Biome Trust

Water is deeply connected to who carries it, who manages it, and who gets to decide.

In many parts of India, the responsibility of using and managing water has long rested with women - often unrecognised, yet they do not have the power to decide!

Women like Renuka, a “water woman” whose everyday work reflects deep knowledge, care, and stewardship of local water systems. Her story is part of a larger, lived reality where women quietly , without expectation, hold together the fragile balance between water and life 

Across our work in Biome, this is becoming more visible. In watershed projects in Kolar, women are not just participants. They are restoring channels, contributing to ecological work, and strengthening collective ownership of water systems.

Through our women plumbers training programme, women are stepping into spaces long considered ‘technical’- repairing systems, managing infrastructure, and building new livelihoods around water.

And within our own team, women continue to shape how we think about water , bringing together technical knowledge, community perspectives, and on ground insights to design more inclusive water solutions.

This is what Water and Gender looks like in practice. Not as a theme for a day, but as a reality we must recognise and strengthen.

If you know of more such women in your home, community, or field, share her story with us. Let’s bring more women working in the water space into the spotlight.

BiomeEnvironmentalTrust

Biome Environmental Trust participated in the capacity-building workshop and presentation of the handbook “Urban Services for Small Cities in Uttar Pradesh” last month in Lucknow, led by WRI India along with partner organisations.

As cities across Uttar Pradesh continue to grow and transition, the handbook explores pathways for designing right-sized infrastructure and service delivery systems that are better suited to the needs and realities of small cities. The aim is to support urban services that are responsive to local contexts and work for both people and place today and over the long term.

Biome has contributed to the development of this resource as a water expert, offering technical inputs, critical review, and field-grounded insights drawn from our work on integrated water management. It is encouraging to see practice-based learnings feeding into resources that can guide planning and decision-making in smaller urban centres.

At the workshop, Kolla Srivalli Kiran represented Biome and shared sectoral experiences and case learnings. Her engagement during the guided exhibition walkthrough helped connect principles from the handbook with practical on-ground realities, enabling richer discussions among decision-makers, practitioners, fellows, and state officials.

The conversations reinforced an important direction - strengthening institutions, aligning schemes, and enabling small cities to plan and deliver resilient urban services.

We are thankful to WRI India and all partners for the collaboration and look forward to supporting continued efforts towards sustainable and context-responsive urban systems.

Thanks to the team members part of the project .ita

At Kere Habba Sihineeru Kere 2026, students, citizens, practitioners and institutions came together to celebrate water, waste management and biodiversity. The day began with birdwatching and young voices raising awareness against pollution, and moved into conversations on rainwater harvesting, hydrogeology and the Integrated Shallow Aquifer Management (SAM) project.

From stories of Jakkur’s citizen stewardship to local rainwater harvesting efforts and heritage water structure revival, the message was clear: lakes are living systems. Protecting them is a shared responsibility.



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