Contamination, Pollution and Quality

An average trekker leaves behind approximately 100,000 kgs of water bottles per year. During average trekking of a week , trekker drinks up to 50 litres of water. Each trekker leaves behind 50 PET bottles along the track. PET bottles can take 1,000 years to biodegrade. Nine out of 10 water bottles end up as garbage or litter, and that means millions per day. PET bottles require massive amounts of fossil fuels to manufacture and transport, leaving behind carbon foot prints. Billions of bottles show up at landfills every year. The entire energy costs of the lifecycle of a bottle of water are equivalent, on average, to filling up 250 ml of each bottle with oil. "Making bottles to meet Americans' demand for bottled water requires more than 1.5 million barrels of oil annually, enough to fuel some 100,000 US cars for a year," according to the study. "Worldwide, some 2.7 million tons of plastic are used to bottle water each year."

Today is Blog Action Day 2008, where blogs all over the world are writing about poverty. We thought we would use this opportunity to talk about water and poverty.

Since its foundation in 1968, the IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre (IRC) has facilitated the sharing, promotion and use of knowledge so that governments, professionals and organisations can better suppo

Since its foundation in 1968, the IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre (IRC) has facilitated the sharing, promotion and use of knowledge so that governments, professionals and organisations can better suppo

A very interesting thread has been initiated on the Discussion Forum on the Portal by Bob Eibl.

Please see message below: ======= We are in process of distributing 1,000 sets of TERAFIL water filters among the victims of Bihar flood affected areas for supply of drinking water. These filters can provide at least 50,000 litres of clean drinking water every day, which can be operated without electricity by the victims easily, like any other candle filters.

PATH's Safe Water project Request for letters of interest for monitoring and evaluation PATH is requesting letters of interest (LOIs) from organizations who wish to be considered to provide monitoring and evaluation (M&E) services for several pilot projects testing commercial channels for household water treatment and safe storage products in India. All the details are here

Image & News Courtesy: Department of Science & Technology, India The Department of Science & TechnologyIndia has carved out a "Major initiative on Water Technologies in the Eleventh Plan".

As the quality of our water deteriorates, we expect that people will more and more need to/want to test the quality of their drinking and other water.

The list below represents a compilation of information on water testing resources in various parts of India. The list uploaded here has been prepared from the information collected and compiled by NEERI, Nagpur and AIIH & PH, Kolkata with the professional support of a senior consultant and in collaboration with WHO India Country Office, New Delhi.

A slow sand filter built with Japanese aid is running out of use because the community cannot repair the broken pump. Can we help organize the community to take charge of its asset?!