Kannada Water Portal

'Nira Nischinte' (ನೀರ ನಿಶ್ಚಿಂತೆ) or loosely translated - 'Peace of mind with Water' is the slogan we chose for the Kannada version of Water Portal (which is funded by Arghyam), and also as the title of the event we planned surrounding it. We just had the third edition of the 'Nira Nischinte' event at Tumkur yesterday. The first one was at Dharwad, the second at Mangalore.

It is quite an interesting event considering that not many people in general take interest in issues surrounding Water. Here, we have had passionate people attending the event, in good numbers that too, which is quite surprising really. We have had people learning how to share information on-line, and more importantly about doing so in *local language*. It has made up a rather unique event and the name has caught up already! And the discussions we have had until now has been excellent.

In general, many discussions just end up with complaints, but no solid initiatives towards solving the problem. Although water issues affect everyone, they always end up being perceived as "somebody else's problem" and go without being addressed properly. Most often than not, public authorities are blamed. The day to day situation on water is something that people have got "adjusted" to, rather than trying to improve it. Whether it is to prick the public authority to do their jobs properly or to take up simple initiatives on their own (like Rain Water Harvesting), not many seem to have enough motivation or intent. And all this, I note down from my interaction over a significant amount of time, and having been the same myself earlier.

You get a feeling that the intent is now changing when people discuss the issues even when having their lunch (!) and seeing them cover that extra distance discussing "what could be done about it"!

A chat conversation that became a discussion between friends, later became an idea for a meet-up! On March 22nd, we are meeting up near maDivaLa lake (Bangalore), to celebrate the day. This would be a Kannada Water Portal event, so expect lots of discussion in Kannada! :-)

There are also several efforts on to bring a cycling track to maDivaLa lake and to get the lake cleaned up. The event could also add up to the support towards these efforts.

Like to join in?

Mail us at kannada AT indiawaterportal.org or just use this contact form.

The other week, I was a curious participant in the concluding session of the recent training program Arghyam had organized to train non-profits participating in a state-wide survey they've planned.

As someone who's helping out with Kannada version of the India Water Portal, I was very curious to see how they have planned the project and how they're going to execute this. After attending the session, I should say that it was time spent for good. The passionate team behind it seems to have done quite a lot of ground work in planning the survey and chalking out the details.

What struck me was the simplicity with which they had arranged it, the simple approach and the enthusiasm of team behind it that was keen to discuss and also to share information, details about the survey.