A S Bhullar

Unsafe drinking water burdens poor

A study finds poor water quality behind high incidence of waterborne diseases among households in Ludhiana. The poor suffer the most from it.

Jasdeep Kaur Bedi

R S Ghuman

Posted on 19 Mar, 2017 04:17 PM

Water pollution is a serious problem in India with 70 percent of its surface and groundwater resources contaminated by biological, toxic, organic, and inorganic pollutants. As a result, the socio-economic cost of poor water quality is high.

Unsafe drinking water affects health. (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

Economic and Political Weekly 2011: Review of Agriculture (June 25 - July 8, 2011)

Review of AgricultureHalf a century ago, scholars first noticed that small farms in India demonstrated a higher per acre productivity than large farms. In the 21st century these farms still produce more per acre than large farms. We should be looking at making the most of the higher agricultural productivity on small landholdings.
Where earlier seed varieties were seen as a crucial input for Indian Agriculture, it is now water that has become a critical resource because of its over-exploitation and wasteful use on crop land. In the search for better ways to harvest and use water resources, there has been tendency to hark back to the past and look at small and localized systems, but we forget that the demographic settings then were different and we do not acknowledge the fact that the institutional settings of the time made for inequitable access.
AS the government grapples with modifying the 2002 National Water Policy, an independent effort is made to formulate a draft that looks at water use in all areas in a holistic manner. These and other articles in this review look at different aspects of Indian Agriculture.

Aruna Singh. K Palanisami