Political

Content and Image Courtesy: IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre

The Source story contest of 2010 has been so successful that the contest will continue in 2011. So far in 2010, 25 stories have been submitted and 12 ‘winners’ have been published.

Content and Image Courtesy: UN Water

UN-Water is the interagency mechanism established in 2003 by the Chief Executive Board and the High Level Committee on Programmes of the United Nations to promote coherence and coordination in UN system actions aimed at implementing the agenda defined by the Millennium Declaration and the World Summit on Sustainable Development as it relates to its scope of work.

UN-Water is seeking a new Chief Technical Advisor to support its broad range of activities in pursuing the continued promotion of coherence and coordination within the UN System initiatives related to all aspects of freshwater and sanitation, as well as water resource management.

This paper by National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases (NICED) is based on a prospective, community based study in an impoverished urban site in Kolkata in order to measure the burden of cholera, describe its epidemiology, and search for potential risk factors that could be addressed by public health strategies. The study population was enumerated at the beginning and end of the study period. Surveillance through five field outposts and two referral hospitals for acute, watery, non-bloody diarrhoea was conducted from May 2003 to April 2004.

This study by the Central Public Health and Environmental Engineering Organisation (CPHEEO) assesses the status of water supply, sanitation and solid waste management in selected 300 cities and towns of India including all metropolitan cities and selected Class I and Class II urban centres. It estimates the requirement of funds for full coverage of population by these services in the urban areas of the country from 1999 to 2022 (at five yearly intervals). Overall, the study confirms the normal notion that the metropolitan cities are better provided for than the other size class of urban centres.

This paper from Current Science deals with anaemia in pregnancy and low birth weight babies, which can lead to maternal and infant mortality, and continues to plague India and several other countries despite nutritional counselling and maternal iron and folic acid supplementation. It reports the results of fluoride avoidance as an approach to address the issue. The methodology of the research entailed the following -

Content Courtesy: DevNetJobsIndia

• Water and Habitat Project Manager

International Committee of the Red Cross

United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has recently published the 20^th Anniversary edition of its Human Development Report (HDR) which presents the latest Human Development Index (HDI). The premise of the HDI reports is simple - national development should be measured not simply by national income nor should an individual’s well-being be evaluated by money alone, as had long been the practice, but also by life expectancy and literacy. 

Income is of course crucial - without resources, any progress is difficult. Yet there is a need to gauge whether people can lead long and healthy lives, whether they have the opportunity to be educated and whether they are free to use their knowledge and talents to shape their own destinies.

Content and Image Courtesy: Central Ground Water Board (CGWB)

Bhujal News is a Scientific Journal of Central Ground Water Board with the objective to disseminate information to user community and highlight various issues & activities and latest technical advances in the field of Ground Water. It is published quarterly.

Recent news indicates extensive reports on the threat and destruction unleashed by cyclone Jal in the three states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, with the states of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka being affected the most. Cyclone Jal has led to heavy rainfall in both these states leading to floods and a heavy death toll in the coastal districts of both the states, besides reports of destruction of agricultural produce in the state of Karnataka.

South India

• 'Cyclone Jal' hits South India leaving nearly 30 dead and scores injured

Andhra Pradesh

• Administration on high alert with the threat of cyclone Jal approaching the Andhra Pradesh coastline
• Cyclone 'Jal' claims lives in Andhra Pradesh
• Cyclone 'Jal' claims five lives in Andhra Pradesh
• Cyclone threat in Andhra, rains kill 20
• Andhra rains cause havoc, death toll rises to 25
• Rain claims 4 lives in Vizag, 2 in East Godavari
• Rain fury continues in Andhra Pradesh's coastal districts
• Heavy rains wreak havoc in coastal Andhra Pradesh