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The hierarchy of water ownership
It’s the owner of land in the ayacut of a pond who has ownership rights over the water. But what about the rights of the lotus pickers, washer folk, cattle owners, and families who used these common property resources to bathe in for generations? Part 3 of our series on the traditional ponds of Palakkad district, Kerala More... Rich farmers retain water rights in KeralaKerala’s land reforms 40 years ago redistributed land but overlooked water rights. As a result, landed farmers and big tenants retain the most fertile lands and also have exclusive access to water stored in ponds. The small and marginal farmers were given fragments of land with no access to water, and they are struggling to cultivate enough to feed their own families More... Ladenge, Jeetenge! Narmada Bachao Andolan at 25The Narmada Bachao Andolan movement is 25 years old. What started as a struggle in the Narmada valley has spread to every corner of the country and changed the definition of development, reports Kathyayini Chamaraj from the commemorative events that began on October 22 at Dhadgaon and concluded in Badwani on October 26 More... Ecology of the riverIn 1863, Sir Arthur Cotton, who built the Dowlaiswaram anicut on the Godavari, proclaimed that the British Empire “had command of all the water of India”. It is the same metaphor of control over common property resources that the fishermen of the Godavari are protesting today, says R Uma Maheshwari in the final part of her series on the impact of the Polavaram Dam on the inland fishers of the Godavari More... Tourism adds to Godavari fishermen's woesThe non-tribal upper caste landowners of Khammam district in Andhra Pradesh are welcoming the Polavaram dam project since it offers them compensation, and the promise of ‘development’ and tourism. The tribal fishermen on the other hand, find that the tourist launches plying the river by the score are destroying what little remains of their livelihood More... How dams and irrigation canals killed Kerala’s traditional kulamsSeven dam-based irrigation projects since the 1940s saw the traditional ponds on which water-stressed Palakkad district in Kerala relied converted from catchment-based water harvesting structures into containers of externally supplied canal water. This FES-Infochange series on Kerala’s kulams describes the consequences of technological fixes at the cost of traditional practices More... Short-changing inland fishworkersCaught in the interstices of caste, class and other qualifiers for compensation for the displaced, the inland fishworkers of the East Godavari fear they will be displaced by the Polavaram Dam and not compensated in any way. Where will they go? More... Scions of a changing lakeThe people of Loktak Lake in Manipur are nostalgic about the days when the king would lease out areas of the lake to individuals and communities. It was a system that replenished the lake and resolved all conflict, they say. Today the Loktak Development Authority is struggling with the comprehensive management of the lake, balancing human needs with the multiple values of the lake More... Whose river is the Godavari?Why is there no mention of fisher communities in the relief & rehabilitation statistics of the Polavaram Dam? If tribal communities can seek land for land, and forest for forest, can the displaced fisherfolk of the Godavari seek a river for a river? Part 2 in our series on the fisherfolk being displaced by the Polavaram Dam More... Turning journalism on its headCitizen journalism initiatives such as Global Voices, Open File and Media Co-operative get readers to tell editors what should be covered and how. They talk to the people affected first, and to the decision-makers later. A second report from the recent Citizen Media Conference in Montreal More... The invisible fishermen of the GodavariThe Andhra Pradesh government has a grand vision for industrial development, and the Polavaram Dam across the Godavari is essential to it. But the dam will submerge 276 villages, displacing farmers and fisherfolk. This FES-Infochange series looks specifically at the fisherfolk in the submergence zone, who are not even counted amongst the project-affected More... Batulan Khatoon's farming advisors wear khakiIn poor and underdeveloped Sonebhadra district of UP, plagued by extremism and crime, the men in khaki are giving the concept of community policing a new meaning. They are taking on everything from water management to livelihood-generation and healthcare More... Marginalised voices get a new life on the NetFrom Vozmob, which helps Latin American immigrant workers in Los Angeles create and distribute stories about their lives using cell phones to an interactive network for Inuit and other indigenous communities, there is a growing universe of marginalised voices populating the Web. A report from a recent Citizen Media conference in Montreal More... The hidden impacts of Solar IndiaThe National Solar Mission envisages a solar generation capacity of 20 GW in India by 2022, and claims zero environmental impact. But serious environmental risks do exist in the manufacture of solar photovoltaic and solar thermal cells, and the establishment of solar manufacturing plants, says Shawahiq SiddiquiMore... The cost of India’s MPsIndia’s MPs have given themselves a threefold hike in salary, now earning 68 times the country’s average salary. But no conditions of service have changed. In the USA, for example, members of Congress cannot earn more than 15% from outside of their Congressional salary. In India, the average assets of 304 MPs who contested in 2004 and then re-contested in 2009 grew 300%! More... |
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