How to grow nutritious food without over-extracting groundwater
- Blog Solar irrigation in Samastipur district, India. Photo: Metro Media / IWMI Policies that helped India to become self-sufficient and keep food prices affordable in the 1960s and 70s are today contributing to rapid groundwater depletion, putting electricity utilities in financial distress, and keeping farmers locked in to growing rice and wheat, instead of more nutritious coarse cereals. These are among ...more
Changing the way we collect data during Covid
- By Labisha Uprety, Research Officer - Policy and Water Governance, IWMI-Nepal Blog Photo: Andrew Reckers / IWMI The coronavirus pandemic has fundamentally changed the way we live our lives. Many of us are now working from home, which can create challenges for researchers faced with being unable to physically access the field. Covid has forced us to undertake research in different ways. ...more
Smart tech to play vital role in addressing plastic pollution crisis – new study
- Media Release (Nairobi/Colombo, 17 December 2020) - From source to sea, our waters are contaminated by a plastics scourge. A new study by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) offers a number of technological solutions aimed at tackling one of the world’s most pressing issues. Approximately 8 million metric tonnes of plastic litter flow to ...more
Why the young aspire to leave agriculture behind
- By Prachi Patel – Migration Communications Consultant, IWMI, USA Blog Mother and daughter at their family fish store in the Ayeyarwady Delta in Myanmar. Photo: Majken Schmidt Søgaard / World Fish Of the 164 million migrant workers leaving their homes in search of new jobs and opportunities, an estimated 1 in 8 are under 25. Across nations, young people play an integral ...more
Success despite Covid: Hope from a Water Users Association in Central Myanmar
- Blog By Marie-Charlotte Buisson, Petra Schmitter and Nyan Thiha Since last year, we had enough water and vegetables to procure a good income as long as I get water, so I will continue this year again. The impact Covid-19 has had on farmers has been devastating. Harvest delays due to mobility restrictions, reduced availability of labor and variability in output and input price ...more
After the flush: How a project in Ghana is turning human waste into an economic resource
- Blog United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 6 aims to ensure clean water and sanitation for all. The two are closely interconnected: a lack of adequate sanitation and waste management infrastructure and processes has long-term negative impacts on water supply and quality. Workers turning compost made from fecal sludge and organic waste. Photo: Hamish John Appleby / IWMI Several countries have successfully introduced initiatives to ...more
Modernizing wastewater treatment in Sri Lanka
- Blog By Andreas Ulrich, Researcher: Waste/Sanitation Management, IWMI Sewerage management is more than just ‘flushing it away’ – waste must be contained, treated and disposed of safely. In many countries ageing infrastructure and growing urban populations are creating mounting pressure on systems that in many cases were designed in the early twentieth century. But, in Sri Lanka a joint initiative between ...more
IWMI receives the 2020 GEO Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Award
- Blog The International Water Management Institute (IWMI) has been awarded the 2020 GEO Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Award in the Special Category of Innovation linked to SDG Target 13.1. This is in recognition of the Index-Based Flood Insurance (IBFI) product developed by IWMI scientist Dr Giriraj Amarnath, Research Group Leader – Water Risks to Development and Resilience (WRDR). He accepted the ...more
Grantees from South Asia awarded funds to develop innovations enhancing solar irrigation
- Media Release (Colombo, October 10, 2020) The International Water Management Institute (IWMI) and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) have awarded five organisations with funds to develop innovations for solar irrigation. Vegetable farmer who uses solar pumps for irrigation in Sayapatri Tol, Budiganga Rural Municipality 7, Morang District of Nepal. Photo: Nabin Baral / IWMI The grantees will benefit from ...more
Smart Water Magazine: How tech and modern market mechanisms can solve water scarcity in post-Soviet states
- IWMI in the news So what’s the solution? Scientists from the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) have completed research trials that have seen dramatic improvements in water accounting. We worked with three water consumer associations, serving about 500 farmers, to test new, electronic tools that enable the associations to automatically account for how much water has been delivered to which farmers. Read ...more
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