by Anand Teltumbde

17/11/2025

Water Atlas 2025 Data and facts about the basis of life  https://eu.boell.org/sites/default/files/2025-11/wateratlas2025_web_20251024.pdf   https://eu.boell.org/en/WaterAtlas   the unequal distribution of water and industrial pollution to climate-linked water insecurity and geopolitical tensions.

BASIS OF LIFE. To overcome crises, we must manage water sustainably.

WATER FOR ALL Over a quarter of the world’s population has no safe access to drinking water.
declared water a human right:
CLIMATE UNDER PRESSURE extreme weather  more frequent. Those most severely affected are least able to protect themselves.
16 BIODIVERSITY
WET HABITATS
Healthy ecosystems purify water and
protect against floods and droughts. However,
the climate crisis is disrupting natural
cycles and threatening habitats around the
world. Protecting peatlands, wetlands,
and coastal areas is not only an ecological
priority but also a social imperative.
CONSUMPTION TAPPED OUT From farms to factories, from smartphones
to kitchen taps, global water consumption
and demand are rising, driven by agriculture
and industry. 
20 POLLUTION MURKY DEPTHS
Plastic waste, industrial effluent, chemicals:
scarcely a single body of water is safe. They
threaten ecosystems, biodiversity, and human
health. The solution to the wave of pollutants?
A circular economy that conserves resources.
22 PRIVATISATION
THE STORY OF A WRONG TURN
Selling public water supply systems to private
companies was supposed to make management
more efficient, and lower prices. But
experience has often shown the opposite. Many
municipalities and civil society initiatives now
want to bring water back into the public domain.
24 CONFLICTS
DIVIDING THE WATERS
Access to clean water is a human right. But
with the climate crisis and population growth,
water is becoming an ever-scarcer resource –
over which different groups may compete
fiercely. Interna

 PRIVATISATION
THE STORY OF A WRONG TURN
Selling public water supply systems to private
companies was supposed to make management
more efficient, and lower prices. But
experience has often shown the opposite. Many
municipalities and civil society initiatives now
want to bring water back into the public domain.
24 CONFLICTS
DIVIDING THE WATERS
Access to clean water is a human right. But
with the climate crisis and population growth,
water is becoming an ever-scarcer resource –
over which different groups may compete
fiercely. International agreements can help
promote cooperation rather than conflict.
26 AGRICULTURE
DRYING OUT
Agriculture is the single largest industrial
sector when it comes to consuming water:
72 percent of the world’s freshwater consumption
is used to produce food. Ensuring a secure
supply despite the threats posed by the changing
climate will take political will.
28 VEGETABLE FARMING
THIRSTY TOMATOES IN DRY LANDSCAPES
Spain is Europe’s vegetable garden. The
country is an example of how export-oriented
industrial cultivation methods lead to water
shortages and pollution, as well as accelerate the
loss of species. To overcome such crises,
a sustainable reorganisation of the food
system is necessary. 

How Religious Discrimination Led to the Influx Into Mumbra https://thewire.in/communalism/how-religious-discrimination-led-to-the-influx-into-mumbra Sidharth Bhatia

It was only after the 1992-93 riots in Mumbai, which went on for two months with a break in between, that large numbers of migrants chose to move to Mumbra.   “People came in the thousands. Temporary camps were set up and soon, well-meaning philanthropists built one-room tenements that they sold for a mere Rs 10,000; even this amount most refugees could not manage. 

Jokesters lead the fight for free expression in India Economist Nov 15th 2025 Jokesters lead the fight for free expression in India

Indeed some Indian comedians feel they have an obligation to stand
up and be heard. “Censorship has captured most of the arts,”
explains Vinay Shukla, a documentary film-maker. “Over the last ten
years, comics have taken on the establishment much more directly
than other art forms.” Films, television shows and plays require
funding and a crew—and often need an official censor’s approval.
Books need publishers. Comedy, by contrast, is decentralised:
comedians speak for themselves and need only a microphone. Their
mode is cheap, portable and, in the age of social media, easily
disseminated: comics can speak to the nation from a single stage or
desk. “Kunal Kamra would be recognised at any airport,” says Mr
Shukla.

How Italy’s mafia uses social media to recruit new blood Economist  Nov 15th 2025 

Mobsters are exploiting the social-media app to normalise their
image, mythologise their culture and even to launder money, 
TikTok’s algorithm, based on user interaction, soon subjects casual
users to a perpetual torrent of violence, loyalty and ostentation,
“including wives of prisoners offering advice, photos of victims of
clan wars, young heirs flaunting luxury brands, repentant mafiosi
offering commentary…and parades of scooters designed to
intimidate”, the report said. This continual exposure to “grief,
violence, luxury and prison…has trained audiences to consume
criminal imagery as entertainment.”

https://www.economist.com/by-invitation/2025/11/11/a-human-rights-researcher-on-why-she-pushed-back-when-china-bullied-her-university  Democratic governments must resist authoritarian states trying to co-opt their institutions, writes Laura Murphy Whatever the reasons—whether commercial, legal, ethical or
reputational—these documents suggest the university had knowingly
and deliberately complied with the demands of a foreign statesecurity agency to silence me and my researchers, among them
Uyghurs who risked their own and their families’ wellbeing to expose
Chinese abuses. SHU administrators clearly no longer shared their
courage.
Academic freedom is the cornerstone of knowledge production in
democratic societies. Preserving it requires that universities shelter
researchers from the retaliation of authoritarian governments by
refusing to surrender to threats or put harnesses on their faculty’s
research agenda. Universities protect that freedom in part by
securing the necessary insurance to cover their researchers. And
they provide financial and administrative support to faculty to pursue
the questions that animate them, regardless of whether they are
considered “sensitive”. We must not allow those who seek to
deny rights abuses to co-opt our democratic institutions, such as
courts, media or universities. Those who comply with such demands
encourage bad actors to extort similar submission out of others. The
effects are corrosive of our institutions, our freedoms, our
knowledge and our power to effect change

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India’s census will be consequential—and controversial  https://www.economist.com/the-world-ahead/2025/11/12/indias-census-will-be-consequential-and-controversial

https://cop30.br/en/news-about-cop30/over-usd-5-5-billion-announced-for-tropical-forest-forever-facility-as-53-countries-endorse-the-historic-tfff-launch-declaration  The TFFF is a historic paradigm shift in global efforts to protect and restore tropical forests, as the facility will address a market failure and recognize the value of, and pay for, the ecosystem services provided by tropical forests to the world. The TFFF creates an unprecedented global financial incentive to protect standing tropical forests, rather than destroying them.

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Advocacy Statement on the Green Bonus and the Future of the Himalaya: People for Himalaya
We, the undersigned organisations committed to ecological democracy, mountain livelihoods, and climate justice, welcome the recent appeal by the Constitutional Conduct Group urging the 16th Finance Commission to recognise the ecological contribution of the Himalayan states through a Green Bonus. The letter rightly highlights that Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim, Jammu & Kashmir, and other Himalayan states sustain India’s forests, rivers, and glaciers that nourish nearly half the country’s population. Yet, these very regions are being eroded by climate change, unchecked infrastructure, and fiscal compulsions that drive them to exploit their own ecological wealth.

The demand for a Green Bonus is both justified and necessary, but it must be accompanied by a clear and collectively defined framework for Himalayan development. The standards for what constitutes sustainable and equitable growth in the Himalaya must be discussed widely with the governments and people of these states. Himalayan regions should be designated as eco-sensitive or protected zones, where large construction projects, major industries, hydropower dams, and extensive road-widening are strictly regulated or prohibited. The objective must be to reduce extractive pressures, not legitimise them through compensation.

Beyond compensation, Green Bonus funding should promote community-based mixed forest development and green, small-scale industries that create local employment and add value to agricultural and forest products. Priority must be given to education and healthcare, following the Kerala model, where decentralised, participatory governance has enabled poverty reduction and improved quality of life. Horticulture and tourism can serve as additional livelihoods, but tourism must be responsible and environmentally sustainable, with local communities owning and managing these enterprises. Large, high-impact tourism projects must be discouraged in favour of decentralised and community-run destinations.

The Himalayan states face an impossible paradox: they are expected to conserve forests and regulate hydrology for the nation, while disasters, infrastructural collapse, and limited revenue options threaten their survival. The Green Bonus, therefore, is not charity but an instrument of fiscal justice within India’s federal system. Yet, it cannot become another exercise in offsetting and compensating that commodifies nature. Financial transfers alone will not fix systemic inequities; they must be tied to structural and institutional reform.

Transparency and accountability are essential, but so too is strong environmental regulation. Without effective enforcement of environmental and forest laws, fiscal incentives will not prevent degradation. Any Green Fund must include strict ecological performance criteria, independent monitoring, and public disclosure. Most importantly, Gram Sabhas and local governance institutions must have a decisive role in land-use planning, forest management, and environmental decision-making. This requires closing legal loopholes and strengthening the implementation of the Forest Rights Act, Environmental Impact Assessment, and related laws to revive the survival rights and needs of mountain communities rather than the “ease of doing business.”

If designed with justice, participation, and regulation at its core, the Green Bonus can advance fiscal, environmental, and social justice together. If not, it will merely place a price tag on the Himalaya’s collapse. We urge the Finance Commission and the Government of India to treat this as an opportunity for reform and rebalancing — to ensure that the mountains, their people, and their rights stand at the heart of India’s climate and development future.

Endorsed by:
People for Himalaya