Workshop on ICTs, Climate Change and Water

Dr. Vishal Narain participated in an international workshop on ICTs, Climate Change and Water organized by the IDRC, Canada and APC, Alliance for Progressive Communications in Johannesburg from July 7 to 10, 2011. The workshop was attended by about 30 participants from around the world. The workshop sought to develop a research agenda around the theme of ICTs, Climate Change and Water. Several issues were discussed such as the role that ICTs can play in reducing vulnerability to the water related impacts of climate change, improving access to information, securing greater transparency and disaster risk reduction. The workshop was an interactive one and participants worked in smaller groups to develop research ideas and proposals that were subsequently presented in plenaries. Much attention was paid to the challenges that large cities were faced with in dealing with the water related impacts of climate change, and the stresses that urbanization created. 

Project presentation at IDRC- SARO

On November 8, 2010, Vishal Narain made a project presentation at the IDRC - SARO in New Delhi. The purpose of the presentation was to share the project conceptualization, objectives and methodology as well as emerging insights from the field. Present at the presentation were Mark Attwood, Programme Leader, Climate Change and Water, Marco Rondon, Senior Programme Specialist, Climate Change and Water, Sara Ahmed and other colleagues from IDRC and Marie-Helene Zerah,  Senior Researcher Fellow, Centre de Sciences Humaines, New Delhi. Surabhi Mehrotra from Jagori shared results from their UPE/CCW project  Women's Rights and Access to Water and Sanitation in Asian Cities, based in two urban resettlement colonies in Delhi.

The presentation by Vishal was followed by a round of discussion on a number of issues such as the project conceptualization, similarities or variations across the research sites, the dynamics of land acqusition in the research location, and how the team would address issues of equity and vulnerability in the research sites , as well as the interaction of stressors from climate change and urbanization.