India Water Portal launched in Hindi
19 November 2008
India Water Portal, a comprehensive information repository on all topics related to water, gets a new avatar in its Hindi launch in India’s national capital yesterday. This new step takes forward knowledge sharing on water issues to a larger audience among the grassroots.
New Delhi: To make information access easier for
people who do not necessarily speak or read English, the Water
Community and Arghyam launched a new India Water Portal in Hindi in New
Delhi yesterday. The portal marks a step taken ahead from the English version of the
India Water Portal that was launched in January last year to harness
the internet to share information and knowledge on good water
management practices among practitioners and the general public. With
the Hindi launch, the portal is now set to significantly widen its
reach and cater to a much larger segment of society. Speaking on the occasion, Minister of State for Water Resources Jay
Prakash Narayan Yadav lauded the effort to initiate the Hindi portal.
He also underlined the need to have similar portals in other regional
languages that would cover more people across the country. The need for water awareness was pertinent in the present day, he
mentioned, citing examples of how traditional water structures and
rivers are being destroyed. It is important to revisit the
time-honoured knowledge repository present in the Indian culture to
help save and conserve these water resources, he added. “We should try to create as much awareness possible on water and for
this we may need to have a nationwide campaign for water on the lines
of the pulse polio and literacy campaigns,” he said. The Water Portal comprises components like case studies, water
policy-related documents, films, news on water, and information on
organisations working in the area. There is also a kid’s section. The
site has meteorological data of the last 100 years, which stands to be
very helpful for researchers in the field. Another interactive feature
is ‘Ask a Query’ section wherein users will be able to get their
water-related queries addressed by a panel of experts. The portal presentation given by Siraj Kesar and Meenakshi Arora
from Water Community spurred much excitement among the audience who
were forthcoming with their suggestions for the portal. There were
suggestions to explore wider issues through the portal as also to
attempt greater information dissemination by linking it to other
mediums of communication like radio, TV and mobiles. Rohini Nilekani, founder Chairperson of Arghyam presided over the
function and veteran Gandhian and environmental activist Anupam Mishra
also spoke on the occasion.
