Biological Pollution

The paper informs that current techniques normally used in the country for monitoring and assessment of the quality of water bodies involve in situ measurement and/or the collection of water samples for subsequent laboratory analysis of the chemical, physical and biological characteristics of water.

Author : Fazal Maliyakkal

The phases that have been identified for a sustainable WQM programme are: 

(1) Assessment of baseline situation

(2) Participatory planning

(3) Water quality monitoring

(4) Implementation

People get together to build a stop dam themselves

The people of Khariar road town in Odisha have long requested a check dam across the river Jonk. Khuturam Sunani describes how they have now begun constructing it through shramadaan.

Assessment of physico-chemical quality of groundwater in rural area nearby Sagar city, Madhya Pradesh

This paper presents the results of forty groundwater samples collected from June 2007 to July 2010 in Gambhira and Baheria villages in Madhya Pradesh. The authors conclude that the ground water quality is degraded due to anthropogenic causes.

The paper informs that a number of epidemiological studies on the benefits of water and sanitation interventions have shown that diarrhoea can be reduced by 30–50%.

A number of studies have made associations between prevention of disease burden among populations by improving water supply, sanitation, hygiene and management of water resources and between poor water quality and disease burden.

This paper published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives reviews the current state of the science relevant to the 2009 Joint Indo–U.S. Workshop on Climate Change and Health that was held in Goa, India, and, then discusses the observed relationships between climate variability and human health specifically in relation to the Indian subcontinent, highlighting future research directions.

The paper briefly summarises relevant literature on the impacts of climate change in India and touches upon the opportunities and significant challenges associated with designing, initiating, and conducting research, as well as pursuing related public health programming to improve public health infrastructure in the face of climate change. The paper argues that such research is needed to pave the way for unique and pioneering solutions that can improve public health in the face of increasing climate variability.

Problems in the water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) sector have their roots in socio-political issues rather than in technology. This paper presents the report of a survey in 107 villages in rural Andhra Pradesh to illustrate the influence of governance systems.