Regional Think Tank (RTT) program between Vidya Bhawan Society (VBS) and Centre for Policy Research (CPR)
The collaboration between Centre for Policy Research (CPR) and Vidya Bhawan Society (VBS) has reached its 5th year. The collaboration started with a project by CPR on GIS mapping of various dimensions of water and sanitation in Udaipur city region. This project was instrumental in planning of sanitation facilities by the local bodies. Taking this collaboration forward, another study was conducted by CPR under: Scaling City Institutions for India (SCI-FI) to understand the sanitation service chain in Udaipur and based on this study a manual for proper construction of septic tank was published. This manual was made standard for design and construction of Septic tanks in Udaipur.
Under the SCI-FI initiative by CPR, Vidya Bhawan and CPR decided to study the complete sanitation value chain in Udaipur and strengthen the capacity of local bodies. As part of this, a MoU has been signed between UMC, HZL, CPR and Vidya Bhawan Society to work on developing a Faecal Sludge Treatment Plant and the project is currently in planning stages.
Under the Regional Think Tank (RTT) programme of CPR, both the organisation agreed to work on Urban Sanitation Market in the urban and peri-urban areas of Udaipur city. The aim of this project is to understand the urban sanitation market by studying the sanitation behaviour and practices of the household and describe the supply chain analysis of sanitation market. A preliminary survey has been conducted to gain a broad understanding of household behaviour and practices related to sanitation.
Overview:
Water resource management is the activity of planning, developing, distributing and managing the optimum use of water resources. It is a sub-set of water cycle management. Ideally, water resource management planning has regard to all the competing demands for water and seeks to allocate water on an equitable basis to satisfy all uses and demands. As with other resource management, this is rarely possible in practice. The CORP presentations will give insights on how this is being achieved in Udaipur from the perspective of integrated water resource management and sustainable ground water management.
Sanitation management refers to the practices and procedures necessary to ensure a clean, safe establishment. Proper sanitation is important in any job, though it is especially valuable, and often enforced by law. Effective sanitation management requires skilled workers and supervisors to ensure that a facility maintains cleanliness and meets all sanitation codes. The CORP presentations will provide insights on how this is being achieved in Udaipur with regards to waste water management and faecal sludge management.
Presentations:
Partnering for Wastewater Management (Neelima Khetan)
Sustainable Solutions for Non-Sewered network in Udaipur (Ambarish Karunanithi)
Understanding Faecal Sludge Management for Udaipur (Abhinav Kumar)
Integrated Water Resource Management in the context of Udaipur (Anil Mehta)
Lessons from ‘MARVI’ – Sustainable Groundwater Management in Urban context (P.K. Singh)
Speaker Profiles:
Ms Neelima Khetan is the Group CSR Head for Vedanta Resources Plc, a global diversified resources company. She is also Vice President, CSR at Hindustan Zinc (which is part of Vedanta). Neelima has long experience of the social sector, having held leadership positions like – India Country Director of the American India Foundation and Chief Executive of Seva Mandir. She was also the Acting Director of Institute of Rural Management, Anand (IRMA), from June 2006 to May 2007.
Dr Anil Mehta graduated in civil engineering, post graduated in irrigation water management engineering and done doctoral thesis on IWRM. He is currently working as Principal, Vidya Bhawan Polytechnic, Udaipur. He has published several research articles in reputed Journals on issues like Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM), Soil and Water conservation Lake Management and Water Supply and Sanitation Engineering. He has written capacity building manuals on IWRM for different stakeholders. He has received several prestigious awards for his work in the Field of Environment & Water Management. He is joint secretary of civil society organisation Jheel Sanrakshan Samiti.
Mr Ambarish Karunanithi is a Senior Research Associate at CPR and is a part of the ‘Scaling City Institutions for India’ (Sci-Fi) project. His area of interest is urban sanitation solutions, urban symbiosis and circular economy. His current work mainly focuses on technical analysis of alternate sanitation solutions for urban areas. Prior to joining CPR, he headed the technical support unit at Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation, Odisha. As a head of the unit, he supported the municipal body in planning and implementation of National and State level Urban Infrastructure Schemes (Smart Cities Mission, Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation and Swachh Bharat Mission). He was trained as a Chemical Engineer at Vellore Institute of Technology, Vellore and obtained his Masters in Energy and Environmental Engineering from Linkoping University, Sweden. During his tenure at Linkoping University, he worked as a Researcher in the Environmental Technology and Management Division of the University. As a graduate researcher, he got involved in system analysis of biofuels.
Dr P K Singh is working as Professor at Department of Soil and Water Engineering, College of Technology and Engineering, Maharana Pratap University of Agriculture and Technology, Udaipur. He has 30 years of teaching, research and extension experience in the field of soil and water conservation, watershed management, ground water engineering. He has written 9 books,7 book chapter and published 90 research papers in national and International journals. He also visited Florida International University, as visiting Lecturer in 2010 under Fulbright Fellowship. Dr. Singh received three national awards from Indian Society of Agricultural Engineers and also recipient of University Best Teacher Award in the year 2003.
Mr Abhinav Kumar is currently working as Research Associate in Vidya Bhawan Society. Prior to this, he has worked with AIGGPA, Bhopal and Azim Premji Foundation on issues related to education and Urban Governance. He has done his graduation in Metallurgical Engineering from IIEST, Shibpur and post-graduation in MA(Development) from Azim Premji University, Bangalore.
Proposed agenda may be accessed here.
The event will be followed by lunch.
To RSVP, please write to sci-fi@cprindia.org (Limited seating, first come first serve basis)
