Ahead of the General elections in 2014, in which Odisha will go for both Assembly and Parliament constituencies, the Water Initiatives Odisha (WIO), a coalition of civil society organisations, farmers, academia, media and other concerned, working on water, environment and climate change issues in India for more than two decades, is now starting a people-owned process of preparing a “People’s Manifesto” on the issues like water, sanitation and hygiene, river basins, water bodies and ground water resources, climate change, disasters and ecological livelihoods.
“We are in the process of forming a State-level coordination committee and then pursue the People’s Manifesto building process,” said WIO convenor Ranjan Kumar Panda.