I am the treasurer of a 300-year-old bowling club. In October, I received a water bill for £1,335.29 (£1,220.72 actual plus £114.57 estimated). Bills had previously been about £30 per quarter.

In this edition we look at the recently concluded India-Africa Forum Summit, how the original habitants and workers of Mumbai Port are being ignored in the port redevelopment plans, how the RTE Act faring in the State of Tamil Nadu, the rights of the Indian domestic workers, the business of illegal sand mining, how a village is showing the way to sustainable living and much more.

A local watershed management programme for semi-arid regions staves off bleak prospects in Andhra Pradesh. Rahul Goswami reports.

Punjab needs water, and that means some of the water-guzzling crops must go. But questions of food security and corporatized agriculture confront the state's proposed shift, says Sudhirendar Sharma.

Lalitha Sridhar presents two largely divergent points of view.

Can Gujarat build a pipeline that costs more than its annual outlay? Himanshu Upadhyaya says most of the promises of Narmada waters are simply exercises in public relations.

Subsurface dams can force untapped waters to the surface, making more water available downstream without major ecological and human costs, says Jagadiswara Rao.

Following an 18-month long yatra of the nation's river basins, the Rashtriya Jal Biradari proposes policies and steps to address India's water problems. Anuj Grover reports.

In Tamilnadu, the temple tanks were once the heart of water management, and ensured riparian rights and sustainable use. But community care has long since vanished, and with it, so has the water. Lalitha Sridhar reports.

In the 2004-5 budget speech, the finance minister announced subsidy support for a hundred thousand water harvesting units. But governments continue to miss the point that decentralisation must allow citizens choice over institutions too, not merely access to new schemes and loans, says Sudhirendar Sharma.

Researchers around the country gathered to discuss solutions to the key water-related problems India faces. From conflicts between states, to water-saving agricultural practices, to receding glaciers, a number of issues were raised, and their economic and social implications weighed. Surekha Sule reports.

Over the last five years the farmers of two rural districts outside Chennai have started selling water from their irrigation wells to the city's water utility. This, to the detriment of cultivation in their own lands and those of neighbouring farmers, reports Krithika Ramalingam.

The Permumatty grama panchayat of Kerala's Plachimada village has appealed to the Supreme Court for revocation of a recent High Court order granting permission to Coca Cola to draw water upto 5 lakh litres per day. The High Court's ruling was based on an investigation that has raised more questions than answered. P N Venugopal and M Suchitra report.

This B-school's 96-acre campus occupies two steep hillocks. There is no independent water source for the entire institute and the average daily water consumption exceeds one lakh litres. The absence of pre-monsoon showers in mid-Kerala is causing worry elsewhere, but IIM-Kozhikode shows no signs of anxiety. Shree Padre finds out why.

A Kerala panchayat has recently appealed the state High Court's ruling which said that the panchayat's rejection of Coca Cola's application for renewal of license to extract groundwater was untenable in law. Videh Upadhyay drafts some of questions that the Supreme Court may need to settle.

In a nation where floods and drought continually cause havoc in different regions, two recent events, one in Rajasthan and the other in Karnataka have brought citizens and media together to resolve acute water shortages. These are hopeful signs. The India Together editorial.

A senior advisor with the World Bank is quick to hail the establishment of water entitlements in India, but is it too quick? Merely promising quotas of water on paper, or setting up 'rights' that cannot be enforced, is hardly the same as actually providing water to meet citizens' needs, observes Videh Upadhyay.

With its enchanting greenery and network of backwaters and rivers, Kerala is thought to be a water-plenty state. After all, Kerala gets 6 months of rainfall, 2.5 times higher than the national average. Despite this, the state has been experiencing water scarcity, with conditions worsening in some regions. P N Venugopal analyses the causes.

In the arid west of Gujarat, there are still those who place their faith in the Sardar Sarovar project, and its promises of water for their region. The government has paid little attention to the local water resources in the region, but this has not deterred them. Himanshu Upadhyaya reports on a petition before the Supreme Court.

Running short of water, and with the rains playing truant, Wayanad coffee planter M P Chandranath sacrificed six acres of his prime coffee plantation to develop a forest. That helped increase his water sources and today, he has no regrets. Shree Padre reports.

Thanks to voluntary water harvesting measures by a few, as well as legislation-led RWH by the others, many of Chennai's open wells have sprung back to life. The bountiful rains of 2005 showed that where conservation efforts are in place, even a single season's rainfall can largely restore water security. Shree Padre reports.

New Delhi can easily develop the procedures needed to ensure that projects that have not been approved by either CWC or the Planning Commission do not get statutory clearances. Instead of using such powers, central agencies work more like agents for sub-optimal development. Himanshu Thakkar reports.

It is important to remove the distortions from the political process, rather than attempt to remove politics itself from decisions in the water sector. The World Bank's model has failed, and it is time to heed other voices, writes Shripad Dharmadhikary.

This 250 metre-long suranga, situated by the side of a school in Kasargod, Kerala resembles the famed Iranian water system - the qanat - more than its other counterparts in the district. Shree Padre reports on its passing out from regular use.

Activists and governments alike demand that future deliberations on water issues be brought within the legitimate fold of the UN, and not hosted by private and corporate interests. Shripad Dharmadhikary reports.

Judging by the 16 years it took for the right to education to be legislated, the right to water and sanitation is a long way off. But there is much to be learned from the efforts of NGOs, meanwhile. Darryl D'Monte reports.

For millions of people, the law does not explicitly direct that they are entitled to safe water. A United Nations resolution passed in July this year is about to change that. Shripad Dharmadhikary reports.

The new Bureau of Water Efficiency should push for Central laws that can be adopted without dilution by the states, and work with specific industry segments to address their water deficits, writes Chandrashekar Hariharan.

The government's agenda for water privatisation has relied heavily on the supposed success of the chosen model in Chile. A new book reveals we may be learning the wrong lessons. Shripad Dharmadhikary reports.

A recent report by the UNICEF highlights the most critical issues faced by the Indian water sector today, urging the establishment to break new ground in resource management and utilization. Shripad Dharmadhikary discusses the key findings.

The extent of submergence of villages and farmland in the Narmada valley under the backwaters of Sardar Sarovar dam increases with successive monsoons. Himanshu Upadhyaya stresses the need for a more realistic and effective look at solutions to the woes of the region.

The construction of barrages to meet the water needs of thermal power plants in western Chattisgarh shows that irregularities involved in the allocation of this resource may be as large as the ones in coal allocation itself. Shripad Dharmadhikary throws light on the issue.

The uncertainty of the nature and extent of climate change impact on the water sector calls for adaptive and flexible measures. Shripad Dharmadhikary quotes from a recent report of a Working Group within the IPCC to explain why.

In many part of rural India, women spend most of their time walking long distances to collect water for their household's needs. Nitin Jugran Bahuguna visits the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand where the women no longer have to worry about fetching water from long distances thanks to an intervention that has brought potable water right to their doorstep.

Top-down water supply and sanitation schemes have failed the poor time and again. But for decentralization and community involvement to work, local governments -- municipalities -- must improve. Surekha Sule reports on the findings of a global assessment that included India.

One month ago, on June 27, Vadodara and surrounding areas received the first monsoon rains after a 15-day delay. Citizens spent the first two days of rains in jubilation. On the third day, things went wrong. Surekha Sule assesses the recent floods that devastated one of Gujarat's leading cities.

The Draft National Water Framework Bill, put out for public comments recently, represents an important and progressive step forward despite some shortcomings and challenges involved in its implementation, writes Shripad Dharmadhikary.

A recent report suggests merging the Central Water Commission (CWC) and the Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) into a new organisation to be called the National Water Commission. Shripad Dharmadhikary comments on the report.

Water is a big local concern, but at the national level, it does not seem to figure very high up in the considerations of major parties, at least as seen in their pre-election promises. Shripad Dharmadhikary reports.

Fly ash, the residue from coal used in thermal power plants, is not only a headache for plant operators; its use in agriculture and other sectors violates environmental sanctity and poses a serious risk to human health. Shripad Dharmadhikary studies a new CEA report to bring us more.

"There is a strong question mark about the possibility of ... providing potable drinking water to all villages by 2004”, warned the Comptroller and Auditor General in 2002. Himanshu Upadhyaya on how the CAG foretold correctly.

Well-known experts presented `Water: More Nutrition Per Drop' at the April 20 meeting of the UN Commission on Sustainable Development in New York. Sudhirendar Sharma reviews the report and its considerations of the Indian situation.

The conflict between farmers and government in Rajasthan escalated recently. Farmers resorted to violence after demonstrations failed. There are simply too many stakeholders and too few resources to satisfy everybody. But there are ways to make life easier for citizens, writes Deepak Malik.

Does the IMF have a role to play in reducing poverty? Or is it part of the reason why many countries remain poor in the first place? A Bretton Woods Project report.

Large water management projects are often announced with much fanfare, but as an audit of Gujarat's implementation shows, they're more likely to steer money towards other ends, and leave the taxpayers holding the bill for the benefits that have been diverted elsewhere. Himanshu Upadhyaya reports.

This summer, stories of the impacts of drought and water scarcity highlighting the conditions of farmers, cattle, and domestic water supplies in villages, towns and cities have been regular. What is not reported is the situation with industries, particularly the coal based thermal power plants, reports Shripad Dharmadhikary.

India and China make competing plans for the river's precious waters, ignoring the functions it already performs - in sustaining rich ecosystems, flora and fauna, cultures and a wide range of livelihoods. Shripad Dharmadhikary reports.

When water intensive commercial crops are grown in water scarce areas and the produce exported, it amounts to a virtual export of water, even as water availability becomes scarcer. The virtual water concept must be considered seriously in India, asserts Shama Perveen.

Superstition, the occult, God, government and technology have all been pressed into service in Anantapur's desperate search for water. P Sainath continues his series on farmer suicides.