Deprecated (16384): The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 73
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php. [CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311]
Code Context


        trigger_error($message, E_USER_DEPRECATED);

    }
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 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php.'
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deprecationWarning - CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311
Cake\Http\ServerRequest::offsetGet() - CORE/src/Http/ServerRequest.php, line 2421
App\Controller\ArtileDetailController::printArticle() - APP/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line 73
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Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::_invoke() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 120
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::dispatch() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 94
Cake\Http\BaseApplication::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/BaseApplication.php, line 235
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
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Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
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Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Error\Middleware\ErrorHandlerMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Error/Middleware/ErrorHandlerMiddleware.php, line 96
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Http\Runner::run() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 51
Cake\Http\Server::run() - CORE/src/Http/Server.php, line 98

Deprecated (16384): The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 74
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php. [CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311]
Code Context


        trigger_error($message, E_USER_DEPRECATED);

    }
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 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php.'
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deprecationWarning - CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311
Cake\Http\ServerRequest::offsetGet() - CORE/src/Http/ServerRequest.php, line 2421
App\Controller\ArtileDetailController::printArticle() - APP/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line 74
Cake\Controller\Controller::invokeAction() - CORE/src/Controller/Controller.php, line 610
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::_invoke() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 120
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::dispatch() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 94
Cake\Http\BaseApplication::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/BaseApplication.php, line 235
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\RoutingMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/RoutingMiddleware.php, line 162
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\AssetMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/AssetMiddleware.php, line 88
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Error\Middleware\ErrorHandlerMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Error/Middleware/ErrorHandlerMiddleware.php, line 96
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Http\Runner::run() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 51
Cake\Http\Server::run() - CORE/src/Http/Server.php, line 98

Warning (512): Unable to emit headers. Headers sent in file=/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php line=853 [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 48]
Code Context
            if (Configure::read('debug')) {

                trigger_error($message, E_USER_WARNING);

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    <link rel="canonical" href="https://im4change.in/<pre class="cake-error"><a href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="document.getElementById('cakeErr67f07844d68db-trace').style.display = (document.getElementById('cakeErr67f07844d68db-trace').style.display == 'none' ? '' : 'none');"><b>Notice</b> (8)</a>: Undefined variable: urlPrefix [<b>APP/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp</b>, line <b>8</b>]<div id="cakeErr67f07844d68db-trace" class="cake-stack-trace" style="display: none;"><a href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="document.getElementById('cakeErr67f07844d68db-code').style.display = (document.getElementById('cakeErr67f07844d68db-code').style.display == 'none' ? '' : 'none')">Code</a> <a href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="document.getElementById('cakeErr67f07844d68db-context').style.display = (document.getElementById('cakeErr67f07844d68db-context').style.display == 'none' ? '' : 'none')">Context</a><pre id="cakeErr67f07844d68db-code" class="cake-code-dump" style="display: none;"><code><span style="color: #000000"><span style="color: #0000BB"></span><span style="color: #007700">&lt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">head</span><span style="color: #007700">&gt;
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		&#039;title&#039; =&gt; &#039;When cities guzzle water-Himanshu Thakkar and Parineeta Dandekar&#039;,
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-CivilSocietyOnline.com
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&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
More than 50 people, including tribal groups, social activists, water experts, ecologists, wildlife experts and academics, came together for a brainstorming workshop on &amp;lsquo;Dams coming up for Mumbai Region.&#039; The meeting was organised by the South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People, Shramik Mukti Sangathana, and Jalbiradari.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
About 12 dams are planned or are under construction to satisfy the increasing thirst of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR). All these dams fall in the eco-sensitive region of the Western Ghats. Together they will submerge more than 22,000 hectares, including nearly 7,000 hectares of forests, millions  of trees and more than 750 hectares of the Tansa Sanctuary. The dams will affect a minimum of 100,000 tribals who depend on the forests and their ancestral lands for their livelihoods. These dams include the Kalu, Shai, Balganga, Susari, Khargihill, Bhugad, Pinjal, Gargai, Middle Vaitarna, Barvi and Poshir, among others. These are in addition to the dams already constructed for water supply to the MMR. 
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
Tribals and other affected groups of the Thane and Raigad region have been strongly opposing these projects. Most people in Mumbai seem unaware of their struggles or the impacts of these projects.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
Most of these dams are escaping social and environmental impact assessments and management plans, environment clearance requirements, environmental monitoring or public consultations due to blunders in the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Notification of September 2006, which excludes domestic and industrial water supply projects from the environmental clearance process. The notification signifies the environmental illiteracy of officials and ministers at the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF). In spite of repeated letters and acknowledging that this makes no sense, they have refused to change it.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
MMR has not undertaken an assessment of options before pushing these projects. A cursory review shows that many options exist. Currently at the city or region level, there is no shortfall in water supply. The existing problems are due to inequitable, non-transparent, non-participatory and wasteful water governance in MMR.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
Municipal corporations under the MMR which are pushing for new dams do not treat even 15 per cent of their sewage. The Bhiwandi Nizampur and Vasai Virar Corporations do not treat any of their sewage. The Mumbai Region has no estimate of its rainwater harvesting potential, and there is little effective action in this direction despite high rainfall. Water supply and distribution losses are over 30 per cent. Local water sources like rivers, lakes and wells are being destroyed by pollution and encroachments. There is no interest in democratising governance of the MMR water sector.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
The workshop&#039;s resolution urged the MMR region to address these issues first. This would lead to sustainable water supply to the city and its suburbs. The Konkan Irrigation Department, which is constructing most of these projects, has violated several laws related to tribal and forest rights, environment, forests and resettlement. It has been mostly favouring a single contractor, illegally.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
The meeting also strongly urged the MMRDA, MCGM, Municipal Corporations of MMR, Maharashtra government, MoEF, the Maharashtra Forest Department, the National Board of Wildlife and all others concerned to ensure that the following steps are taken up urgently and in a credible way:
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
l Undertake thorough options assessment for Mumbai&#039;s (and other cities of the MMR) water needs which includes groundwater recharge and sustainable use, protection and use of local water sources, rainwater harvesting, sewage treatment and reuse, plugging leakages, improving water supply efficiency, taking up systematic demand side management measures etc.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
1. Undertake Environmental and Social Impact Assessments for all the dams coming up for the Mumbai Region.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
2. Take immediate action against the Konkan Irrigation Development Corporation for violating multiple laws while bulldozing ahead with projects and the Mumbai Metropolitan Region. Development Authority (MMRDA)  for funding projects in the absence of clearances.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
3. Respect people&#039;s protests and gram sabha resolutions against displacement, deforestation and their refusal to give permission for these projects.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
4. Take strong penal action against the officers and  contractors who have displaced Adivasis illegally.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
5. Not resume any work or plan for any project before the above is done. Stop work on projects in the meantime.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
6. Change the EIA notification to ensure that all large dams are included for environment clearance, public hearings and EIA requirements.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
7. Immediately institute a credible Cumulative Impact Assessment of the projects already constructed and advanced in implementation.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
8. Institutionalise decentralised, democratic governance of the water sector in MMR from bottom to top.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&amp;nbsp;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
Forests in the Western Ghats are Mumbai and MMR&#039;s lungs. They are the watersheds of rivers and water sources for the Tansa and Bhatsa lakes. Forests naturally purify Mumbai and MMR&#039;s drinking water. The rich tribal culture of Thane and Raigad is a shared heritage of Mumbai. We  have no right to displace the tribals or destroy their livelihoods. This destruction in Mumbai&#039;s backyard must be stopped.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
However, Mumbai and MMR are not the only urban areas guilty of destroying the environment, forests, biodiversity and livelihoods of millions of poor people. Delhi, which already has more per capita water than European cities like Paris, Amsterdam or Bonn, is asking for the Renuka, Lakhwar and Kishau dams in the upstream Yamuna basin, while destroying the Yamuna river for all downstream areas. Ahmedabad is using water from the Sardar Sarovar dam that was meant for the people of Kutch and Saurashtra and which has led to the displacement of over 200,000 people. Jaipur is taking water from the Bisalpur dam. Farmers, for whom it was made, are not getting the water and some lost their lives in police firing while demanding that water. A massive diversion of Nethrawathi water is proposed for Bangalore and other areas, destroying the pristine forests of the Western Ghats. Three farmers died in police firing near Pune when a huge farmers rally was protesting against diversion of water from the Pawna Dam to the Corporation of Pimpri-Chinchwad.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
As Planning Commission member Mihir Shah recently wrote, the 12th Five Year Plan proposes a paradigm shift in the urban sector.  &amp;quot;Each city must consider, as the first source of supply, its local waterbodies. Therefore, cities must only get funds for water projects when they have accounted for water supply from local waterbodies and have protected these waterbodies and their catchments. This precondition will force protection and build the infrastructure which will supply locally and then take back sewage also locally.&amp;quot;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
The trouble with this urban water sector reform agenda is that, close to two years into the 12th Plan, we still do not see it being implemented anywhere. We do not see any roadmap for its implementation. And yet the UPA government continues to fund solutions catering to only long- distance supply-side measures like big dam projects for urban areas under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM). In fact, of the first `60,000 crore sanctioned for JNNURM, about 70 per cent was for the urban water sector, but do we see any progress in democratisation or even improvement of urban water governance?
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
In that respect, there is hope that the Aam Aadmi Party now governing Delhi will take effective steps in this direction as its manifesto includes a detailed agenda in this regard. Let us hope it will show the way to the nation.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;em&gt;Himanshu Thakkar (ht.sandrp@gmail.com), Parineeta Dandekar (parineeta.dandekar@gmail.com), SANDRP &lt;/em&gt;
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More than 50 people, including tribal groups, social activists, water experts, ecologists, wildlife experts and academics, came together for a brainstorming workshop on &amp;lsquo;Dams coming up for Mumbai Region.&#039; The meeting was organised by the South Asia Network on Dams,...&#039;,
	&#039;disp&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;-CivilSocietyOnline.com&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;More than 50 people, including tribal groups, social activists, water experts, ecologists, wildlife experts and academics, came together for a brainstorming workshop on &amp;lsquo;Dams coming up for Mumbai Region.&#039; The meeting was organised by the South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People, Shramik Mukti Sangathana, and Jalbiradari.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;About 12 dams are planned or are under construction to satisfy the increasing thirst of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR). All these dams fall in the eco-sensitive region of the Western Ghats. Together they will submerge more than 22,000 hectares, including nearly 7,000 hectares of forests, millions  of trees and more than 750 hectares of the Tansa Sanctuary. The dams will affect a minimum of 100,000 tribals who depend on the forests and their ancestral lands for their livelihoods. These dams include the Kalu, Shai, Balganga, Susari, Khargihill, Bhugad, Pinjal, Gargai, Middle Vaitarna, Barvi and Poshir, among others. These are in addition to the dams already constructed for water supply to the MMR. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;Tribals and other affected groups of the Thane and Raigad region have been strongly opposing these projects. Most people in Mumbai seem unaware of their struggles or the impacts of these projects.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;Most of these dams are escaping social and environmental impact assessments and management plans, environment clearance requirements, environmental monitoring or public consultations due to blunders in the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Notification of September 2006, which excludes domestic and industrial water supply projects from the environmental clearance process. The notification signifies the environmental illiteracy of officials and ministers at the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF). In spite of repeated letters and acknowledging that this makes no sense, they have refused to change it.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;MMR has not undertaken an assessment of options before pushing these projects. A cursory review shows that many options exist. Currently at the city or region level, there is no shortfall in water supply. The existing problems are due to inequitable, non-transparent, non-participatory and wasteful water governance in MMR.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;Municipal corporations under the MMR which are pushing for new dams do not treat even 15 per cent of their sewage. The Bhiwandi Nizampur and Vasai Virar Corporations do not treat any of their sewage. The Mumbai Region has no estimate of its rainwater harvesting potential, and there is little effective action in this direction despite high rainfall. Water supply and distribution losses are over 30 per cent. Local water sources like rivers, lakes and wells are being destroyed by pollution and encroachments. There is no interest in democratising governance of the MMR water sector.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;The workshop&#039;s resolution urged the MMR region to address these issues first. This would lead to sustainable water supply to the city and its suburbs. The Konkan Irrigation Department, which is constructing most of these projects, has violated several laws related to tribal and forest rights, environment, forests and resettlement. It has been mostly favouring a single contractor, illegally.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;The meeting also strongly urged the MMRDA, MCGM, Municipal Corporations of MMR, Maharashtra government, MoEF, the Maharashtra Forest Department, the National Board of Wildlife and all others concerned to ensure that the following steps are taken up urgently and in a credible way:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;l Undertake thorough options assessment for Mumbai&#039;s (and other cities of the MMR) water needs which includes groundwater recharge and sustainable use, protection and use of local water sources, rainwater harvesting, sewage treatment and reuse, plugging leakages, improving water supply efficiency, taking up systematic demand side management measures etc.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;1. Undertake Environmental and Social Impact Assessments for all the dams coming up for the Mumbai Region.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;2. Take immediate action against the Konkan Irrigation Development Corporation for violating multiple laws while bulldozing ahead with projects and the Mumbai Metropolitan Region. Development Authority (MMRDA)  for funding projects in the absence of clearances.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;3. Respect people&#039;s protests and gram sabha resolutions against displacement, deforestation and their refusal to give permission for these projects.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;4. Take strong penal action against the officers and  contractors who have displaced Adivasis illegally.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;5. Not resume any work or plan for any project before the above is done. Stop work on projects in the meantime.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;6. Change the EIA notification to ensure that all large dams are included for environment clearance, public hearings and EIA requirements.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;7. Immediately institute a credible Cumulative Impact Assessment of the projects already constructed and advanced in implementation.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;8. Institutionalise decentralised, democratic governance of the water sector in MMR from bottom to top.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;Forests in the Western Ghats are Mumbai and MMR&#039;s lungs. They are the watersheds of rivers and water sources for the Tansa and Bhatsa lakes. Forests naturally purify Mumbai and MMR&#039;s drinking water. The rich tribal culture of Thane and Raigad is a shared heritage of Mumbai. We  have no right to displace the tribals or destroy their livelihoods. This destruction in Mumbai&#039;s backyard must be stopped.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;However, Mumbai and MMR are not the only urban areas guilty of destroying the environment, forests, biodiversity and livelihoods of millions of poor people. Delhi, which already has more per capita water than European cities like Paris, Amsterdam or Bonn, is asking for the Renuka, Lakhwar and Kishau dams in the upstream Yamuna basin, while destroying the Yamuna river for all downstream areas. Ahmedabad is using water from the Sardar Sarovar dam that was meant for the people of Kutch and Saurashtra and which has led to the displacement of over 200,000 people. Jaipur is taking water from the Bisalpur dam. Farmers, for whom it was made, are not getting the water and some lost their lives in police firing while demanding that water. A massive diversion of Nethrawathi water is proposed for Bangalore and other areas, destroying the pristine forests of the Western Ghats. Three farmers died in police firing near Pune when a huge farmers rally was protesting against diversion of water from the Pawna Dam to the Corporation of Pimpri-Chinchwad.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;As Planning Commission member Mihir Shah recently wrote, the 12th Five Year Plan proposes a paradigm shift in the urban sector.  &amp;quot;Each city must consider, as the first source of supply, its local waterbodies. Therefore, cities must only get funds for water projects when they have accounted for water supply from local waterbodies and have protected these waterbodies and their catchments. This precondition will force protection and build the infrastructure which will supply locally and then take back sewage also locally.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;The trouble with this urban water sector reform agenda is that, close to two years into the 12th Plan, we still do not see it being implemented anywhere. We do not see any roadmap for its implementation. And yet the UPA government continues to fund solutions catering to only long- distance supply-side measures like big dam projects for urban areas under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM). In fact, of the first `60,000 crore sanctioned for JNNURM, about 70 per cent was for the urban water sector, but do we see any progress in democratisation or even improvement of urban water governance?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;In that respect, there is hope that the Aam Aadmi Party now governing Delhi will take effective steps in this direction as its manifesto includes a detailed agenda in this regard. Let us hope it will show the way to the nation.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Himanshu Thakkar (ht.sandrp@gmail.com), Parineeta Dandekar (parineeta.dandekar@gmail.com), SANDRP &lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#039;,
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-CivilSocietyOnline.com
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&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
More than 50 people, including tribal groups, social activists, water experts, ecologists, wildlife experts and academics, came together for a brainstorming workshop on &amp;lsquo;Dams coming up for Mumbai Region.&#039; The meeting was organised by the South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People, Shramik Mukti Sangathana, and Jalbiradari.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
About 12 dams are planned or are under construction to satisfy the increasing thirst of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR). All these dams fall in the eco-sensitive region of the Western Ghats. Together they will submerge more than 22,000 hectares, including nearly 7,000 hectares of forests, millions  of trees and more than 750 hectares of the Tansa Sanctuary. The dams will affect a minimum of 100,000 tribals who depend on the forests and their ancestral lands for their livelihoods. These dams include the Kalu, Shai, Balganga, Susari, Khargihill, Bhugad, Pinjal, Gargai, Middle Vaitarna, Barvi and Poshir, among others. These are in addition to the dams already constructed for water supply to the MMR. 
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
Tribals and other affected groups of the Thane and Raigad region have been strongly opposing these projects. Most people in Mumbai seem unaware of their struggles or the impacts of these projects.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
Most of these dams are escaping social and environmental impact assessments and management plans, environment clearance requirements, environmental monitoring or public consultations due to blunders in the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Notification of September 2006, which excludes domestic and industrial water supply projects from the environmental clearance process. The notification signifies the environmental illiteracy of officials and ministers at the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF). In spite of repeated letters and acknowledging that this makes no sense, they have refused to change it.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
MMR has not undertaken an assessment of options before pushing these projects. A cursory review shows that many options exist. Currently at the city or region level, there is no shortfall in water supply. The existing problems are due to inequitable, non-transparent, non-participatory and wasteful water governance in MMR.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
Municipal corporations under the MMR which are pushing for new dams do not treat even 15 per cent of their sewage. The Bhiwandi Nizampur and Vasai Virar Corporations do not treat any of their sewage. The Mumbai Region has no estimate of its rainwater harvesting potential, and there is little effective action in this direction despite high rainfall. Water supply and distribution losses are over 30 per cent. Local water sources like rivers, lakes and wells are being destroyed by pollution and encroachments. There is no interest in democratising governance of the MMR water sector.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
The workshop&#039;s resolution urged the MMR region to address these issues first. This would lead to sustainable water supply to the city and its suburbs. The Konkan Irrigation Department, which is constructing most of these projects, has violated several laws related to tribal and forest rights, environment, forests and resettlement. It has been mostly favouring a single contractor, illegally.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
The meeting also strongly urged the MMRDA, MCGM, Municipal Corporations of MMR, Maharashtra government, MoEF, the Maharashtra Forest Department, the National Board of Wildlife and all others concerned to ensure that the following steps are taken up urgently and in a credible way:
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
l Undertake thorough options assessment for Mumbai&#039;s (and other cities of the MMR) water needs which includes groundwater recharge and sustainable use, protection and use of local water sources, rainwater harvesting, sewage treatment and reuse, plugging leakages, improving water supply efficiency, taking up systematic demand side management measures etc.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
1. Undertake Environmental and Social Impact Assessments for all the dams coming up for the Mumbai Region.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
2. Take immediate action against the Konkan Irrigation Development Corporation for violating multiple laws while bulldozing ahead with projects and the Mumbai Metropolitan Region. Development Authority (MMRDA)  for funding projects in the absence of clearances.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
3. Respect people&#039;s protests and gram sabha resolutions against displacement, deforestation and their refusal to give permission for these projects.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
4. Take strong penal action against the officers and  contractors who have displaced Adivasis illegally.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
5. Not resume any work or plan for any project before the above is done. Stop work on projects in the meantime.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
6. Change the EIA notification to ensure that all large dams are included for environment clearance, public hearings and EIA requirements.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
7. Immediately institute a credible Cumulative Impact Assessment of the projects already constructed and advanced in implementation.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
8. Institutionalise decentralised, democratic governance of the water sector in MMR from bottom to top.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&amp;nbsp;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
Forests in the Western Ghats are Mumbai and MMR&#039;s lungs. They are the watersheds of rivers and water sources for the Tansa and Bhatsa lakes. Forests naturally purify Mumbai and MMR&#039;s drinking water. The rich tribal culture of Thane and Raigad is a shared heritage of Mumbai. We  have no right to displace the tribals or destroy their livelihoods. This destruction in Mumbai&#039;s backyard must be stopped.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
However, Mumbai and MMR are not the only urban areas guilty of destroying the environment, forests, biodiversity and livelihoods of millions of poor people. Delhi, which already has more per capita water than European cities like Paris, Amsterdam or Bonn, is asking for the Renuka, Lakhwar and Kishau dams in the upstream Yamuna basin, while destroying the Yamuna river for all downstream areas. Ahmedabad is using water from the Sardar Sarovar dam that was meant for the people of Kutch and Saurashtra and which has led to the displacement of over 200,000 people. Jaipur is taking water from the Bisalpur dam. Farmers, for whom it was made, are not getting the water and some lost their lives in police firing while demanding that water. A massive diversion of Nethrawathi water is proposed for Bangalore and other areas, destroying the pristine forests of the Western Ghats. Three farmers died in police firing near Pune when a huge farmers rally was protesting against diversion of water from the Pawna Dam to the Corporation of Pimpri-Chinchwad.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
As Planning Commission member Mihir Shah recently wrote, the 12th Five Year Plan proposes a paradigm shift in the urban sector.  &amp;quot;Each city must consider, as the first source of supply, its local waterbodies. Therefore, cities must only get funds for water projects when they have accounted for water supply from local waterbodies and have protected these waterbodies and their catchments. This precondition will force protection and build the infrastructure which will supply locally and then take back sewage also locally.&amp;quot;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
The trouble with this urban water sector reform agenda is that, close to two years into the 12th Plan, we still do not see it being implemented anywhere. We do not see any roadmap for its implementation. And yet the UPA government continues to fund solutions catering to only long- distance supply-side measures like big dam projects for urban areas under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM). In fact, of the first `60,000 crore sanctioned for JNNURM, about 70 per cent was for the urban water sector, but do we see any progress in democratisation or even improvement of urban water governance?
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
In that respect, there is hope that the Aam Aadmi Party now governing Delhi will take effective steps in this direction as its manifesto includes a detailed agenda in this regard. Let us hope it will show the way to the nation.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;em&gt;Himanshu Thakkar (ht.sandrp@gmail.com), Parineeta Dandekar (parineeta.dandekar@gmail.com), SANDRP &lt;/em&gt;
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-CivilSocietyOnline.com



More than 50 people, including tribal groups, social activists, water experts, ecologists, wildlife experts and academics, came together for a brainstorming workshop on &amp;lsquo;Dams coming up for Mumbai Region.&#039; The meeting was organised by the South Asia Network on Dams,...&#039;
$disp = &#039;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;-CivilSocietyOnline.com&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;More than 50 people, including tribal groups, social activists, water experts, ecologists, wildlife experts and academics, came together for a brainstorming workshop on &amp;lsquo;Dams coming up for Mumbai Region.&#039; The meeting was organised by the South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People, Shramik Mukti Sangathana, and Jalbiradari.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;About 12 dams are planned or are under construction to satisfy the increasing thirst of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR). All these dams fall in the eco-sensitive region of the Western Ghats. Together they will submerge more than 22,000 hectares, including nearly 7,000 hectares of forests, millions  of trees and more than 750 hectares of the Tansa Sanctuary. The dams will affect a minimum of 100,000 tribals who depend on the forests and their ancestral lands for their livelihoods. These dams include the Kalu, Shai, Balganga, Susari, Khargihill, Bhugad, Pinjal, Gargai, Middle Vaitarna, Barvi and Poshir, among others. These are in addition to the dams already constructed for water supply to the MMR. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;Tribals and other affected groups of the Thane and Raigad region have been strongly opposing these projects. Most people in Mumbai seem unaware of their struggles or the impacts of these projects.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;Most of these dams are escaping social and environmental impact assessments and management plans, environment clearance requirements, environmental monitoring or public consultations due to blunders in the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Notification of September 2006, which excludes domestic and industrial water supply projects from the environmental clearance process. The notification signifies the environmental illiteracy of officials and ministers at the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF). In spite of repeated letters and acknowledging that this makes no sense, they have refused to change it.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;MMR has not undertaken an assessment of options before pushing these projects. A cursory review shows that many options exist. Currently at the city or region level, there is no shortfall in water supply. The existing problems are due to inequitable, non-transparent, non-participatory and wasteful water governance in MMR.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;Municipal corporations under the MMR which are pushing for new dams do not treat even 15 per cent of their sewage. The Bhiwandi Nizampur and Vasai Virar Corporations do not treat any of their sewage. The Mumbai Region has no estimate of its rainwater harvesting potential, and there is little effective action in this direction despite high rainfall. Water supply and distribution losses are over 30 per cent. Local water sources like rivers, lakes and wells are being destroyed by pollution and encroachments. There is no interest in democratising governance of the MMR water sector.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;The workshop&#039;s resolution urged the MMR region to address these issues first. This would lead to sustainable water supply to the city and its suburbs. The Konkan Irrigation Department, which is constructing most of these projects, has violated several laws related to tribal and forest rights, environment, forests and resettlement. It has been mostly favouring a single contractor, illegally.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;The meeting also strongly urged the MMRDA, MCGM, Municipal Corporations of MMR, Maharashtra government, MoEF, the Maharashtra Forest Department, the National Board of Wildlife and all others concerned to ensure that the following steps are taken up urgently and in a credible way:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;l Undertake thorough options assessment for Mumbai&#039;s (and other cities of the MMR) water needs which includes groundwater recharge and sustainable use, protection and use of local water sources, rainwater harvesting, sewage treatment and reuse, plugging leakages, improving water supply efficiency, taking up systematic demand side management measures etc.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;1. Undertake Environmental and Social Impact Assessments for all the dams coming up for the Mumbai Region.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;2. Take immediate action against the Konkan Irrigation Development Corporation for violating multiple laws while bulldozing ahead with projects and the Mumbai Metropolitan Region. Development Authority (MMRDA)  for funding projects in the absence of clearances.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;3. Respect people&#039;s protests and gram sabha resolutions against displacement, deforestation and their refusal to give permission for these projects.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;4. Take strong penal action against the officers and  contractors who have displaced Adivasis illegally.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;5. Not resume any work or plan for any project before the above is done. Stop work on projects in the meantime.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;6. Change the EIA notification to ensure that all large dams are included for environment clearance, public hearings and EIA requirements.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;7. Immediately institute a credible Cumulative Impact Assessment of the projects already constructed and advanced in implementation.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;8. Institutionalise decentralised, democratic governance of the water sector in MMR from bottom to top.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;Forests in the Western Ghats are Mumbai and MMR&#039;s lungs. They are the watersheds of rivers and water sources for the Tansa and Bhatsa lakes. Forests naturally purify Mumbai and MMR&#039;s drinking water. The rich tribal culture of Thane and Raigad is a shared heritage of Mumbai. We  have no right to displace the tribals or destroy their livelihoods. This destruction in Mumbai&#039;s backyard must be stopped.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;However, Mumbai and MMR are not the only urban areas guilty of destroying the environment, forests, biodiversity and livelihoods of millions of poor people. Delhi, which already has more per capita water than European cities like Paris, Amsterdam or Bonn, is asking for the Renuka, Lakhwar and Kishau dams in the upstream Yamuna basin, while destroying the Yamuna river for all downstream areas. Ahmedabad is using water from the Sardar Sarovar dam that was meant for the people of Kutch and Saurashtra and which has led to the displacement of over 200,000 people. Jaipur is taking water from the Bisalpur dam. Farmers, for whom it was made, are not getting the water and some lost their lives in police firing while demanding that water. A massive diversion of Nethrawathi water is proposed for Bangalore and other areas, destroying the pristine forests of the Western Ghats. Three farmers died in police firing near Pune when a huge farmers rally was protesting against diversion of water from the Pawna Dam to the Corporation of Pimpri-Chinchwad.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;As Planning Commission member Mihir Shah recently wrote, the 12th Five Year Plan proposes a paradigm shift in the urban sector.  &amp;quot;Each city must consider, as the first source of supply, its local waterbodies. Therefore, cities must only get funds for water projects when they have accounted for water supply from local waterbodies and have protected these waterbodies and their catchments. This precondition will force protection and build the infrastructure which will supply locally and then take back sewage also locally.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;The trouble with this urban water sector reform agenda is that, close to two years into the 12th Plan, we still do not see it being implemented anywhere. We do not see any roadmap for its implementation. And yet the UPA government continues to fund solutions catering to only long- distance supply-side measures like big dam projects for urban areas under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM). In fact, of the first `60,000 crore sanctioned for JNNURM, about 70 per cent was for the urban water sector, but do we see any progress in democratisation or even improvement of urban water governance?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;In that respect, there is hope that the Aam Aadmi Party now governing Delhi will take effective steps in this direction as its manifesto includes a detailed agenda in this regard. Let us hope it will show the way to the nation.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Himanshu Thakkar (ht.sandrp@gmail.com), Parineeta Dandekar (parineeta.dandekar@gmail.com), SANDRP &lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#039;
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                <strong>When cities guzzle water-Himanshu Thakkar and Parineeta Dandekar</strong></h1>
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                <div align="justify">-CivilSocietyOnline.com</div><p align="justify"><br />More than 50 people, including tribal groups, social activists, water experts, ecologists, wildlife experts and academics, came together for a brainstorming workshop on &lsquo;Dams coming up for Mumbai Region.' The meeting was organised by the South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People, Shramik Mukti Sangathana, and Jalbiradari.</p><p align="justify">About 12 dams are planned or are under construction to satisfy the increasing thirst of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR). All these dams fall in the eco-sensitive region of the Western Ghats. Together they will submerge more than 22,000 hectares, including nearly 7,000 hectares of forests, millions  of trees and more than 750 hectares of the Tansa Sanctuary. The dams will affect a minimum of 100,000 tribals who depend on the forests and their ancestral lands for their livelihoods. These dams include the Kalu, Shai, Balganga, Susari, Khargihill, Bhugad, Pinjal, Gargai, Middle Vaitarna, Barvi and Poshir, among others. These are in addition to the dams already constructed for water supply to the MMR. </p><p align="justify">Tribals and other affected groups of the Thane and Raigad region have been strongly opposing these projects. Most people in Mumbai seem unaware of their struggles or the impacts of these projects.</p><p align="justify">Most of these dams are escaping social and environmental impact assessments and management plans, environment clearance requirements, environmental monitoring or public consultations due to blunders in the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Notification of September 2006, which excludes domestic and industrial water supply projects from the environmental clearance process. The notification signifies the environmental illiteracy of officials and ministers at the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF). In spite of repeated letters and acknowledging that this makes no sense, they have refused to change it.</p><p align="justify">MMR has not undertaken an assessment of options before pushing these projects. A cursory review shows that many options exist. Currently at the city or region level, there is no shortfall in water supply. The existing problems are due to inequitable, non-transparent, non-participatory and wasteful water governance in MMR.</p><p align="justify">Municipal corporations under the MMR which are pushing for new dams do not treat even 15 per cent of their sewage. The Bhiwandi Nizampur and Vasai Virar Corporations do not treat any of their sewage. The Mumbai Region has no estimate of its rainwater harvesting potential, and there is little effective action in this direction despite high rainfall. Water supply and distribution losses are over 30 per cent. Local water sources like rivers, lakes and wells are being destroyed by pollution and encroachments. There is no interest in democratising governance of the MMR water sector.</p><p align="justify">The workshop's resolution urged the MMR region to address these issues first. This would lead to sustainable water supply to the city and its suburbs. The Konkan Irrigation Department, which is constructing most of these projects, has violated several laws related to tribal and forest rights, environment, forests and resettlement. It has been mostly favouring a single contractor, illegally.</p><p align="justify">The meeting also strongly urged the MMRDA, MCGM, Municipal Corporations of MMR, Maharashtra government, MoEF, the Maharashtra Forest Department, the National Board of Wildlife and all others concerned to ensure that the following steps are taken up urgently and in a credible way:</p><p align="justify">l Undertake thorough options assessment for Mumbai's (and other cities of the MMR) water needs which includes groundwater recharge and sustainable use, protection and use of local water sources, rainwater harvesting, sewage treatment and reuse, plugging leakages, improving water supply efficiency, taking up systematic demand side management measures etc.</p><p align="justify">1. Undertake Environmental and Social Impact Assessments for all the dams coming up for the Mumbai Region.</p><p align="justify">2. Take immediate action against the Konkan Irrigation Development Corporation for violating multiple laws while bulldozing ahead with projects and the Mumbai Metropolitan Region. Development Authority (MMRDA)  for funding projects in the absence of clearances.</p><p align="justify">3. Respect people's protests and gram sabha resolutions against displacement, deforestation and their refusal to give permission for these projects.</p><p align="justify">4. Take strong penal action against the officers and  contractors who have displaced Adivasis illegally.</p><p align="justify">5. Not resume any work or plan for any project before the above is done. Stop work on projects in the meantime.</p><p align="justify">6. Change the EIA notification to ensure that all large dams are included for environment clearance, public hearings and EIA requirements.</p><p align="justify">7. Immediately institute a credible Cumulative Impact Assessment of the projects already constructed and advanced in implementation.</p><p align="justify">8. Institutionalise decentralised, democratic governance of the water sector in MMR from bottom to top.</p><p align="justify">&nbsp;</p><p align="justify">Forests in the Western Ghats are Mumbai and MMR's lungs. They are the watersheds of rivers and water sources for the Tansa and Bhatsa lakes. Forests naturally purify Mumbai and MMR's drinking water. The rich tribal culture of Thane and Raigad is a shared heritage of Mumbai. We  have no right to displace the tribals or destroy their livelihoods. This destruction in Mumbai's backyard must be stopped.</p><p align="justify">However, Mumbai and MMR are not the only urban areas guilty of destroying the environment, forests, biodiversity and livelihoods of millions of poor people. Delhi, which already has more per capita water than European cities like Paris, Amsterdam or Bonn, is asking for the Renuka, Lakhwar and Kishau dams in the upstream Yamuna basin, while destroying the Yamuna river for all downstream areas. Ahmedabad is using water from the Sardar Sarovar dam that was meant for the people of Kutch and Saurashtra and which has led to the displacement of over 200,000 people. Jaipur is taking water from the Bisalpur dam. Farmers, for whom it was made, are not getting the water and some lost their lives in police firing while demanding that water. A massive diversion of Nethrawathi water is proposed for Bangalore and other areas, destroying the pristine forests of the Western Ghats. Three farmers died in police firing near Pune when a huge farmers rally was protesting against diversion of water from the Pawna Dam to the Corporation of Pimpri-Chinchwad.</p><p align="justify">As Planning Commission member Mihir Shah recently wrote, the 12th Five Year Plan proposes a paradigm shift in the urban sector.  &quot;Each city must consider, as the first source of supply, its local waterbodies. Therefore, cities must only get funds for water projects when they have accounted for water supply from local waterbodies and have protected these waterbodies and their catchments. This precondition will force protection and build the infrastructure which will supply locally and then take back sewage also locally.&quot;</p><p align="justify">The trouble with this urban water sector reform agenda is that, close to two years into the 12th Plan, we still do not see it being implemented anywhere. We do not see any roadmap for its implementation. And yet the UPA government continues to fund solutions catering to only long- distance supply-side measures like big dam projects for urban areas under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM). In fact, of the first `60,000 crore sanctioned for JNNURM, about 70 per cent was for the urban water sector, but do we see any progress in democratisation or even improvement of urban water governance?</p><p align="justify">In that respect, there is hope that the Aam Aadmi Party now governing Delhi will take effective steps in this direction as its manifesto includes a detailed agenda in this regard. Let us hope it will show the way to the nation.</p><p align="justify"><em>Himanshu Thakkar (ht.sandrp@gmail.com), Parineeta Dandekar (parineeta.dandekar@gmail.com), SANDRP </em></p>               </font>
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-CivilSocietyOnline.com
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&lt;br /&gt;
More than 50 people, including tribal groups, social activists, water experts, ecologists, wildlife experts and academics, came together for a brainstorming workshop on &amp;lsquo;Dams coming up for Mumbai Region.&#039; The meeting was organised by the South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People, Shramik Mukti Sangathana, and Jalbiradari.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
About 12 dams are planned or are under construction to satisfy the increasing thirst of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR). All these dams fall in the eco-sensitive region of the Western Ghats. Together they will submerge more than 22,000 hectares, including nearly 7,000 hectares of forests, millions  of trees and more than 750 hectares of the Tansa Sanctuary. The dams will affect a minimum of 100,000 tribals who depend on the forests and their ancestral lands for their livelihoods. These dams include the Kalu, Shai, Balganga, Susari, Khargihill, Bhugad, Pinjal, Gargai, Middle Vaitarna, Barvi and Poshir, among others. These are in addition to the dams already constructed for water supply to the MMR. 
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
Tribals and other affected groups of the Thane and Raigad region have been strongly opposing these projects. Most people in Mumbai seem unaware of their struggles or the impacts of these projects.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
Most of these dams are escaping social and environmental impact assessments and management plans, environment clearance requirements, environmental monitoring or public consultations due to blunders in the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Notification of September 2006, which excludes domestic and industrial water supply projects from the environmental clearance process. The notification signifies the environmental illiteracy of officials and ministers at the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF). In spite of repeated letters and acknowledging that this makes no sense, they have refused to change it.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
MMR has not undertaken an assessment of options before pushing these projects. A cursory review shows that many options exist. Currently at the city or region level, there is no shortfall in water supply. The existing problems are due to inequitable, non-transparent, non-participatory and wasteful water governance in MMR.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
Municipal corporations under the MMR which are pushing for new dams do not treat even 15 per cent of their sewage. The Bhiwandi Nizampur and Vasai Virar Corporations do not treat any of their sewage. The Mumbai Region has no estimate of its rainwater harvesting potential, and there is little effective action in this direction despite high rainfall. Water supply and distribution losses are over 30 per cent. Local water sources like rivers, lakes and wells are being destroyed by pollution and encroachments. There is no interest in democratising governance of the MMR water sector.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
The workshop&#039;s resolution urged the MMR region to address these issues first. This would lead to sustainable water supply to the city and its suburbs. The Konkan Irrigation Department, which is constructing most of these projects, has violated several laws related to tribal and forest rights, environment, forests and resettlement. It has been mostly favouring a single contractor, illegally.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
The meeting also strongly urged the MMRDA, MCGM, Municipal Corporations of MMR, Maharashtra government, MoEF, the Maharashtra Forest Department, the National Board of Wildlife and all others concerned to ensure that the following steps are taken up urgently and in a credible way:
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
l Undertake thorough options assessment for Mumbai&#039;s (and other cities of the MMR) water needs which includes groundwater recharge and sustainable use, protection and use of local water sources, rainwater harvesting, sewage treatment and reuse, plugging leakages, improving water supply efficiency, taking up systematic demand side management measures etc.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
1. Undertake Environmental and Social Impact Assessments for all the dams coming up for the Mumbai Region.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
2. Take immediate action against the Konkan Irrigation Development Corporation for violating multiple laws while bulldozing ahead with projects and the Mumbai Metropolitan Region. Development Authority (MMRDA)  for funding projects in the absence of clearances.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
3. Respect people&#039;s protests and gram sabha resolutions against displacement, deforestation and their refusal to give permission for these projects.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
4. Take strong penal action against the officers and  contractors who have displaced Adivasis illegally.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
5. Not resume any work or plan for any project before the above is done. Stop work on projects in the meantime.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
6. Change the EIA notification to ensure that all large dams are included for environment clearance, public hearings and EIA requirements.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
7. Immediately institute a credible Cumulative Impact Assessment of the projects already constructed and advanced in implementation.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
8. Institutionalise decentralised, democratic governance of the water sector in MMR from bottom to top.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&amp;nbsp;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
Forests in the Western Ghats are Mumbai and MMR&#039;s lungs. They are the watersheds of rivers and water sources for the Tansa and Bhatsa lakes. Forests naturally purify Mumbai and MMR&#039;s drinking water. The rich tribal culture of Thane and Raigad is a shared heritage of Mumbai. We  have no right to displace the tribals or destroy their livelihoods. This destruction in Mumbai&#039;s backyard must be stopped.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
However, Mumbai and MMR are not the only urban areas guilty of destroying the environment, forests, biodiversity and livelihoods of millions of poor people. Delhi, which already has more per capita water than European cities like Paris, Amsterdam or Bonn, is asking for the Renuka, Lakhwar and Kishau dams in the upstream Yamuna basin, while destroying the Yamuna river for all downstream areas. Ahmedabad is using water from the Sardar Sarovar dam that was meant for the people of Kutch and Saurashtra and which has led to the displacement of over 200,000 people. Jaipur is taking water from the Bisalpur dam. Farmers, for whom it was made, are not getting the water and some lost their lives in police firing while demanding that water. A massive diversion of Nethrawathi water is proposed for Bangalore and other areas, destroying the pristine forests of the Western Ghats. Three farmers died in police firing near Pune when a huge farmers rally was protesting against diversion of water from the Pawna Dam to the Corporation of Pimpri-Chinchwad.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
As Planning Commission member Mihir Shah recently wrote, the 12th Five Year Plan proposes a paradigm shift in the urban sector.  &amp;quot;Each city must consider, as the first source of supply, its local waterbodies. Therefore, cities must only get funds for water projects when they have accounted for water supply from local waterbodies and have protected these waterbodies and their catchments. This precondition will force protection and build the infrastructure which will supply locally and then take back sewage also locally.&amp;quot;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
The trouble with this urban water sector reform agenda is that, close to two years into the 12th Plan, we still do not see it being implemented anywhere. We do not see any roadmap for its implementation. And yet the UPA government continues to fund solutions catering to only long- distance supply-side measures like big dam projects for urban areas under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM). In fact, of the first `60,000 crore sanctioned for JNNURM, about 70 per cent was for the urban water sector, but do we see any progress in democratisation or even improvement of urban water governance?
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
In that respect, there is hope that the Aam Aadmi Party now governing Delhi will take effective steps in this direction as its manifesto includes a detailed agenda in this regard. Let us hope it will show the way to the nation.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;em&gt;Himanshu Thakkar (ht.sandrp@gmail.com), Parineeta Dandekar (parineeta.dandekar@gmail.com), SANDRP &lt;/em&gt;
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More than 50 people, including tribal groups, social activists, water experts, ecologists, wildlife experts and academics, came together for a brainstorming workshop on &amp;lsquo;Dams coming up for Mumbai Region.&#039; The meeting was organised by the South Asia Network on Dams,...&#039;,
	&#039;disp&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;-CivilSocietyOnline.com&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;More than 50 people, including tribal groups, social activists, water experts, ecologists, wildlife experts and academics, came together for a brainstorming workshop on &amp;lsquo;Dams coming up for Mumbai Region.&#039; The meeting was organised by the South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People, Shramik Mukti Sangathana, and Jalbiradari.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;About 12 dams are planned or are under construction to satisfy the increasing thirst of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR). All these dams fall in the eco-sensitive region of the Western Ghats. Together they will submerge more than 22,000 hectares, including nearly 7,000 hectares of forests, millions  of trees and more than 750 hectares of the Tansa Sanctuary. The dams will affect a minimum of 100,000 tribals who depend on the forests and their ancestral lands for their livelihoods. These dams include the Kalu, Shai, Balganga, Susari, Khargihill, Bhugad, Pinjal, Gargai, Middle Vaitarna, Barvi and Poshir, among others. These are in addition to the dams already constructed for water supply to the MMR. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;Tribals and other affected groups of the Thane and Raigad region have been strongly opposing these projects. Most people in Mumbai seem unaware of their struggles or the impacts of these projects.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;Most of these dams are escaping social and environmental impact assessments and management plans, environment clearance requirements, environmental monitoring or public consultations due to blunders in the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Notification of September 2006, which excludes domestic and industrial water supply projects from the environmental clearance process. The notification signifies the environmental illiteracy of officials and ministers at the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF). In spite of repeated letters and acknowledging that this makes no sense, they have refused to change it.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;MMR has not undertaken an assessment of options before pushing these projects. A cursory review shows that many options exist. Currently at the city or region level, there is no shortfall in water supply. The existing problems are due to inequitable, non-transparent, non-participatory and wasteful water governance in MMR.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;Municipal corporations under the MMR which are pushing for new dams do not treat even 15 per cent of their sewage. The Bhiwandi Nizampur and Vasai Virar Corporations do not treat any of their sewage. The Mumbai Region has no estimate of its rainwater harvesting potential, and there is little effective action in this direction despite high rainfall. Water supply and distribution losses are over 30 per cent. Local water sources like rivers, lakes and wells are being destroyed by pollution and encroachments. There is no interest in democratising governance of the MMR water sector.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;The workshop&#039;s resolution urged the MMR region to address these issues first. This would lead to sustainable water supply to the city and its suburbs. The Konkan Irrigation Department, which is constructing most of these projects, has violated several laws related to tribal and forest rights, environment, forests and resettlement. It has been mostly favouring a single contractor, illegally.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;The meeting also strongly urged the MMRDA, MCGM, Municipal Corporations of MMR, Maharashtra government, MoEF, the Maharashtra Forest Department, the National Board of Wildlife and all others concerned to ensure that the following steps are taken up urgently and in a credible way:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;l Undertake thorough options assessment for Mumbai&#039;s (and other cities of the MMR) water needs which includes groundwater recharge and sustainable use, protection and use of local water sources, rainwater harvesting, sewage treatment and reuse, plugging leakages, improving water supply efficiency, taking up systematic demand side management measures etc.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;1. Undertake Environmental and Social Impact Assessments for all the dams coming up for the Mumbai Region.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;2. Take immediate action against the Konkan Irrigation Development Corporation for violating multiple laws while bulldozing ahead with projects and the Mumbai Metropolitan Region. Development Authority (MMRDA)  for funding projects in the absence of clearances.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;3. Respect people&#039;s protests and gram sabha resolutions against displacement, deforestation and their refusal to give permission for these projects.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;4. Take strong penal action against the officers and  contractors who have displaced Adivasis illegally.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;5. Not resume any work or plan for any project before the above is done. Stop work on projects in the meantime.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;6. Change the EIA notification to ensure that all large dams are included for environment clearance, public hearings and EIA requirements.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;7. Immediately institute a credible Cumulative Impact Assessment of the projects already constructed and advanced in implementation.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;8. Institutionalise decentralised, democratic governance of the water sector in MMR from bottom to top.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;Forests in the Western Ghats are Mumbai and MMR&#039;s lungs. They are the watersheds of rivers and water sources for the Tansa and Bhatsa lakes. Forests naturally purify Mumbai and MMR&#039;s drinking water. The rich tribal culture of Thane and Raigad is a shared heritage of Mumbai. We  have no right to displace the tribals or destroy their livelihoods. This destruction in Mumbai&#039;s backyard must be stopped.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;However, Mumbai and MMR are not the only urban areas guilty of destroying the environment, forests, biodiversity and livelihoods of millions of poor people. Delhi, which already has more per capita water than European cities like Paris, Amsterdam or Bonn, is asking for the Renuka, Lakhwar and Kishau dams in the upstream Yamuna basin, while destroying the Yamuna river for all downstream areas. Ahmedabad is using water from the Sardar Sarovar dam that was meant for the people of Kutch and Saurashtra and which has led to the displacement of over 200,000 people. Jaipur is taking water from the Bisalpur dam. Farmers, for whom it was made, are not getting the water and some lost their lives in police firing while demanding that water. A massive diversion of Nethrawathi water is proposed for Bangalore and other areas, destroying the pristine forests of the Western Ghats. Three farmers died in police firing near Pune when a huge farmers rally was protesting against diversion of water from the Pawna Dam to the Corporation of Pimpri-Chinchwad.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;As Planning Commission member Mihir Shah recently wrote, the 12th Five Year Plan proposes a paradigm shift in the urban sector.  &amp;quot;Each city must consider, as the first source of supply, its local waterbodies. Therefore, cities must only get funds for water projects when they have accounted for water supply from local waterbodies and have protected these waterbodies and their catchments. This precondition will force protection and build the infrastructure which will supply locally and then take back sewage also locally.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;The trouble with this urban water sector reform agenda is that, close to two years into the 12th Plan, we still do not see it being implemented anywhere. We do not see any roadmap for its implementation. And yet the UPA government continues to fund solutions catering to only long- distance supply-side measures like big dam projects for urban areas under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM). In fact, of the first `60,000 crore sanctioned for JNNURM, about 70 per cent was for the urban water sector, but do we see any progress in democratisation or even improvement of urban water governance?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;In that respect, there is hope that the Aam Aadmi Party now governing Delhi will take effective steps in this direction as its manifesto includes a detailed agenda in this regard. Let us hope it will show the way to the nation.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Himanshu Thakkar (ht.sandrp@gmail.com), Parineeta Dandekar (parineeta.dandekar@gmail.com), SANDRP &lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#039;,
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	&#039;title&#039; =&gt; &#039;When cities guzzle water-Himanshu Thakkar and Parineeta Dandekar&#039;,
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-CivilSocietyOnline.com
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
More than 50 people, including tribal groups, social activists, water experts, ecologists, wildlife experts and academics, came together for a brainstorming workshop on &amp;lsquo;Dams coming up for Mumbai Region.&#039; The meeting was organised by the South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People, Shramik Mukti Sangathana, and Jalbiradari.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
About 12 dams are planned or are under construction to satisfy the increasing thirst of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR). All these dams fall in the eco-sensitive region of the Western Ghats. Together they will submerge more than 22,000 hectares, including nearly 7,000 hectares of forests, millions  of trees and more than 750 hectares of the Tansa Sanctuary. The dams will affect a minimum of 100,000 tribals who depend on the forests and their ancestral lands for their livelihoods. These dams include the Kalu, Shai, Balganga, Susari, Khargihill, Bhugad, Pinjal, Gargai, Middle Vaitarna, Barvi and Poshir, among others. These are in addition to the dams already constructed for water supply to the MMR. 
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
Tribals and other affected groups of the Thane and Raigad region have been strongly opposing these projects. Most people in Mumbai seem unaware of their struggles or the impacts of these projects.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
Most of these dams are escaping social and environmental impact assessments and management plans, environment clearance requirements, environmental monitoring or public consultations due to blunders in the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Notification of September 2006, which excludes domestic and industrial water supply projects from the environmental clearance process. The notification signifies the environmental illiteracy of officials and ministers at the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF). In spite of repeated letters and acknowledging that this makes no sense, they have refused to change it.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
MMR has not undertaken an assessment of options before pushing these projects. A cursory review shows that many options exist. Currently at the city or region level, there is no shortfall in water supply. The existing problems are due to inequitable, non-transparent, non-participatory and wasteful water governance in MMR.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
Municipal corporations under the MMR which are pushing for new dams do not treat even 15 per cent of their sewage. The Bhiwandi Nizampur and Vasai Virar Corporations do not treat any of their sewage. The Mumbai Region has no estimate of its rainwater harvesting potential, and there is little effective action in this direction despite high rainfall. Water supply and distribution losses are over 30 per cent. Local water sources like rivers, lakes and wells are being destroyed by pollution and encroachments. There is no interest in democratising governance of the MMR water sector.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
The workshop&#039;s resolution urged the MMR region to address these issues first. This would lead to sustainable water supply to the city and its suburbs. The Konkan Irrigation Department, which is constructing most of these projects, has violated several laws related to tribal and forest rights, environment, forests and resettlement. It has been mostly favouring a single contractor, illegally.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
The meeting also strongly urged the MMRDA, MCGM, Municipal Corporations of MMR, Maharashtra government, MoEF, the Maharashtra Forest Department, the National Board of Wildlife and all others concerned to ensure that the following steps are taken up urgently and in a credible way:
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
l Undertake thorough options assessment for Mumbai&#039;s (and other cities of the MMR) water needs which includes groundwater recharge and sustainable use, protection and use of local water sources, rainwater harvesting, sewage treatment and reuse, plugging leakages, improving water supply efficiency, taking up systematic demand side management measures etc.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
1. Undertake Environmental and Social Impact Assessments for all the dams coming up for the Mumbai Region.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
2. Take immediate action against the Konkan Irrigation Development Corporation for violating multiple laws while bulldozing ahead with projects and the Mumbai Metropolitan Region. Development Authority (MMRDA)  for funding projects in the absence of clearances.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
3. Respect people&#039;s protests and gram sabha resolutions against displacement, deforestation and their refusal to give permission for these projects.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
4. Take strong penal action against the officers and  contractors who have displaced Adivasis illegally.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
5. Not resume any work or plan for any project before the above is done. Stop work on projects in the meantime.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
6. Change the EIA notification to ensure that all large dams are included for environment clearance, public hearings and EIA requirements.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
7. Immediately institute a credible Cumulative Impact Assessment of the projects already constructed and advanced in implementation.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
8. Institutionalise decentralised, democratic governance of the water sector in MMR from bottom to top.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&amp;nbsp;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
Forests in the Western Ghats are Mumbai and MMR&#039;s lungs. They are the watersheds of rivers and water sources for the Tansa and Bhatsa lakes. Forests naturally purify Mumbai and MMR&#039;s drinking water. The rich tribal culture of Thane and Raigad is a shared heritage of Mumbai. We  have no right to displace the tribals or destroy their livelihoods. This destruction in Mumbai&#039;s backyard must be stopped.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
However, Mumbai and MMR are not the only urban areas guilty of destroying the environment, forests, biodiversity and livelihoods of millions of poor people. Delhi, which already has more per capita water than European cities like Paris, Amsterdam or Bonn, is asking for the Renuka, Lakhwar and Kishau dams in the upstream Yamuna basin, while destroying the Yamuna river for all downstream areas. Ahmedabad is using water from the Sardar Sarovar dam that was meant for the people of Kutch and Saurashtra and which has led to the displacement of over 200,000 people. Jaipur is taking water from the Bisalpur dam. Farmers, for whom it was made, are not getting the water and some lost their lives in police firing while demanding that water. A massive diversion of Nethrawathi water is proposed for Bangalore and other areas, destroying the pristine forests of the Western Ghats. Three farmers died in police firing near Pune when a huge farmers rally was protesting against diversion of water from the Pawna Dam to the Corporation of Pimpri-Chinchwad.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
As Planning Commission member Mihir Shah recently wrote, the 12th Five Year Plan proposes a paradigm shift in the urban sector.  &amp;quot;Each city must consider, as the first source of supply, its local waterbodies. Therefore, cities must only get funds for water projects when they have accounted for water supply from local waterbodies and have protected these waterbodies and their catchments. This precondition will force protection and build the infrastructure which will supply locally and then take back sewage also locally.&amp;quot;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
The trouble with this urban water sector reform agenda is that, close to two years into the 12th Plan, we still do not see it being implemented anywhere. We do not see any roadmap for its implementation. And yet the UPA government continues to fund solutions catering to only long- distance supply-side measures like big dam projects for urban areas under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM). In fact, of the first `60,000 crore sanctioned for JNNURM, about 70 per cent was for the urban water sector, but do we see any progress in democratisation or even improvement of urban water governance?
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
In that respect, there is hope that the Aam Aadmi Party now governing Delhi will take effective steps in this direction as its manifesto includes a detailed agenda in this regard. Let us hope it will show the way to the nation.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;em&gt;Himanshu Thakkar (ht.sandrp@gmail.com), Parineeta Dandekar (parineeta.dandekar@gmail.com), SANDRP &lt;/em&gt;
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-CivilSocietyOnline.com



More than 50 people, including tribal groups, social activists, water experts, ecologists, wildlife experts and academics, came together for a brainstorming workshop on &amp;lsquo;Dams coming up for Mumbai Region.&#039; The meeting was organised by the South Asia Network on Dams,...&#039;
$disp = &#039;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;-CivilSocietyOnline.com&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;More than 50 people, including tribal groups, social activists, water experts, ecologists, wildlife experts and academics, came together for a brainstorming workshop on &amp;lsquo;Dams coming up for Mumbai Region.&#039; The meeting was organised by the South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People, Shramik Mukti Sangathana, and Jalbiradari.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;About 12 dams are planned or are under construction to satisfy the increasing thirst of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR). All these dams fall in the eco-sensitive region of the Western Ghats. Together they will submerge more than 22,000 hectares, including nearly 7,000 hectares of forests, millions  of trees and more than 750 hectares of the Tansa Sanctuary. The dams will affect a minimum of 100,000 tribals who depend on the forests and their ancestral lands for their livelihoods. These dams include the Kalu, Shai, Balganga, Susari, Khargihill, Bhugad, Pinjal, Gargai, Middle Vaitarna, Barvi and Poshir, among others. These are in addition to the dams already constructed for water supply to the MMR. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;Tribals and other affected groups of the Thane and Raigad region have been strongly opposing these projects. Most people in Mumbai seem unaware of their struggles or the impacts of these projects.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;Most of these dams are escaping social and environmental impact assessments and management plans, environment clearance requirements, environmental monitoring or public consultations due to blunders in the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Notification of September 2006, which excludes domestic and industrial water supply projects from the environmental clearance process. The notification signifies the environmental illiteracy of officials and ministers at the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF). In spite of repeated letters and acknowledging that this makes no sense, they have refused to change it.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;MMR has not undertaken an assessment of options before pushing these projects. A cursory review shows that many options exist. Currently at the city or region level, there is no shortfall in water supply. The existing problems are due to inequitable, non-transparent, non-participatory and wasteful water governance in MMR.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;Municipal corporations under the MMR which are pushing for new dams do not treat even 15 per cent of their sewage. The Bhiwandi Nizampur and Vasai Virar Corporations do not treat any of their sewage. The Mumbai Region has no estimate of its rainwater harvesting potential, and there is little effective action in this direction despite high rainfall. Water supply and distribution losses are over 30 per cent. Local water sources like rivers, lakes and wells are being destroyed by pollution and encroachments. There is no interest in democratising governance of the MMR water sector.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;The workshop&#039;s resolution urged the MMR region to address these issues first. This would lead to sustainable water supply to the city and its suburbs. The Konkan Irrigation Department, which is constructing most of these projects, has violated several laws related to tribal and forest rights, environment, forests and resettlement. It has been mostly favouring a single contractor, illegally.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;The meeting also strongly urged the MMRDA, MCGM, Municipal Corporations of MMR, Maharashtra government, MoEF, the Maharashtra Forest Department, the National Board of Wildlife and all others concerned to ensure that the following steps are taken up urgently and in a credible way:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;l Undertake thorough options assessment for Mumbai&#039;s (and other cities of the MMR) water needs which includes groundwater recharge and sustainable use, protection and use of local water sources, rainwater harvesting, sewage treatment and reuse, plugging leakages, improving water supply efficiency, taking up systematic demand side management measures etc.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;1. Undertake Environmental and Social Impact Assessments for all the dams coming up for the Mumbai Region.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;2. Take immediate action against the Konkan Irrigation Development Corporation for violating multiple laws while bulldozing ahead with projects and the Mumbai Metropolitan Region. Development Authority (MMRDA)  for funding projects in the absence of clearances.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;3. Respect people&#039;s protests and gram sabha resolutions against displacement, deforestation and their refusal to give permission for these projects.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;4. Take strong penal action against the officers and  contractors who have displaced Adivasis illegally.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;5. Not resume any work or plan for any project before the above is done. Stop work on projects in the meantime.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;6. Change the EIA notification to ensure that all large dams are included for environment clearance, public hearings and EIA requirements.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;7. Immediately institute a credible Cumulative Impact Assessment of the projects already constructed and advanced in implementation.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;8. Institutionalise decentralised, democratic governance of the water sector in MMR from bottom to top.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;Forests in the Western Ghats are Mumbai and MMR&#039;s lungs. They are the watersheds of rivers and water sources for the Tansa and Bhatsa lakes. Forests naturally purify Mumbai and MMR&#039;s drinking water. The rich tribal culture of Thane and Raigad is a shared heritage of Mumbai. We  have no right to displace the tribals or destroy their livelihoods. This destruction in Mumbai&#039;s backyard must be stopped.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;However, Mumbai and MMR are not the only urban areas guilty of destroying the environment, forests, biodiversity and livelihoods of millions of poor people. Delhi, which already has more per capita water than European cities like Paris, Amsterdam or Bonn, is asking for the Renuka, Lakhwar and Kishau dams in the upstream Yamuna basin, while destroying the Yamuna river for all downstream areas. Ahmedabad is using water from the Sardar Sarovar dam that was meant for the people of Kutch and Saurashtra and which has led to the displacement of over 200,000 people. Jaipur is taking water from the Bisalpur dam. Farmers, for whom it was made, are not getting the water and some lost their lives in police firing while demanding that water. A massive diversion of Nethrawathi water is proposed for Bangalore and other areas, destroying the pristine forests of the Western Ghats. Three farmers died in police firing near Pune when a huge farmers rally was protesting against diversion of water from the Pawna Dam to the Corporation of Pimpri-Chinchwad.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;As Planning Commission member Mihir Shah recently wrote, the 12th Five Year Plan proposes a paradigm shift in the urban sector.  &amp;quot;Each city must consider, as the first source of supply, its local waterbodies. Therefore, cities must only get funds for water projects when they have accounted for water supply from local waterbodies and have protected these waterbodies and their catchments. This precondition will force protection and build the infrastructure which will supply locally and then take back sewage also locally.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;The trouble with this urban water sector reform agenda is that, close to two years into the 12th Plan, we still do not see it being implemented anywhere. We do not see any roadmap for its implementation. And yet the UPA government continues to fund solutions catering to only long- distance supply-side measures like big dam projects for urban areas under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM). In fact, of the first `60,000 crore sanctioned for JNNURM, about 70 per cent was for the urban water sector, but do we see any progress in democratisation or even improvement of urban water governance?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;In that respect, there is hope that the Aam Aadmi Party now governing Delhi will take effective steps in this direction as its manifesto includes a detailed agenda in this regard. Let us hope it will show the way to the nation.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Himanshu Thakkar (ht.sandrp@gmail.com), Parineeta Dandekar (parineeta.dandekar@gmail.com), SANDRP &lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#039;
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                <strong>When cities guzzle water-Himanshu Thakkar and Parineeta Dandekar</strong></h1>
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                <div align="justify">-CivilSocietyOnline.com</div><p align="justify"><br />More than 50 people, including tribal groups, social activists, water experts, ecologists, wildlife experts and academics, came together for a brainstorming workshop on &lsquo;Dams coming up for Mumbai Region.' The meeting was organised by the South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People, Shramik Mukti Sangathana, and Jalbiradari.</p><p align="justify">About 12 dams are planned or are under construction to satisfy the increasing thirst of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR). All these dams fall in the eco-sensitive region of the Western Ghats. Together they will submerge more than 22,000 hectares, including nearly 7,000 hectares of forests, millions  of trees and more than 750 hectares of the Tansa Sanctuary. The dams will affect a minimum of 100,000 tribals who depend on the forests and their ancestral lands for their livelihoods. These dams include the Kalu, Shai, Balganga, Susari, Khargihill, Bhugad, Pinjal, Gargai, Middle Vaitarna, Barvi and Poshir, among others. These are in addition to the dams already constructed for water supply to the MMR. </p><p align="justify">Tribals and other affected groups of the Thane and Raigad region have been strongly opposing these projects. Most people in Mumbai seem unaware of their struggles or the impacts of these projects.</p><p align="justify">Most of these dams are escaping social and environmental impact assessments and management plans, environment clearance requirements, environmental monitoring or public consultations due to blunders in the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Notification of September 2006, which excludes domestic and industrial water supply projects from the environmental clearance process. The notification signifies the environmental illiteracy of officials and ministers at the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF). In spite of repeated letters and acknowledging that this makes no sense, they have refused to change it.</p><p align="justify">MMR has not undertaken an assessment of options before pushing these projects. A cursory review shows that many options exist. Currently at the city or region level, there is no shortfall in water supply. The existing problems are due to inequitable, non-transparent, non-participatory and wasteful water governance in MMR.</p><p align="justify">Municipal corporations under the MMR which are pushing for new dams do not treat even 15 per cent of their sewage. The Bhiwandi Nizampur and Vasai Virar Corporations do not treat any of their sewage. The Mumbai Region has no estimate of its rainwater harvesting potential, and there is little effective action in this direction despite high rainfall. Water supply and distribution losses are over 30 per cent. Local water sources like rivers, lakes and wells are being destroyed by pollution and encroachments. There is no interest in democratising governance of the MMR water sector.</p><p align="justify">The workshop's resolution urged the MMR region to address these issues first. This would lead to sustainable water supply to the city and its suburbs. The Konkan Irrigation Department, which is constructing most of these projects, has violated several laws related to tribal and forest rights, environment, forests and resettlement. It has been mostly favouring a single contractor, illegally.</p><p align="justify">The meeting also strongly urged the MMRDA, MCGM, Municipal Corporations of MMR, Maharashtra government, MoEF, the Maharashtra Forest Department, the National Board of Wildlife and all others concerned to ensure that the following steps are taken up urgently and in a credible way:</p><p align="justify">l Undertake thorough options assessment for Mumbai's (and other cities of the MMR) water needs which includes groundwater recharge and sustainable use, protection and use of local water sources, rainwater harvesting, sewage treatment and reuse, plugging leakages, improving water supply efficiency, taking up systematic demand side management measures etc.</p><p align="justify">1. Undertake Environmental and Social Impact Assessments for all the dams coming up for the Mumbai Region.</p><p align="justify">2. Take immediate action against the Konkan Irrigation Development Corporation for violating multiple laws while bulldozing ahead with projects and the Mumbai Metropolitan Region. Development Authority (MMRDA)  for funding projects in the absence of clearances.</p><p align="justify">3. Respect people's protests and gram sabha resolutions against displacement, deforestation and their refusal to give permission for these projects.</p><p align="justify">4. Take strong penal action against the officers and  contractors who have displaced Adivasis illegally.</p><p align="justify">5. Not resume any work or plan for any project before the above is done. Stop work on projects in the meantime.</p><p align="justify">6. Change the EIA notification to ensure that all large dams are included for environment clearance, public hearings and EIA requirements.</p><p align="justify">7. Immediately institute a credible Cumulative Impact Assessment of the projects already constructed and advanced in implementation.</p><p align="justify">8. Institutionalise decentralised, democratic governance of the water sector in MMR from bottom to top.</p><p align="justify">&nbsp;</p><p align="justify">Forests in the Western Ghats are Mumbai and MMR's lungs. They are the watersheds of rivers and water sources for the Tansa and Bhatsa lakes. Forests naturally purify Mumbai and MMR's drinking water. The rich tribal culture of Thane and Raigad is a shared heritage of Mumbai. We  have no right to displace the tribals or destroy their livelihoods. This destruction in Mumbai's backyard must be stopped.</p><p align="justify">However, Mumbai and MMR are not the only urban areas guilty of destroying the environment, forests, biodiversity and livelihoods of millions of poor people. Delhi, which already has more per capita water than European cities like Paris, Amsterdam or Bonn, is asking for the Renuka, Lakhwar and Kishau dams in the upstream Yamuna basin, while destroying the Yamuna river for all downstream areas. Ahmedabad is using water from the Sardar Sarovar dam that was meant for the people of Kutch and Saurashtra and which has led to the displacement of over 200,000 people. Jaipur is taking water from the Bisalpur dam. Farmers, for whom it was made, are not getting the water and some lost their lives in police firing while demanding that water. A massive diversion of Nethrawathi water is proposed for Bangalore and other areas, destroying the pristine forests of the Western Ghats. Three farmers died in police firing near Pune when a huge farmers rally was protesting against diversion of water from the Pawna Dam to the Corporation of Pimpri-Chinchwad.</p><p align="justify">As Planning Commission member Mihir Shah recently wrote, the 12th Five Year Plan proposes a paradigm shift in the urban sector.  &quot;Each city must consider, as the first source of supply, its local waterbodies. Therefore, cities must only get funds for water projects when they have accounted for water supply from local waterbodies and have protected these waterbodies and their catchments. This precondition will force protection and build the infrastructure which will supply locally and then take back sewage also locally.&quot;</p><p align="justify">The trouble with this urban water sector reform agenda is that, close to two years into the 12th Plan, we still do not see it being implemented anywhere. We do not see any roadmap for its implementation. And yet the UPA government continues to fund solutions catering to only long- distance supply-side measures like big dam projects for urban areas under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM). In fact, of the first `60,000 crore sanctioned for JNNURM, about 70 per cent was for the urban water sector, but do we see any progress in democratisation or even improvement of urban water governance?</p><p align="justify">In that respect, there is hope that the Aam Aadmi Party now governing Delhi will take effective steps in this direction as its manifesto includes a detailed agenda in this regard. Let us hope it will show the way to the nation.</p><p align="justify"><em>Himanshu Thakkar (ht.sandrp@gmail.com), Parineeta Dandekar (parineeta.dandekar@gmail.com), SANDRP </em></p>               </font>
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-CivilSocietyOnline.com
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&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
More than 50 people, including tribal groups, social activists, water experts, ecologists, wildlife experts and academics, came together for a brainstorming workshop on &amp;lsquo;Dams coming up for Mumbai Region.&#039; The meeting was organised by the South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People, Shramik Mukti Sangathana, and Jalbiradari.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
About 12 dams are planned or are under construction to satisfy the increasing thirst of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR). All these dams fall in the eco-sensitive region of the Western Ghats. Together they will submerge more than 22,000 hectares, including nearly 7,000 hectares of forests, millions  of trees and more than 750 hectares of the Tansa Sanctuary. The dams will affect a minimum of 100,000 tribals who depend on the forests and their ancestral lands for their livelihoods. These dams include the Kalu, Shai, Balganga, Susari, Khargihill, Bhugad, Pinjal, Gargai, Middle Vaitarna, Barvi and Poshir, among others. These are in addition to the dams already constructed for water supply to the MMR. 
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
Tribals and other affected groups of the Thane and Raigad region have been strongly opposing these projects. Most people in Mumbai seem unaware of their struggles or the impacts of these projects.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
Most of these dams are escaping social and environmental impact assessments and management plans, environment clearance requirements, environmental monitoring or public consultations due to blunders in the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Notification of September 2006, which excludes domestic and industrial water supply projects from the environmental clearance process. The notification signifies the environmental illiteracy of officials and ministers at the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF). In spite of repeated letters and acknowledging that this makes no sense, they have refused to change it.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
MMR has not undertaken an assessment of options before pushing these projects. A cursory review shows that many options exist. Currently at the city or region level, there is no shortfall in water supply. The existing problems are due to inequitable, non-transparent, non-participatory and wasteful water governance in MMR.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
Municipal corporations under the MMR which are pushing for new dams do not treat even 15 per cent of their sewage. The Bhiwandi Nizampur and Vasai Virar Corporations do not treat any of their sewage. The Mumbai Region has no estimate of its rainwater harvesting potential, and there is little effective action in this direction despite high rainfall. Water supply and distribution losses are over 30 per cent. Local water sources like rivers, lakes and wells are being destroyed by pollution and encroachments. There is no interest in democratising governance of the MMR water sector.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
The workshop&#039;s resolution urged the MMR region to address these issues first. This would lead to sustainable water supply to the city and its suburbs. The Konkan Irrigation Department, which is constructing most of these projects, has violated several laws related to tribal and forest rights, environment, forests and resettlement. It has been mostly favouring a single contractor, illegally.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
The meeting also strongly urged the MMRDA, MCGM, Municipal Corporations of MMR, Maharashtra government, MoEF, the Maharashtra Forest Department, the National Board of Wildlife and all others concerned to ensure that the following steps are taken up urgently and in a credible way:
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
l Undertake thorough options assessment for Mumbai&#039;s (and other cities of the MMR) water needs which includes groundwater recharge and sustainable use, protection and use of local water sources, rainwater harvesting, sewage treatment and reuse, plugging leakages, improving water supply efficiency, taking up systematic demand side management measures etc.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
1. Undertake Environmental and Social Impact Assessments for all the dams coming up for the Mumbai Region.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
2. Take immediate action against the Konkan Irrigation Development Corporation for violating multiple laws while bulldozing ahead with projects and the Mumbai Metropolitan Region. Development Authority (MMRDA)  for funding projects in the absence of clearances.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
3. Respect people&#039;s protests and gram sabha resolutions against displacement, deforestation and their refusal to give permission for these projects.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
4. Take strong penal action against the officers and  contractors who have displaced Adivasis illegally.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
5. Not resume any work or plan for any project before the above is done. Stop work on projects in the meantime.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
6. Change the EIA notification to ensure that all large dams are included for environment clearance, public hearings and EIA requirements.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
7. Immediately institute a credible Cumulative Impact Assessment of the projects already constructed and advanced in implementation.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
8. Institutionalise decentralised, democratic governance of the water sector in MMR from bottom to top.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&amp;nbsp;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
Forests in the Western Ghats are Mumbai and MMR&#039;s lungs. They are the watersheds of rivers and water sources for the Tansa and Bhatsa lakes. Forests naturally purify Mumbai and MMR&#039;s drinking water. The rich tribal culture of Thane and Raigad is a shared heritage of Mumbai. We  have no right to displace the tribals or destroy their livelihoods. This destruction in Mumbai&#039;s backyard must be stopped.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
However, Mumbai and MMR are not the only urban areas guilty of destroying the environment, forests, biodiversity and livelihoods of millions of poor people. Delhi, which already has more per capita water than European cities like Paris, Amsterdam or Bonn, is asking for the Renuka, Lakhwar and Kishau dams in the upstream Yamuna basin, while destroying the Yamuna river for all downstream areas. Ahmedabad is using water from the Sardar Sarovar dam that was meant for the people of Kutch and Saurashtra and which has led to the displacement of over 200,000 people. Jaipur is taking water from the Bisalpur dam. Farmers, for whom it was made, are not getting the water and some lost their lives in police firing while demanding that water. A massive diversion of Nethrawathi water is proposed for Bangalore and other areas, destroying the pristine forests of the Western Ghats. Three farmers died in police firing near Pune when a huge farmers rally was protesting against diversion of water from the Pawna Dam to the Corporation of Pimpri-Chinchwad.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
As Planning Commission member Mihir Shah recently wrote, the 12th Five Year Plan proposes a paradigm shift in the urban sector.  &amp;quot;Each city must consider, as the first source of supply, its local waterbodies. Therefore, cities must only get funds for water projects when they have accounted for water supply from local waterbodies and have protected these waterbodies and their catchments. This precondition will force protection and build the infrastructure which will supply locally and then take back sewage also locally.&amp;quot;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
The trouble with this urban water sector reform agenda is that, close to two years into the 12th Plan, we still do not see it being implemented anywhere. We do not see any roadmap for its implementation. And yet the UPA government continues to fund solutions catering to only long- distance supply-side measures like big dam projects for urban areas under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM). In fact, of the first `60,000 crore sanctioned for JNNURM, about 70 per cent was for the urban water sector, but do we see any progress in democratisation or even improvement of urban water governance?
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
In that respect, there is hope that the Aam Aadmi Party now governing Delhi will take effective steps in this direction as its manifesto includes a detailed agenda in this regard. Let us hope it will show the way to the nation.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;em&gt;Himanshu Thakkar (ht.sandrp@gmail.com), Parineeta Dandekar (parineeta.dandekar@gmail.com), SANDRP &lt;/em&gt;
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More than 50 people, including tribal groups, social activists, water experts, ecologists, wildlife experts and academics, came together for a brainstorming workshop on &amp;lsquo;Dams coming up for Mumbai Region.&#039; The meeting was organised by the South Asia Network on Dams,...&#039;,
	&#039;disp&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;-CivilSocietyOnline.com&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;More than 50 people, including tribal groups, social activists, water experts, ecologists, wildlife experts and academics, came together for a brainstorming workshop on &amp;lsquo;Dams coming up for Mumbai Region.&#039; The meeting was organised by the South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People, Shramik Mukti Sangathana, and Jalbiradari.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;About 12 dams are planned or are under construction to satisfy the increasing thirst of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR). All these dams fall in the eco-sensitive region of the Western Ghats. Together they will submerge more than 22,000 hectares, including nearly 7,000 hectares of forests, millions  of trees and more than 750 hectares of the Tansa Sanctuary. The dams will affect a minimum of 100,000 tribals who depend on the forests and their ancestral lands for their livelihoods. These dams include the Kalu, Shai, Balganga, Susari, Khargihill, Bhugad, Pinjal, Gargai, Middle Vaitarna, Barvi and Poshir, among others. These are in addition to the dams already constructed for water supply to the MMR. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;Tribals and other affected groups of the Thane and Raigad region have been strongly opposing these projects. Most people in Mumbai seem unaware of their struggles or the impacts of these projects.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;Most of these dams are escaping social and environmental impact assessments and management plans, environment clearance requirements, environmental monitoring or public consultations due to blunders in the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Notification of September 2006, which excludes domestic and industrial water supply projects from the environmental clearance process. The notification signifies the environmental illiteracy of officials and ministers at the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF). In spite of repeated letters and acknowledging that this makes no sense, they have refused to change it.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;MMR has not undertaken an assessment of options before pushing these projects. A cursory review shows that many options exist. Currently at the city or region level, there is no shortfall in water supply. The existing problems are due to inequitable, non-transparent, non-participatory and wasteful water governance in MMR.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;Municipal corporations under the MMR which are pushing for new dams do not treat even 15 per cent of their sewage. The Bhiwandi Nizampur and Vasai Virar Corporations do not treat any of their sewage. The Mumbai Region has no estimate of its rainwater harvesting potential, and there is little effective action in this direction despite high rainfall. Water supply and distribution losses are over 30 per cent. Local water sources like rivers, lakes and wells are being destroyed by pollution and encroachments. There is no interest in democratising governance of the MMR water sector.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;The workshop&#039;s resolution urged the MMR region to address these issues first. This would lead to sustainable water supply to the city and its suburbs. The Konkan Irrigation Department, which is constructing most of these projects, has violated several laws related to tribal and forest rights, environment, forests and resettlement. It has been mostly favouring a single contractor, illegally.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;The meeting also strongly urged the MMRDA, MCGM, Municipal Corporations of MMR, Maharashtra government, MoEF, the Maharashtra Forest Department, the National Board of Wildlife and all others concerned to ensure that the following steps are taken up urgently and in a credible way:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;l Undertake thorough options assessment for Mumbai&#039;s (and other cities of the MMR) water needs which includes groundwater recharge and sustainable use, protection and use of local water sources, rainwater harvesting, sewage treatment and reuse, plugging leakages, improving water supply efficiency, taking up systematic demand side management measures etc.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;1. Undertake Environmental and Social Impact Assessments for all the dams coming up for the Mumbai Region.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;2. Take immediate action against the Konkan Irrigation Development Corporation for violating multiple laws while bulldozing ahead with projects and the Mumbai Metropolitan Region. Development Authority (MMRDA)  for funding projects in the absence of clearances.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;3. Respect people&#039;s protests and gram sabha resolutions against displacement, deforestation and their refusal to give permission for these projects.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;4. Take strong penal action against the officers and  contractors who have displaced Adivasis illegally.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;5. Not resume any work or plan for any project before the above is done. Stop work on projects in the meantime.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;6. Change the EIA notification to ensure that all large dams are included for environment clearance, public hearings and EIA requirements.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;7. Immediately institute a credible Cumulative Impact Assessment of the projects already constructed and advanced in implementation.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;8. Institutionalise decentralised, democratic governance of the water sector in MMR from bottom to top.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;Forests in the Western Ghats are Mumbai and MMR&#039;s lungs. They are the watersheds of rivers and water sources for the Tansa and Bhatsa lakes. Forests naturally purify Mumbai and MMR&#039;s drinking water. The rich tribal culture of Thane and Raigad is a shared heritage of Mumbai. We  have no right to displace the tribals or destroy their livelihoods. This destruction in Mumbai&#039;s backyard must be stopped.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;However, Mumbai and MMR are not the only urban areas guilty of destroying the environment, forests, biodiversity and livelihoods of millions of poor people. Delhi, which already has more per capita water than European cities like Paris, Amsterdam or Bonn, is asking for the Renuka, Lakhwar and Kishau dams in the upstream Yamuna basin, while destroying the Yamuna river for all downstream areas. Ahmedabad is using water from the Sardar Sarovar dam that was meant for the people of Kutch and Saurashtra and which has led to the displacement of over 200,000 people. Jaipur is taking water from the Bisalpur dam. Farmers, for whom it was made, are not getting the water and some lost their lives in police firing while demanding that water. A massive diversion of Nethrawathi water is proposed for Bangalore and other areas, destroying the pristine forests of the Western Ghats. Three farmers died in police firing near Pune when a huge farmers rally was protesting against diversion of water from the Pawna Dam to the Corporation of Pimpri-Chinchwad.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;As Planning Commission member Mihir Shah recently wrote, the 12th Five Year Plan proposes a paradigm shift in the urban sector.  &amp;quot;Each city must consider, as the first source of supply, its local waterbodies. Therefore, cities must only get funds for water projects when they have accounted for water supply from local waterbodies and have protected these waterbodies and their catchments. This precondition will force protection and build the infrastructure which will supply locally and then take back sewage also locally.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;The trouble with this urban water sector reform agenda is that, close to two years into the 12th Plan, we still do not see it being implemented anywhere. We do not see any roadmap for its implementation. And yet the UPA government continues to fund solutions catering to only long- distance supply-side measures like big dam projects for urban areas under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM). In fact, of the first `60,000 crore sanctioned for JNNURM, about 70 per cent was for the urban water sector, but do we see any progress in democratisation or even improvement of urban water governance?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;In that respect, there is hope that the Aam Aadmi Party now governing Delhi will take effective steps in this direction as its manifesto includes a detailed agenda in this regard. Let us hope it will show the way to the nation.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Himanshu Thakkar (ht.sandrp@gmail.com), Parineeta Dandekar (parineeta.dandekar@gmail.com), SANDRP &lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#039;,
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	&#039;title&#039; =&gt; &#039;When cities guzzle water-Himanshu Thakkar and Parineeta Dandekar&#039;,
	&#039;subheading&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;description&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
-CivilSocietyOnline.com
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
More than 50 people, including tribal groups, social activists, water experts, ecologists, wildlife experts and academics, came together for a brainstorming workshop on &amp;lsquo;Dams coming up for Mumbai Region.&#039; The meeting was organised by the South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People, Shramik Mukti Sangathana, and Jalbiradari.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
About 12 dams are planned or are under construction to satisfy the increasing thirst of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR). All these dams fall in the eco-sensitive region of the Western Ghats. Together they will submerge more than 22,000 hectares, including nearly 7,000 hectares of forests, millions  of trees and more than 750 hectares of the Tansa Sanctuary. The dams will affect a minimum of 100,000 tribals who depend on the forests and their ancestral lands for their livelihoods. These dams include the Kalu, Shai, Balganga, Susari, Khargihill, Bhugad, Pinjal, Gargai, Middle Vaitarna, Barvi and Poshir, among others. These are in addition to the dams already constructed for water supply to the MMR. 
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
Tribals and other affected groups of the Thane and Raigad region have been strongly opposing these projects. Most people in Mumbai seem unaware of their struggles or the impacts of these projects.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
Most of these dams are escaping social and environmental impact assessments and management plans, environment clearance requirements, environmental monitoring or public consultations due to blunders in the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Notification of September 2006, which excludes domestic and industrial water supply projects from the environmental clearance process. The notification signifies the environmental illiteracy of officials and ministers at the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF). In spite of repeated letters and acknowledging that this makes no sense, they have refused to change it.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
MMR has not undertaken an assessment of options before pushing these projects. A cursory review shows that many options exist. Currently at the city or region level, there is no shortfall in water supply. The existing problems are due to inequitable, non-transparent, non-participatory and wasteful water governance in MMR.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
Municipal corporations under the MMR which are pushing for new dams do not treat even 15 per cent of their sewage. The Bhiwandi Nizampur and Vasai Virar Corporations do not treat any of their sewage. The Mumbai Region has no estimate of its rainwater harvesting potential, and there is little effective action in this direction despite high rainfall. Water supply and distribution losses are over 30 per cent. Local water sources like rivers, lakes and wells are being destroyed by pollution and encroachments. There is no interest in democratising governance of the MMR water sector.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
The workshop&#039;s resolution urged the MMR region to address these issues first. This would lead to sustainable water supply to the city and its suburbs. The Konkan Irrigation Department, which is constructing most of these projects, has violated several laws related to tribal and forest rights, environment, forests and resettlement. It has been mostly favouring a single contractor, illegally.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
The meeting also strongly urged the MMRDA, MCGM, Municipal Corporations of MMR, Maharashtra government, MoEF, the Maharashtra Forest Department, the National Board of Wildlife and all others concerned to ensure that the following steps are taken up urgently and in a credible way:
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
l Undertake thorough options assessment for Mumbai&#039;s (and other cities of the MMR) water needs which includes groundwater recharge and sustainable use, protection and use of local water sources, rainwater harvesting, sewage treatment and reuse, plugging leakages, improving water supply efficiency, taking up systematic demand side management measures etc.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
1. Undertake Environmental and Social Impact Assessments for all the dams coming up for the Mumbai Region.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
2. Take immediate action against the Konkan Irrigation Development Corporation for violating multiple laws while bulldozing ahead with projects and the Mumbai Metropolitan Region. Development Authority (MMRDA)  for funding projects in the absence of clearances.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
3. Respect people&#039;s protests and gram sabha resolutions against displacement, deforestation and their refusal to give permission for these projects.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
4. Take strong penal action against the officers and  contractors who have displaced Adivasis illegally.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
5. Not resume any work or plan for any project before the above is done. Stop work on projects in the meantime.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
6. Change the EIA notification to ensure that all large dams are included for environment clearance, public hearings and EIA requirements.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
7. Immediately institute a credible Cumulative Impact Assessment of the projects already constructed and advanced in implementation.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
8. Institutionalise decentralised, democratic governance of the water sector in MMR from bottom to top.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&amp;nbsp;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
Forests in the Western Ghats are Mumbai and MMR&#039;s lungs. They are the watersheds of rivers and water sources for the Tansa and Bhatsa lakes. Forests naturally purify Mumbai and MMR&#039;s drinking water. The rich tribal culture of Thane and Raigad is a shared heritage of Mumbai. We  have no right to displace the tribals or destroy their livelihoods. This destruction in Mumbai&#039;s backyard must be stopped.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
However, Mumbai and MMR are not the only urban areas guilty of destroying the environment, forests, biodiversity and livelihoods of millions of poor people. Delhi, which already has more per capita water than European cities like Paris, Amsterdam or Bonn, is asking for the Renuka, Lakhwar and Kishau dams in the upstream Yamuna basin, while destroying the Yamuna river for all downstream areas. Ahmedabad is using water from the Sardar Sarovar dam that was meant for the people of Kutch and Saurashtra and which has led to the displacement of over 200,000 people. Jaipur is taking water from the Bisalpur dam. Farmers, for whom it was made, are not getting the water and some lost their lives in police firing while demanding that water. A massive diversion of Nethrawathi water is proposed for Bangalore and other areas, destroying the pristine forests of the Western Ghats. Three farmers died in police firing near Pune when a huge farmers rally was protesting against diversion of water from the Pawna Dam to the Corporation of Pimpri-Chinchwad.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
As Planning Commission member Mihir Shah recently wrote, the 12th Five Year Plan proposes a paradigm shift in the urban sector.  &amp;quot;Each city must consider, as the first source of supply, its local waterbodies. Therefore, cities must only get funds for water projects when they have accounted for water supply from local waterbodies and have protected these waterbodies and their catchments. This precondition will force protection and build the infrastructure which will supply locally and then take back sewage also locally.&amp;quot;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
The trouble with this urban water sector reform agenda is that, close to two years into the 12th Plan, we still do not see it being implemented anywhere. We do not see any roadmap for its implementation. And yet the UPA government continues to fund solutions catering to only long- distance supply-side measures like big dam projects for urban areas under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM). In fact, of the first `60,000 crore sanctioned for JNNURM, about 70 per cent was for the urban water sector, but do we see any progress in democratisation or even improvement of urban water governance?
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
In that respect, there is hope that the Aam Aadmi Party now governing Delhi will take effective steps in this direction as its manifesto includes a detailed agenda in this regard. Let us hope it will show the way to the nation.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;em&gt;Himanshu Thakkar (ht.sandrp@gmail.com), Parineeta Dandekar (parineeta.dandekar@gmail.com), SANDRP &lt;/em&gt;
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$metaTitle = &#039;LATEST NEWS UPDATES | When cities guzzle water-Himanshu Thakkar and Parineeta Dandekar&#039;
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-CivilSocietyOnline.com



More than 50 people, including tribal groups, social activists, water experts, ecologists, wildlife experts and academics, came together for a brainstorming workshop on &amp;lsquo;Dams coming up for Mumbai Region.&#039; The meeting was organised by the South Asia Network on Dams,...&#039;
$disp = &#039;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;-CivilSocietyOnline.com&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;More than 50 people, including tribal groups, social activists, water experts, ecologists, wildlife experts and academics, came together for a brainstorming workshop on &amp;lsquo;Dams coming up for Mumbai Region.&#039; The meeting was organised by the South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People, Shramik Mukti Sangathana, and Jalbiradari.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;About 12 dams are planned or are under construction to satisfy the increasing thirst of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR). All these dams fall in the eco-sensitive region of the Western Ghats. Together they will submerge more than 22,000 hectares, including nearly 7,000 hectares of forests, millions  of trees and more than 750 hectares of the Tansa Sanctuary. The dams will affect a minimum of 100,000 tribals who depend on the forests and their ancestral lands for their livelihoods. These dams include the Kalu, Shai, Balganga, Susari, Khargihill, Bhugad, Pinjal, Gargai, Middle Vaitarna, Barvi and Poshir, among others. These are in addition to the dams already constructed for water supply to the MMR. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;Tribals and other affected groups of the Thane and Raigad region have been strongly opposing these projects. Most people in Mumbai seem unaware of their struggles or the impacts of these projects.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;Most of these dams are escaping social and environmental impact assessments and management plans, environment clearance requirements, environmental monitoring or public consultations due to blunders in the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Notification of September 2006, which excludes domestic and industrial water supply projects from the environmental clearance process. The notification signifies the environmental illiteracy of officials and ministers at the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF). In spite of repeated letters and acknowledging that this makes no sense, they have refused to change it.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;MMR has not undertaken an assessment of options before pushing these projects. A cursory review shows that many options exist. Currently at the city or region level, there is no shortfall in water supply. The existing problems are due to inequitable, non-transparent, non-participatory and wasteful water governance in MMR.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;Municipal corporations under the MMR which are pushing for new dams do not treat even 15 per cent of their sewage. The Bhiwandi Nizampur and Vasai Virar Corporations do not treat any of their sewage. The Mumbai Region has no estimate of its rainwater harvesting potential, and there is little effective action in this direction despite high rainfall. Water supply and distribution losses are over 30 per cent. Local water sources like rivers, lakes and wells are being destroyed by pollution and encroachments. There is no interest in democratising governance of the MMR water sector.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;The workshop&#039;s resolution urged the MMR region to address these issues first. This would lead to sustainable water supply to the city and its suburbs. The Konkan Irrigation Department, which is constructing most of these projects, has violated several laws related to tribal and forest rights, environment, forests and resettlement. It has been mostly favouring a single contractor, illegally.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;The meeting also strongly urged the MMRDA, MCGM, Municipal Corporations of MMR, Maharashtra government, MoEF, the Maharashtra Forest Department, the National Board of Wildlife and all others concerned to ensure that the following steps are taken up urgently and in a credible way:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;l Undertake thorough options assessment for Mumbai&#039;s (and other cities of the MMR) water needs which includes groundwater recharge and sustainable use, protection and use of local water sources, rainwater harvesting, sewage treatment and reuse, plugging leakages, improving water supply efficiency, taking up systematic demand side management measures etc.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;1. Undertake Environmental and Social Impact Assessments for all the dams coming up for the Mumbai Region.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;2. Take immediate action against the Konkan Irrigation Development Corporation for violating multiple laws while bulldozing ahead with projects and the Mumbai Metropolitan Region. Development Authority (MMRDA)  for funding projects in the absence of clearances.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;3. Respect people&#039;s protests and gram sabha resolutions against displacement, deforestation and their refusal to give permission for these projects.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;4. Take strong penal action against the officers and  contractors who have displaced Adivasis illegally.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;5. Not resume any work or plan for any project before the above is done. Stop work on projects in the meantime.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;6. Change the EIA notification to ensure that all large dams are included for environment clearance, public hearings and EIA requirements.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;7. Immediately institute a credible Cumulative Impact Assessment of the projects already constructed and advanced in implementation.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;8. Institutionalise decentralised, democratic governance of the water sector in MMR from bottom to top.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;Forests in the Western Ghats are Mumbai and MMR&#039;s lungs. They are the watersheds of rivers and water sources for the Tansa and Bhatsa lakes. Forests naturally purify Mumbai and MMR&#039;s drinking water. The rich tribal culture of Thane and Raigad is a shared heritage of Mumbai. We  have no right to displace the tribals or destroy their livelihoods. This destruction in Mumbai&#039;s backyard must be stopped.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;However, Mumbai and MMR are not the only urban areas guilty of destroying the environment, forests, biodiversity and livelihoods of millions of poor people. Delhi, which already has more per capita water than European cities like Paris, Amsterdam or Bonn, is asking for the Renuka, Lakhwar and Kishau dams in the upstream Yamuna basin, while destroying the Yamuna river for all downstream areas. Ahmedabad is using water from the Sardar Sarovar dam that was meant for the people of Kutch and Saurashtra and which has led to the displacement of over 200,000 people. Jaipur is taking water from the Bisalpur dam. Farmers, for whom it was made, are not getting the water and some lost their lives in police firing while demanding that water. A massive diversion of Nethrawathi water is proposed for Bangalore and other areas, destroying the pristine forests of the Western Ghats. Three farmers died in police firing near Pune when a huge farmers rally was protesting against diversion of water from the Pawna Dam to the Corporation of Pimpri-Chinchwad.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;As Planning Commission member Mihir Shah recently wrote, the 12th Five Year Plan proposes a paradigm shift in the urban sector.  &amp;quot;Each city must consider, as the first source of supply, its local waterbodies. Therefore, cities must only get funds for water projects when they have accounted for water supply from local waterbodies and have protected these waterbodies and their catchments. This precondition will force protection and build the infrastructure which will supply locally and then take back sewage also locally.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;The trouble with this urban water sector reform agenda is that, close to two years into the 12th Plan, we still do not see it being implemented anywhere. We do not see any roadmap for its implementation. And yet the UPA government continues to fund solutions catering to only long- distance supply-side measures like big dam projects for urban areas under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM). In fact, of the first `60,000 crore sanctioned for JNNURM, about 70 per cent was for the urban water sector, but do we see any progress in democratisation or even improvement of urban water governance?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;In that respect, there is hope that the Aam Aadmi Party now governing Delhi will take effective steps in this direction as its manifesto includes a detailed agenda in this regard. Let us hope it will show the way to the nation.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Himanshu Thakkar (ht.sandrp@gmail.com), Parineeta Dandekar (parineeta.dandekar@gmail.com), SANDRP &lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#039;
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                <strong>When cities guzzle water-Himanshu Thakkar and Parineeta Dandekar</strong></h1>
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                <div align="justify">-CivilSocietyOnline.com</div><p align="justify"><br />More than 50 people, including tribal groups, social activists, water experts, ecologists, wildlife experts and academics, came together for a brainstorming workshop on &lsquo;Dams coming up for Mumbai Region.' The meeting was organised by the South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People, Shramik Mukti Sangathana, and Jalbiradari.</p><p align="justify">About 12 dams are planned or are under construction to satisfy the increasing thirst of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR). All these dams fall in the eco-sensitive region of the Western Ghats. Together they will submerge more than 22,000 hectares, including nearly 7,000 hectares of forests, millions  of trees and more than 750 hectares of the Tansa Sanctuary. The dams will affect a minimum of 100,000 tribals who depend on the forests and their ancestral lands for their livelihoods. These dams include the Kalu, Shai, Balganga, Susari, Khargihill, Bhugad, Pinjal, Gargai, Middle Vaitarna, Barvi and Poshir, among others. These are in addition to the dams already constructed for water supply to the MMR. </p><p align="justify">Tribals and other affected groups of the Thane and Raigad region have been strongly opposing these projects. Most people in Mumbai seem unaware of their struggles or the impacts of these projects.</p><p align="justify">Most of these dams are escaping social and environmental impact assessments and management plans, environment clearance requirements, environmental monitoring or public consultations due to blunders in the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Notification of September 2006, which excludes domestic and industrial water supply projects from the environmental clearance process. The notification signifies the environmental illiteracy of officials and ministers at the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF). In spite of repeated letters and acknowledging that this makes no sense, they have refused to change it.</p><p align="justify">MMR has not undertaken an assessment of options before pushing these projects. A cursory review shows that many options exist. Currently at the city or region level, there is no shortfall in water supply. The existing problems are due to inequitable, non-transparent, non-participatory and wasteful water governance in MMR.</p><p align="justify">Municipal corporations under the MMR which are pushing for new dams do not treat even 15 per cent of their sewage. The Bhiwandi Nizampur and Vasai Virar Corporations do not treat any of their sewage. The Mumbai Region has no estimate of its rainwater harvesting potential, and there is little effective action in this direction despite high rainfall. Water supply and distribution losses are over 30 per cent. Local water sources like rivers, lakes and wells are being destroyed by pollution and encroachments. There is no interest in democratising governance of the MMR water sector.</p><p align="justify">The workshop's resolution urged the MMR region to address these issues first. This would lead to sustainable water supply to the city and its suburbs. The Konkan Irrigation Department, which is constructing most of these projects, has violated several laws related to tribal and forest rights, environment, forests and resettlement. It has been mostly favouring a single contractor, illegally.</p><p align="justify">The meeting also strongly urged the MMRDA, MCGM, Municipal Corporations of MMR, Maharashtra government, MoEF, the Maharashtra Forest Department, the National Board of Wildlife and all others concerned to ensure that the following steps are taken up urgently and in a credible way:</p><p align="justify">l Undertake thorough options assessment for Mumbai's (and other cities of the MMR) water needs which includes groundwater recharge and sustainable use, protection and use of local water sources, rainwater harvesting, sewage treatment and reuse, plugging leakages, improving water supply efficiency, taking up systematic demand side management measures etc.</p><p align="justify">1. Undertake Environmental and Social Impact Assessments for all the dams coming up for the Mumbai Region.</p><p align="justify">2. Take immediate action against the Konkan Irrigation Development Corporation for violating multiple laws while bulldozing ahead with projects and the Mumbai Metropolitan Region. Development Authority (MMRDA)  for funding projects in the absence of clearances.</p><p align="justify">3. Respect people's protests and gram sabha resolutions against displacement, deforestation and their refusal to give permission for these projects.</p><p align="justify">4. Take strong penal action against the officers and  contractors who have displaced Adivasis illegally.</p><p align="justify">5. Not resume any work or plan for any project before the above is done. Stop work on projects in the meantime.</p><p align="justify">6. Change the EIA notification to ensure that all large dams are included for environment clearance, public hearings and EIA requirements.</p><p align="justify">7. Immediately institute a credible Cumulative Impact Assessment of the projects already constructed and advanced in implementation.</p><p align="justify">8. Institutionalise decentralised, democratic governance of the water sector in MMR from bottom to top.</p><p align="justify">&nbsp;</p><p align="justify">Forests in the Western Ghats are Mumbai and MMR's lungs. They are the watersheds of rivers and water sources for the Tansa and Bhatsa lakes. Forests naturally purify Mumbai and MMR's drinking water. The rich tribal culture of Thane and Raigad is a shared heritage of Mumbai. We  have no right to displace the tribals or destroy their livelihoods. This destruction in Mumbai's backyard must be stopped.</p><p align="justify">However, Mumbai and MMR are not the only urban areas guilty of destroying the environment, forests, biodiversity and livelihoods of millions of poor people. Delhi, which already has more per capita water than European cities like Paris, Amsterdam or Bonn, is asking for the Renuka, Lakhwar and Kishau dams in the upstream Yamuna basin, while destroying the Yamuna river for all downstream areas. Ahmedabad is using water from the Sardar Sarovar dam that was meant for the people of Kutch and Saurashtra and which has led to the displacement of over 200,000 people. Jaipur is taking water from the Bisalpur dam. Farmers, for whom it was made, are not getting the water and some lost their lives in police firing while demanding that water. A massive diversion of Nethrawathi water is proposed for Bangalore and other areas, destroying the pristine forests of the Western Ghats. Three farmers died in police firing near Pune when a huge farmers rally was protesting against diversion of water from the Pawna Dam to the Corporation of Pimpri-Chinchwad.</p><p align="justify">As Planning Commission member Mihir Shah recently wrote, the 12th Five Year Plan proposes a paradigm shift in the urban sector.  &quot;Each city must consider, as the first source of supply, its local waterbodies. Therefore, cities must only get funds for water projects when they have accounted for water supply from local waterbodies and have protected these waterbodies and their catchments. This precondition will force protection and build the infrastructure which will supply locally and then take back sewage also locally.&quot;</p><p align="justify">The trouble with this urban water sector reform agenda is that, close to two years into the 12th Plan, we still do not see it being implemented anywhere. We do not see any roadmap for its implementation. And yet the UPA government continues to fund solutions catering to only long- distance supply-side measures like big dam projects for urban areas under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM). In fact, of the first `60,000 crore sanctioned for JNNURM, about 70 per cent was for the urban water sector, but do we see any progress in democratisation or even improvement of urban water governance?</p><p align="justify">In that respect, there is hope that the Aam Aadmi Party now governing Delhi will take effective steps in this direction as its manifesto includes a detailed agenda in this regard. Let us hope it will show the way to the nation.</p><p align="justify"><em>Himanshu Thakkar (ht.sandrp@gmail.com), Parineeta Dandekar (parineeta.dandekar@gmail.com), SANDRP </em></p>               </font>
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		'title' => 'When cities guzzle water-Himanshu Thakkar and Parineeta Dandekar',
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		'description' => '<div align="justify">
-CivilSocietyOnline.com
</div>
<p align="justify">
<br />
More than 50 people, including tribal groups, social activists, water experts, ecologists, wildlife experts and academics, came together for a brainstorming workshop on &lsquo;Dams coming up for Mumbai Region.' The meeting was organised by the South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People, Shramik Mukti Sangathana, and Jalbiradari.
</p>
<p align="justify">
About 12 dams are planned or are under construction to satisfy the increasing thirst of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR). All these dams fall in the eco-sensitive region of the Western Ghats. Together they will submerge more than 22,000 hectares, including nearly 7,000 hectares of forests, millions  of trees and more than 750 hectares of the Tansa Sanctuary. The dams will affect a minimum of 100,000 tribals who depend on the forests and their ancestral lands for their livelihoods. These dams include the Kalu, Shai, Balganga, Susari, Khargihill, Bhugad, Pinjal, Gargai, Middle Vaitarna, Barvi and Poshir, among others. These are in addition to the dams already constructed for water supply to the MMR. 
</p>
<p align="justify">
Tribals and other affected groups of the Thane and Raigad region have been strongly opposing these projects. Most people in Mumbai seem unaware of their struggles or the impacts of these projects.
</p>
<p align="justify">
Most of these dams are escaping social and environmental impact assessments and management plans, environment clearance requirements, environmental monitoring or public consultations due to blunders in the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Notification of September 2006, which excludes domestic and industrial water supply projects from the environmental clearance process. The notification signifies the environmental illiteracy of officials and ministers at the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF). In spite of repeated letters and acknowledging that this makes no sense, they have refused to change it.
</p>
<p align="justify">
MMR has not undertaken an assessment of options before pushing these projects. A cursory review shows that many options exist. Currently at the city or region level, there is no shortfall in water supply. The existing problems are due to inequitable, non-transparent, non-participatory and wasteful water governance in MMR.
</p>
<p align="justify">
Municipal corporations under the MMR which are pushing for new dams do not treat even 15 per cent of their sewage. The Bhiwandi Nizampur and Vasai Virar Corporations do not treat any of their sewage. The Mumbai Region has no estimate of its rainwater harvesting potential, and there is little effective action in this direction despite high rainfall. Water supply and distribution losses are over 30 per cent. Local water sources like rivers, lakes and wells are being destroyed by pollution and encroachments. There is no interest in democratising governance of the MMR water sector.
</p>
<p align="justify">
The workshop's resolution urged the MMR region to address these issues first. This would lead to sustainable water supply to the city and its suburbs. The Konkan Irrigation Department, which is constructing most of these projects, has violated several laws related to tribal and forest rights, environment, forests and resettlement. It has been mostly favouring a single contractor, illegally.
</p>
<p align="justify">
The meeting also strongly urged the MMRDA, MCGM, Municipal Corporations of MMR, Maharashtra government, MoEF, the Maharashtra Forest Department, the National Board of Wildlife and all others concerned to ensure that the following steps are taken up urgently and in a credible way:
</p>
<p align="justify">
l Undertake thorough options assessment for Mumbai's (and other cities of the MMR) water needs which includes groundwater recharge and sustainable use, protection and use of local water sources, rainwater harvesting, sewage treatment and reuse, plugging leakages, improving water supply efficiency, taking up systematic demand side management measures etc.
</p>
<p align="justify">
1. Undertake Environmental and Social Impact Assessments for all the dams coming up for the Mumbai Region.
</p>
<p align="justify">
2. Take immediate action against the Konkan Irrigation Development Corporation for violating multiple laws while bulldozing ahead with projects and the Mumbai Metropolitan Region. Development Authority (MMRDA)  for funding projects in the absence of clearances.
</p>
<p align="justify">
3. Respect people's protests and gram sabha resolutions against displacement, deforestation and their refusal to give permission for these projects.
</p>
<p align="justify">
4. Take strong penal action against the officers and  contractors who have displaced Adivasis illegally.
</p>
<p align="justify">
5. Not resume any work or plan for any project before the above is done. Stop work on projects in the meantime.
</p>
<p align="justify">
6. Change the EIA notification to ensure that all large dams are included for environment clearance, public hearings and EIA requirements.
</p>
<p align="justify">
7. Immediately institute a credible Cumulative Impact Assessment of the projects already constructed and advanced in implementation.
</p>
<p align="justify">
8. Institutionalise decentralised, democratic governance of the water sector in MMR from bottom to top.
</p>
<p align="justify">
&nbsp;
</p>
<p align="justify">
Forests in the Western Ghats are Mumbai and MMR's lungs. They are the watersheds of rivers and water sources for the Tansa and Bhatsa lakes. Forests naturally purify Mumbai and MMR's drinking water. The rich tribal culture of Thane and Raigad is a shared heritage of Mumbai. We  have no right to displace the tribals or destroy their livelihoods. This destruction in Mumbai's backyard must be stopped.
</p>
<p align="justify">
However, Mumbai and MMR are not the only urban areas guilty of destroying the environment, forests, biodiversity and livelihoods of millions of poor people. Delhi, which already has more per capita water than European cities like Paris, Amsterdam or Bonn, is asking for the Renuka, Lakhwar and Kishau dams in the upstream Yamuna basin, while destroying the Yamuna river for all downstream areas. Ahmedabad is using water from the Sardar Sarovar dam that was meant for the people of Kutch and Saurashtra and which has led to the displacement of over 200,000 people. Jaipur is taking water from the Bisalpur dam. Farmers, for whom it was made, are not getting the water and some lost their lives in police firing while demanding that water. A massive diversion of Nethrawathi water is proposed for Bangalore and other areas, destroying the pristine forests of the Western Ghats. Three farmers died in police firing near Pune when a huge farmers rally was protesting against diversion of water from the Pawna Dam to the Corporation of Pimpri-Chinchwad.
</p>
<p align="justify">
As Planning Commission member Mihir Shah recently wrote, the 12th Five Year Plan proposes a paradigm shift in the urban sector.  &quot;Each city must consider, as the first source of supply, its local waterbodies. Therefore, cities must only get funds for water projects when they have accounted for water supply from local waterbodies and have protected these waterbodies and their catchments. This precondition will force protection and build the infrastructure which will supply locally and then take back sewage also locally.&quot;
</p>
<p align="justify">
The trouble with this urban water sector reform agenda is that, close to two years into the 12th Plan, we still do not see it being implemented anywhere. We do not see any roadmap for its implementation. And yet the UPA government continues to fund solutions catering to only long- distance supply-side measures like big dam projects for urban areas under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM). In fact, of the first `60,000 crore sanctioned for JNNURM, about 70 per cent was for the urban water sector, but do we see any progress in democratisation or even improvement of urban water governance?
</p>
<p align="justify">
In that respect, there is hope that the Aam Aadmi Party now governing Delhi will take effective steps in this direction as its manifesto includes a detailed agenda in this regard. Let us hope it will show the way to the nation.
</p>
<p align="justify">
<em>Himanshu Thakkar (ht.sandrp@gmail.com), Parineeta Dandekar (parineeta.dandekar@gmail.com), SANDRP </em>
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-CivilSocietyOnline.com



More than 50 people, including tribal groups, social activists, water experts, ecologists, wildlife experts and academics, came together for a brainstorming workshop on &lsquo;Dams coming up for Mumbai Region.' The meeting was organised by the South Asia Network on Dams,...',
	'disp' => '<div align="justify">-CivilSocietyOnline.com</div><p align="justify"><br />More than 50 people, including tribal groups, social activists, water experts, ecologists, wildlife experts and academics, came together for a brainstorming workshop on &lsquo;Dams coming up for Mumbai Region.' The meeting was organised by the South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People, Shramik Mukti Sangathana, and Jalbiradari.</p><p align="justify">About 12 dams are planned or are under construction to satisfy the increasing thirst of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR). All these dams fall in the eco-sensitive region of the Western Ghats. Together they will submerge more than 22,000 hectares, including nearly 7,000 hectares of forests, millions  of trees and more than 750 hectares of the Tansa Sanctuary. The dams will affect a minimum of 100,000 tribals who depend on the forests and their ancestral lands for their livelihoods. These dams include the Kalu, Shai, Balganga, Susari, Khargihill, Bhugad, Pinjal, Gargai, Middle Vaitarna, Barvi and Poshir, among others. These are in addition to the dams already constructed for water supply to the MMR. </p><p align="justify">Tribals and other affected groups of the Thane and Raigad region have been strongly opposing these projects. Most people in Mumbai seem unaware of their struggles or the impacts of these projects.</p><p align="justify">Most of these dams are escaping social and environmental impact assessments and management plans, environment clearance requirements, environmental monitoring or public consultations due to blunders in the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Notification of September 2006, which excludes domestic and industrial water supply projects from the environmental clearance process. The notification signifies the environmental illiteracy of officials and ministers at the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF). In spite of repeated letters and acknowledging that this makes no sense, they have refused to change it.</p><p align="justify">MMR has not undertaken an assessment of options before pushing these projects. A cursory review shows that many options exist. Currently at the city or region level, there is no shortfall in water supply. The existing problems are due to inequitable, non-transparent, non-participatory and wasteful water governance in MMR.</p><p align="justify">Municipal corporations under the MMR which are pushing for new dams do not treat even 15 per cent of their sewage. The Bhiwandi Nizampur and Vasai Virar Corporations do not treat any of their sewage. The Mumbai Region has no estimate of its rainwater harvesting potential, and there is little effective action in this direction despite high rainfall. Water supply and distribution losses are over 30 per cent. Local water sources like rivers, lakes and wells are being destroyed by pollution and encroachments. There is no interest in democratising governance of the MMR water sector.</p><p align="justify">The workshop's resolution urged the MMR region to address these issues first. This would lead to sustainable water supply to the city and its suburbs. The Konkan Irrigation Department, which is constructing most of these projects, has violated several laws related to tribal and forest rights, environment, forests and resettlement. It has been mostly favouring a single contractor, illegally.</p><p align="justify">The meeting also strongly urged the MMRDA, MCGM, Municipal Corporations of MMR, Maharashtra government, MoEF, the Maharashtra Forest Department, the National Board of Wildlife and all others concerned to ensure that the following steps are taken up urgently and in a credible way:</p><p align="justify">l Undertake thorough options assessment for Mumbai's (and other cities of the MMR) water needs which includes groundwater recharge and sustainable use, protection and use of local water sources, rainwater harvesting, sewage treatment and reuse, plugging leakages, improving water supply efficiency, taking up systematic demand side management measures etc.</p><p align="justify">1. Undertake Environmental and Social Impact Assessments for all the dams coming up for the Mumbai Region.</p><p align="justify">2. Take immediate action against the Konkan Irrigation Development Corporation for violating multiple laws while bulldozing ahead with projects and the Mumbai Metropolitan Region. Development Authority (MMRDA)  for funding projects in the absence of clearances.</p><p align="justify">3. Respect people's protests and gram sabha resolutions against displacement, deforestation and their refusal to give permission for these projects.</p><p align="justify">4. Take strong penal action against the officers and  contractors who have displaced Adivasis illegally.</p><p align="justify">5. Not resume any work or plan for any project before the above is done. Stop work on projects in the meantime.</p><p align="justify">6. Change the EIA notification to ensure that all large dams are included for environment clearance, public hearings and EIA requirements.</p><p align="justify">7. Immediately institute a credible Cumulative Impact Assessment of the projects already constructed and advanced in implementation.</p><p align="justify">8. Institutionalise decentralised, democratic governance of the water sector in MMR from bottom to top.</p><p align="justify">&nbsp;</p><p align="justify">Forests in the Western Ghats are Mumbai and MMR's lungs. They are the watersheds of rivers and water sources for the Tansa and Bhatsa lakes. Forests naturally purify Mumbai and MMR's drinking water. The rich tribal culture of Thane and Raigad is a shared heritage of Mumbai. We  have no right to displace the tribals or destroy their livelihoods. This destruction in Mumbai's backyard must be stopped.</p><p align="justify">However, Mumbai and MMR are not the only urban areas guilty of destroying the environment, forests, biodiversity and livelihoods of millions of poor people. Delhi, which already has more per capita water than European cities like Paris, Amsterdam or Bonn, is asking for the Renuka, Lakhwar and Kishau dams in the upstream Yamuna basin, while destroying the Yamuna river for all downstream areas. Ahmedabad is using water from the Sardar Sarovar dam that was meant for the people of Kutch and Saurashtra and which has led to the displacement of over 200,000 people. Jaipur is taking water from the Bisalpur dam. Farmers, for whom it was made, are not getting the water and some lost their lives in police firing while demanding that water. A massive diversion of Nethrawathi water is proposed for Bangalore and other areas, destroying the pristine forests of the Western Ghats. Three farmers died in police firing near Pune when a huge farmers rally was protesting against diversion of water from the Pawna Dam to the Corporation of Pimpri-Chinchwad.</p><p align="justify">As Planning Commission member Mihir Shah recently wrote, the 12th Five Year Plan proposes a paradigm shift in the urban sector.  &quot;Each city must consider, as the first source of supply, its local waterbodies. Therefore, cities must only get funds for water projects when they have accounted for water supply from local waterbodies and have protected these waterbodies and their catchments. This precondition will force protection and build the infrastructure which will supply locally and then take back sewage also locally.&quot;</p><p align="justify">The trouble with this urban water sector reform agenda is that, close to two years into the 12th Plan, we still do not see it being implemented anywhere. We do not see any roadmap for its implementation. And yet the UPA government continues to fund solutions catering to only long- distance supply-side measures like big dam projects for urban areas under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM). In fact, of the first `60,000 crore sanctioned for JNNURM, about 70 per cent was for the urban water sector, but do we see any progress in democratisation or even improvement of urban water governance?</p><p align="justify">In that respect, there is hope that the Aam Aadmi Party now governing Delhi will take effective steps in this direction as its manifesto includes a detailed agenda in this regard. Let us hope it will show the way to the nation.</p><p align="justify"><em>Himanshu Thakkar (ht.sandrp@gmail.com), Parineeta Dandekar (parineeta.dandekar@gmail.com), SANDRP </em></p>',
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	'title' => 'When cities guzzle water-Himanshu Thakkar and Parineeta Dandekar',
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	'description' => '<div align="justify">
-CivilSocietyOnline.com
</div>
<p align="justify">
<br />
More than 50 people, including tribal groups, social activists, water experts, ecologists, wildlife experts and academics, came together for a brainstorming workshop on &lsquo;Dams coming up for Mumbai Region.' The meeting was organised by the South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People, Shramik Mukti Sangathana, and Jalbiradari.
</p>
<p align="justify">
About 12 dams are planned or are under construction to satisfy the increasing thirst of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR). All these dams fall in the eco-sensitive region of the Western Ghats. Together they will submerge more than 22,000 hectares, including nearly 7,000 hectares of forests, millions  of trees and more than 750 hectares of the Tansa Sanctuary. The dams will affect a minimum of 100,000 tribals who depend on the forests and their ancestral lands for their livelihoods. These dams include the Kalu, Shai, Balganga, Susari, Khargihill, Bhugad, Pinjal, Gargai, Middle Vaitarna, Barvi and Poshir, among others. These are in addition to the dams already constructed for water supply to the MMR. 
</p>
<p align="justify">
Tribals and other affected groups of the Thane and Raigad region have been strongly opposing these projects. Most people in Mumbai seem unaware of their struggles or the impacts of these projects.
</p>
<p align="justify">
Most of these dams are escaping social and environmental impact assessments and management plans, environment clearance requirements, environmental monitoring or public consultations due to blunders in the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Notification of September 2006, which excludes domestic and industrial water supply projects from the environmental clearance process. The notification signifies the environmental illiteracy of officials and ministers at the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF). In spite of repeated letters and acknowledging that this makes no sense, they have refused to change it.
</p>
<p align="justify">
MMR has not undertaken an assessment of options before pushing these projects. A cursory review shows that many options exist. Currently at the city or region level, there is no shortfall in water supply. The existing problems are due to inequitable, non-transparent, non-participatory and wasteful water governance in MMR.
</p>
<p align="justify">
Municipal corporations under the MMR which are pushing for new dams do not treat even 15 per cent of their sewage. The Bhiwandi Nizampur and Vasai Virar Corporations do not treat any of their sewage. The Mumbai Region has no estimate of its rainwater harvesting potential, and there is little effective action in this direction despite high rainfall. Water supply and distribution losses are over 30 per cent. Local water sources like rivers, lakes and wells are being destroyed by pollution and encroachments. There is no interest in democratising governance of the MMR water sector.
</p>
<p align="justify">
The workshop's resolution urged the MMR region to address these issues first. This would lead to sustainable water supply to the city and its suburbs. The Konkan Irrigation Department, which is constructing most of these projects, has violated several laws related to tribal and forest rights, environment, forests and resettlement. It has been mostly favouring a single contractor, illegally.
</p>
<p align="justify">
The meeting also strongly urged the MMRDA, MCGM, Municipal Corporations of MMR, Maharashtra government, MoEF, the Maharashtra Forest Department, the National Board of Wildlife and all others concerned to ensure that the following steps are taken up urgently and in a credible way:
</p>
<p align="justify">
l Undertake thorough options assessment for Mumbai's (and other cities of the MMR) water needs which includes groundwater recharge and sustainable use, protection and use of local water sources, rainwater harvesting, sewage treatment and reuse, plugging leakages, improving water supply efficiency, taking up systematic demand side management measures etc.
</p>
<p align="justify">
1. Undertake Environmental and Social Impact Assessments for all the dams coming up for the Mumbai Region.
</p>
<p align="justify">
2. Take immediate action against the Konkan Irrigation Development Corporation for violating multiple laws while bulldozing ahead with projects and the Mumbai Metropolitan Region. Development Authority (MMRDA)  for funding projects in the absence of clearances.
</p>
<p align="justify">
3. Respect people's protests and gram sabha resolutions against displacement, deforestation and their refusal to give permission for these projects.
</p>
<p align="justify">
4. Take strong penal action against the officers and  contractors who have displaced Adivasis illegally.
</p>
<p align="justify">
5. Not resume any work or plan for any project before the above is done. Stop work on projects in the meantime.
</p>
<p align="justify">
6. Change the EIA notification to ensure that all large dams are included for environment clearance, public hearings and EIA requirements.
</p>
<p align="justify">
7. Immediately institute a credible Cumulative Impact Assessment of the projects already constructed and advanced in implementation.
</p>
<p align="justify">
8. Institutionalise decentralised, democratic governance of the water sector in MMR from bottom to top.
</p>
<p align="justify">
&nbsp;
</p>
<p align="justify">
Forests in the Western Ghats are Mumbai and MMR's lungs. They are the watersheds of rivers and water sources for the Tansa and Bhatsa lakes. Forests naturally purify Mumbai and MMR's drinking water. The rich tribal culture of Thane and Raigad is a shared heritage of Mumbai. We  have no right to displace the tribals or destroy their livelihoods. This destruction in Mumbai's backyard must be stopped.
</p>
<p align="justify">
However, Mumbai and MMR are not the only urban areas guilty of destroying the environment, forests, biodiversity and livelihoods of millions of poor people. Delhi, which already has more per capita water than European cities like Paris, Amsterdam or Bonn, is asking for the Renuka, Lakhwar and Kishau dams in the upstream Yamuna basin, while destroying the Yamuna river for all downstream areas. Ahmedabad is using water from the Sardar Sarovar dam that was meant for the people of Kutch and Saurashtra and which has led to the displacement of over 200,000 people. Jaipur is taking water from the Bisalpur dam. Farmers, for whom it was made, are not getting the water and some lost their lives in police firing while demanding that water. A massive diversion of Nethrawathi water is proposed for Bangalore and other areas, destroying the pristine forests of the Western Ghats. Three farmers died in police firing near Pune when a huge farmers rally was protesting against diversion of water from the Pawna Dam to the Corporation of Pimpri-Chinchwad.
</p>
<p align="justify">
As Planning Commission member Mihir Shah recently wrote, the 12th Five Year Plan proposes a paradigm shift in the urban sector.  &quot;Each city must consider, as the first source of supply, its local waterbodies. Therefore, cities must only get funds for water projects when they have accounted for water supply from local waterbodies and have protected these waterbodies and their catchments. This precondition will force protection and build the infrastructure which will supply locally and then take back sewage also locally.&quot;
</p>
<p align="justify">
The trouble with this urban water sector reform agenda is that, close to two years into the 12th Plan, we still do not see it being implemented anywhere. We do not see any roadmap for its implementation. And yet the UPA government continues to fund solutions catering to only long- distance supply-side measures like big dam projects for urban areas under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM). In fact, of the first `60,000 crore sanctioned for JNNURM, about 70 per cent was for the urban water sector, but do we see any progress in democratisation or even improvement of urban water governance?
</p>
<p align="justify">
In that respect, there is hope that the Aam Aadmi Party now governing Delhi will take effective steps in this direction as its manifesto includes a detailed agenda in this regard. Let us hope it will show the way to the nation.
</p>
<p align="justify">
<em>Himanshu Thakkar (ht.sandrp@gmail.com), Parineeta Dandekar (parineeta.dandekar@gmail.com), SANDRP </em>
</p>',
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-CivilSocietyOnline.com



More than 50 people, including tribal groups, social activists, water experts, ecologists, wildlife experts and academics, came together for a brainstorming workshop on &lsquo;Dams coming up for Mumbai Region.' The meeting was organised by the South Asia Network on Dams,...'
$disp = '<div align="justify">-CivilSocietyOnline.com</div><p align="justify"><br />More than 50 people, including tribal groups, social activists, water experts, ecologists, wildlife experts and academics, came together for a brainstorming workshop on &lsquo;Dams coming up for Mumbai Region.' The meeting was organised by the South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People, Shramik Mukti Sangathana, and Jalbiradari.</p><p align="justify">About 12 dams are planned or are under construction to satisfy the increasing thirst of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR). All these dams fall in the eco-sensitive region of the Western Ghats. Together they will submerge more than 22,000 hectares, including nearly 7,000 hectares of forests, millions  of trees and more than 750 hectares of the Tansa Sanctuary. The dams will affect a minimum of 100,000 tribals who depend on the forests and their ancestral lands for their livelihoods. These dams include the Kalu, Shai, Balganga, Susari, Khargihill, Bhugad, Pinjal, Gargai, Middle Vaitarna, Barvi and Poshir, among others. These are in addition to the dams already constructed for water supply to the MMR. </p><p align="justify">Tribals and other affected groups of the Thane and Raigad region have been strongly opposing these projects. Most people in Mumbai seem unaware of their struggles or the impacts of these projects.</p><p align="justify">Most of these dams are escaping social and environmental impact assessments and management plans, environment clearance requirements, environmental monitoring or public consultations due to blunders in the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Notification of September 2006, which excludes domestic and industrial water supply projects from the environmental clearance process. The notification signifies the environmental illiteracy of officials and ministers at the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF). In spite of repeated letters and acknowledging that this makes no sense, they have refused to change it.</p><p align="justify">MMR has not undertaken an assessment of options before pushing these projects. A cursory review shows that many options exist. Currently at the city or region level, there is no shortfall in water supply. The existing problems are due to inequitable, non-transparent, non-participatory and wasteful water governance in MMR.</p><p align="justify">Municipal corporations under the MMR which are pushing for new dams do not treat even 15 per cent of their sewage. The Bhiwandi Nizampur and Vasai Virar Corporations do not treat any of their sewage. The Mumbai Region has no estimate of its rainwater harvesting potential, and there is little effective action in this direction despite high rainfall. Water supply and distribution losses are over 30 per cent. Local water sources like rivers, lakes and wells are being destroyed by pollution and encroachments. There is no interest in democratising governance of the MMR water sector.</p><p align="justify">The workshop's resolution urged the MMR region to address these issues first. This would lead to sustainable water supply to the city and its suburbs. The Konkan Irrigation Department, which is constructing most of these projects, has violated several laws related to tribal and forest rights, environment, forests and resettlement. It has been mostly favouring a single contractor, illegally.</p><p align="justify">The meeting also strongly urged the MMRDA, MCGM, Municipal Corporations of MMR, Maharashtra government, MoEF, the Maharashtra Forest Department, the National Board of Wildlife and all others concerned to ensure that the following steps are taken up urgently and in a credible way:</p><p align="justify">l Undertake thorough options assessment for Mumbai's (and other cities of the MMR) water needs which includes groundwater recharge and sustainable use, protection and use of local water sources, rainwater harvesting, sewage treatment and reuse, plugging leakages, improving water supply efficiency, taking up systematic demand side management measures etc.</p><p align="justify">1. Undertake Environmental and Social Impact Assessments for all the dams coming up for the Mumbai Region.</p><p align="justify">2. Take immediate action against the Konkan Irrigation Development Corporation for violating multiple laws while bulldozing ahead with projects and the Mumbai Metropolitan Region. Development Authority (MMRDA)  for funding projects in the absence of clearances.</p><p align="justify">3. Respect people's protests and gram sabha resolutions against displacement, deforestation and their refusal to give permission for these projects.</p><p align="justify">4. Take strong penal action against the officers and  contractors who have displaced Adivasis illegally.</p><p align="justify">5. Not resume any work or plan for any project before the above is done. Stop work on projects in the meantime.</p><p align="justify">6. Change the EIA notification to ensure that all large dams are included for environment clearance, public hearings and EIA requirements.</p><p align="justify">7. Immediately institute a credible Cumulative Impact Assessment of the projects already constructed and advanced in implementation.</p><p align="justify">8. Institutionalise decentralised, democratic governance of the water sector in MMR from bottom to top.</p><p align="justify">&nbsp;</p><p align="justify">Forests in the Western Ghats are Mumbai and MMR's lungs. They are the watersheds of rivers and water sources for the Tansa and Bhatsa lakes. Forests naturally purify Mumbai and MMR's drinking water. The rich tribal culture of Thane and Raigad is a shared heritage of Mumbai. We  have no right to displace the tribals or destroy their livelihoods. This destruction in Mumbai's backyard must be stopped.</p><p align="justify">However, Mumbai and MMR are not the only urban areas guilty of destroying the environment, forests, biodiversity and livelihoods of millions of poor people. Delhi, which already has more per capita water than European cities like Paris, Amsterdam or Bonn, is asking for the Renuka, Lakhwar and Kishau dams in the upstream Yamuna basin, while destroying the Yamuna river for all downstream areas. Ahmedabad is using water from the Sardar Sarovar dam that was meant for the people of Kutch and Saurashtra and which has led to the displacement of over 200,000 people. Jaipur is taking water from the Bisalpur dam. Farmers, for whom it was made, are not getting the water and some lost their lives in police firing while demanding that water. A massive diversion of Nethrawathi water is proposed for Bangalore and other areas, destroying the pristine forests of the Western Ghats. Three farmers died in police firing near Pune when a huge farmers rally was protesting against diversion of water from the Pawna Dam to the Corporation of Pimpri-Chinchwad.</p><p align="justify">As Planning Commission member Mihir Shah recently wrote, the 12th Five Year Plan proposes a paradigm shift in the urban sector.  &quot;Each city must consider, as the first source of supply, its local waterbodies. Therefore, cities must only get funds for water projects when they have accounted for water supply from local waterbodies and have protected these waterbodies and their catchments. This precondition will force protection and build the infrastructure which will supply locally and then take back sewage also locally.&quot;</p><p align="justify">The trouble with this urban water sector reform agenda is that, close to two years into the 12th Plan, we still do not see it being implemented anywhere. We do not see any roadmap for its implementation. And yet the UPA government continues to fund solutions catering to only long- distance supply-side measures like big dam projects for urban areas under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM). In fact, of the first `60,000 crore sanctioned for JNNURM, about 70 per cent was for the urban water sector, but do we see any progress in democratisation or even improvement of urban water governance?</p><p align="justify">In that respect, there is hope that the Aam Aadmi Party now governing Delhi will take effective steps in this direction as its manifesto includes a detailed agenda in this regard. Let us hope it will show the way to the nation.</p><p align="justify"><em>Himanshu Thakkar (ht.sandrp@gmail.com), Parineeta Dandekar (parineeta.dandekar@gmail.com), SANDRP </em></p>'
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When cities guzzle water-Himanshu Thakkar and Parineeta Dandekar

-CivilSocietyOnline.com More than 50 people, including tribal groups, social activists, water experts, ecologists, wildlife experts and academics, came together for a brainstorming workshop on ‘Dams coming up for Mumbai Region.' The meeting was organised by the South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People, Shramik Mukti Sangathana, and Jalbiradari. About 12 dams are planned or are under construction to satisfy the increasing thirst of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR). All these dams fall in the eco-sensitive region of the Western Ghats. Together they will submerge more than 22,000 hectares, including nearly 7,000 hectares of forests, millions of trees and more than 750 hectares of the Tansa Sanctuary. The dams will affect a minimum of 100,000 tribals who depend on the forests and their ancestral lands for their livelihoods. These dams include the Kalu, Shai, Balganga, Susari, Khargihill, Bhugad, Pinjal, Gargai, Middle Vaitarna, Barvi and Poshir, among others. These are in addition to the dams already constructed for water supply to the MMR. Tribals and other affected groups of the Thane and Raigad region have been strongly opposing these projects. Most people in Mumbai seem unaware of their struggles or the impacts of these projects. Most of these dams are escaping social and environmental impact assessments and management plans, environment clearance requirements, environmental monitoring or public consultations due to blunders in the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Notification of September 2006, which excludes domestic and industrial water supply projects from the environmental clearance process. The notification signifies the environmental illiteracy of officials and ministers at the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF). In spite of repeated letters and acknowledging that this makes no sense, they have refused to change it. MMR has not undertaken an assessment of options before pushing these projects. A cursory review shows that many options exist. Currently at the city or region level, there is no shortfall in water supply. The existing problems are due to inequitable, non-transparent, non-participatory and wasteful water governance in MMR. Municipal corporations under the MMR which are pushing for new dams do not treat even 15 per cent of their sewage. The Bhiwandi Nizampur and Vasai Virar Corporations do not treat any of their sewage. The Mumbai Region has no estimate of its rainwater harvesting potential, and there is little effective action in this direction despite high rainfall. Water supply and distribution losses are over 30 per cent. Local water sources like rivers, lakes and wells are being destroyed by pollution and encroachments. There is no interest in democratising governance of the MMR water sector. The workshop's resolution urged the MMR region to address these issues first. This would lead to sustainable water supply to the city and its suburbs. The Konkan Irrigation Department, which is constructing most of these projects, has violated several laws related to tribal and forest rights, environment, forests and resettlement. It has been mostly favouring a single contractor, illegally. The meeting also strongly urged the MMRDA, MCGM, Municipal Corporations of MMR, Maharashtra government, MoEF, the Maharashtra Forest Department, the National Board of Wildlife and all others concerned to ensure that the following steps are taken up urgently and in a credible way: l Undertake thorough options assessment for Mumbai's (and other cities of the MMR) water needs which includes groundwater recharge and sustainable use, protection and use of local water sources, rainwater harvesting, sewage treatment and reuse, plugging leakages, improving water supply efficiency, taking up systematic demand side management measures etc. 1. Undertake Environmental and Social Impact Assessments for all the dams coming up for the Mumbai Region. 2. Take immediate action against the Konkan Irrigation Development Corporation for violating multiple laws while bulldozing ahead with projects and the Mumbai Metropolitan Region. Development Authority (MMRDA) for funding projects in the absence of clearances. 3. Respect people's protests and gram sabha resolutions against displacement, deforestation and their refusal to give permission for these projects. 4. Take strong penal action against the officers and contractors who have displaced Adivasis illegally. 5. Not resume any work or plan for any project before the above is done. Stop work on projects in the meantime. 6. Change the EIA notification to ensure that all large dams are included for environment clearance, public hearings and EIA requirements. 7. Immediately institute a credible Cumulative Impact Assessment of the projects already constructed and advanced in implementation. 8. Institutionalise decentralised, democratic governance of the water sector in MMR from bottom to top.   Forests in the Western Ghats are Mumbai and MMR's lungs. They are the watersheds of rivers and water sources for the Tansa and Bhatsa lakes. Forests naturally purify Mumbai and MMR's drinking water. The rich tribal culture of Thane and Raigad is a shared heritage of Mumbai. We have no right to displace the tribals or destroy their livelihoods. This destruction in Mumbai's backyard must be stopped. However, Mumbai and MMR are not the only urban areas guilty of destroying the environment, forests, biodiversity and livelihoods of millions of poor people. Delhi, which already has more per capita water than European cities like Paris, Amsterdam or Bonn, is asking for the Renuka, Lakhwar and Kishau dams in the upstream Yamuna basin, while destroying the Yamuna river for all downstream areas. Ahmedabad is using water from the Sardar Sarovar dam that was meant for the people of Kutch and Saurashtra and which has led to the displacement of over 200,000 people. Jaipur is taking water from the Bisalpur dam. Farmers, for whom it was made, are not getting the water and some lost their lives in police firing while demanding that water. A massive diversion of Nethrawathi water is proposed for Bangalore and other areas, destroying the pristine forests of the Western Ghats. Three farmers died in police firing near Pune when a huge farmers rally was protesting against diversion of water from the Pawna Dam to the Corporation of Pimpri-Chinchwad. As Planning Commission member Mihir Shah recently wrote, the 12th Five Year Plan proposes a paradigm shift in the urban sector. "Each city must consider, as the first source of supply, its local waterbodies. Therefore, cities must only get funds for water projects when they have accounted for water supply from local waterbodies and have protected these waterbodies and their catchments. This precondition will force protection and build the infrastructure which will supply locally and then take back sewage also locally." The trouble with this urban water sector reform agenda is that, close to two years into the 12th Plan, we still do not see it being implemented anywhere. We do not see any roadmap for its implementation. And yet the UPA government continues to fund solutions catering to only long- distance supply-side measures like big dam projects for urban areas under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM). In fact, of the first `60,000 crore sanctioned for JNNURM, about 70 per cent was for the urban water sector, but do we see any progress in democratisation or even improvement of urban water governance? In that respect, there is hope that the Aam Aadmi Party now governing Delhi will take effective steps in this direction as its manifesto includes a detailed agenda in this regard. Let us hope it will show the way to the nation. Himanshu Thakkar (ht.sandrp@gmail.com), Parineeta Dandekar (parineeta.dandekar@gmail.com), SANDRP