ‘Climate Change and Food Security’ is being organised for the first batch (2013-15) of IDRC SAWAS Fellows on May 29, 2015, at Hotel Plaza, Telangana Tourism Plaza, Begumpet, Hyderabad. The participants will be from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, Dhaka; University of Peradenia, Sri Lanka; Anna University, Chennai and Nepal Engineering College, Kathmandu. The aim of the workshop is to review the research work conducted by the SAWAS Fellows. The event is being sponsored by IDRC.

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Transnational Policy Dialogue consultation meeting for Improved Water Governance in Brahmaputra River

SaciWATERs in collaboration with Institute of Water and Flood Management (IWFM), BUET, Dhaka and funded by The Asia Foundation (TAF) organised a 'Transnational Policy Dialogue consultation meeting for Improved Water Governance in Brahmaputra River', in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The aim of the dialogue was to explore the hydro-diplomatic relations within India (Assam and Arunachal Pradesh) and between India, Bhutan, China and Bangladesh in co-managing this trans-boundary river.

The stakeholder workshop at multi track diplomatic mode had two fold objectives: (i) to bring on floor pertinent issues that need collaborative research (ii) to inform inclusionary policy formulations and institutional transformations for effective co-management of the Brahmaputra basin.

The workshop was attended by representatives from Water Resources Department (WRD) of Arunachal Pradesh and Assam India, Joint River Commission (JRC), Bangladesh, Bangladesh Water development Board, Royal Society for protection of Nature (RNPN), Bhutan, Asia International Rivers Centre, Kunming University, China.

Multi-stakeholder workshop for Peri-urban Water Security Project

A multistakeholder workshop on Peri urban water security, conflicts and cooperation in India is being organised by SaciWATERs on 15th May 2015 at Hotel Plaza, Telangana Tourism Plaza, Begumpet, Hyderabad. The workshop is a part of our ongoing project titled "Climate Policy, Conflicts and Cooperation in Peri-Urban South Asia: Towards Resilient and Water Secure Communities", funded by Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research, NWO under Conflict and Cooperation in the Management of Climate Change - Integrated Project initiative. The workshop seeks to engage with a critical mass of stakeholders on the theme of the project and foster dialogue among them on issues of periurban water security, set a base for research uptake by sharing preliminary project findings with stakeholders and builds a commitment to action, learn and network with other researchers on similar projects and themes.

Water in the 21^st Century

As the United Nations celebrated World Water Day on March 22, 2015 across the globe, SaciWATERs also organised an event at Hyderabad jointly with WaterAid and the Telangana State Water and Sanitation Mission at Dr. Mari Channa Reddy, Human Resource Development Institute, Hyderabad. This event was sponsored by WaterAid India.

Delegates in this event were representatives from the state and district level government departments, Civil Society Organisations like NGOs, CBO and academic institutions. Some of the key participants in the event were Dr. K. Tirupatiah, IFS Additional Director General, MCR HRD, Shri J. Vishwanath- Director – State Water and Sanitation Mission, Government of Telangana, Shri. D. Ronald Rose, IAS, Nizamabad District Collector, Mr. Nitya Jacob, Head of Policy, WaterAid, M. V. Ramchandrudu, CEO, WASSAN, Dr. Ramachandraiah, Professor, CESS and Dr. Anamika Barua, Executive Director, SaciWATERs.

World Water day is when the world comes together to celebrate water and deliberate upon the pertaining issues and solutions. This particular event focussed on the increasing water scarcity and quality issue in the Telangana state. The gathering saw experts from different disciplines within the water sector speak about the socio-economic and technical issues concerned with the quantity and quality of water. ‘‘Increasing water demand, declining quantum of water due to huge demand, increased contamination and exploitation have created physical scarcity of water. Water conflicts would now go beyond trans-boundary to the community and household levels’’ says Dr. Anamika Barua, Executive Director, SaciWATERs. The physical quantity of water is threatened due to the changing environmental and climatic conditions. Anthropogenic activities contaminate the available water adding to reduced availability of potable water. She urged for the need for sustainability in the water resources development. In the inaugural address, Shri J. Vishwanathan, Director, State Water and Sanitation mission noted that ‘Increased water demand which has to be dealt with meticulous planning’.

Further, highlighting the issue Shri K. Tirupatiah, Additional Director General, MCHRD Institute mentioned that ‘Water is life’ and ‘if water sector suffers, it might paralyse all other sectors’ says. Mr. Nitya Jacob, Head of Policy, WaterAid India also mentioned that “quality standards need to be set”. He also emphasized on “regular operation and maintenance, protection of the available water supply, and importance of water budgeting”. Shri Tirupatiah added that “water issue is beyond political, technical and physical issues, it’s more of a multi-dimensional issue”. Dr. Giridhar, Assistant Professor, JNTU supplemented that to truly address the challenges, behavioural and attitudinal changes are needed. In the time of paucity of good water management practices, Mr. Ramachandrudu, CEO of WASSAN shared a ray of hope through successful practices of water and sanitation management within few Nirmal Gram Puraskar villages in Telangana.

On this occasion, SaciWATERs also shared the findings of the baseline study of water quality project within 272 households surveyed in rural area of Nizamabad district. It was found that at household (HH) level, most people prefer tube-well water. Bottled water usage was found more preferred in urban settlements. They also found that people are seldom aware of water quality measures and the trained personnel’s rarely test the quality of water even though the field testing kits are provided.

Mr. Satheesh, Chief Chemist from the Telangana State Lab mentioned that a lab testing protocol is available and the state labs are diligently working towards regular water quality testing. Shri Ronald Rose, Collector of Nizambad district appreciated the study, said that the “success of this project lies in whether the consumer knows about his right of clean drinking water”. He mentioned that the challenge lies in as to how these findings will be shared and taken up within villages. He categorised water as a high priority item and also informed about the new scheme “Hamara Jal Hamara Jeevan” which is a new scheme to make one sustainable district.

The day’s deliberations highlighted that a sustainable way forward to resolve the challenges of scarcity and quality is also by pooling our resources and enabling a symbiotic relationship between the government and civil society towards joint action.

Training of Trainers programme

SaciWATERs in collaboration with the Government of Telangana- SWSM and RWS&S departments and with the support of WaterAid organised a one day Training of Trainers programme which was held on the 11th of March at Hotel Vamshee International, Nizamabad. The training programme on Water Quality Monitoring and Sanitation, targeted 40 laboratory and engineering personnel from the district RWS&S department of Nizamabad who play a crucial role in the support and provision of WATSAN services at the Grass roots.

Training of Trainers

SaciWATERs in collaboration with Government of Telangana, State Water and Sanitation Mission and WaterAid is organising a 2 days Training of Trainers (ToT) with Water Quality Testing Lab Officials on 23rd and 24th February 2015. This TOT is to enhance the skills of the Government Lab Officials in effective delivery of water quality services in the State.
There will be more than 100 Lab Officials participating in this ToT.

Peter Mollinga visit

Peter Mollinga, (Prof. School of Oriental & African Studies) visit to SaciWATERs on February 19, 2015. Honorary founder of SaciWATERs shares his contemporary thought and genesis on SaciWATERs.