Contamination, Pollution and Quality

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Featured Articles
June 12, 2024
The ripple effect of safe drinking water on health under Jal Jeevan Mission
Leveraging research to optimise water programs for improved health outcomes in India
Closing the tap on disease (Image: Marlon Felippe; CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons)
June 4, 2024
Azolla, a floating fern that drinks oil
Azolla pinnata, a floating water fern provides a unique environmentally friendly approach to mitigate the negative impacts of oil spills and promote cleaner water bodies.
Azolla pinnata, water fern that drinks oils (Image Source: Yercaud-elango via Wikimedia Commons)
May 6, 2024
Floating forward: An entrepreneur's tryst for 'clean-water' bodies
In our quest to spotlight dedicated entrepreneurs in the water sector, we bring you the inspiring story of Priyanshu Kamath, an IIT Bombay alumnus, who pivoted from a lucrative corporate career to tackle one of India's most intricate water quality challenges, that of pollution of its urban water bodies.
Innovative solutions to clean urban water bodies, Floating islands (Photo Credit: Priyanshu Kamath)
April 1, 2024
FAQ - Stubble burning in India: Causes, effects, and solutions
Decoding the problems and solutions related to stubble burning
Burning of rice residues after harvest, to quickly prepare the land for wheat planting, around Sangrur, Punjab (Image: 2011CIAT/NeilPalmer; CC BY-SA 2.0 DEED)
February 20, 2024
Sewage will overtake agriculture as the biggest polluter of river sub basins in India
This study predicts that sewage will become the dominant source of nitrogen pollution in rivers due to urbanisation and insufficient wastewater treatment technologies and infrastructure in worse case scenario projections in countries such as India.
The polluted river Yamuna at Agra (Image Source: India Water Portal)
January 30, 2024
Sustaining water quality in water supply initiatives
The workshop provided inputs into the newly formed committee for “Standard Operation Procedure for Quality Testing of Drinking Water Samples at Sources and Delivery Points”
Sector partners come together to supplement the efforts of the government on water quality and surveillance (Image: Barefoot Photographers of Tilonia)
In India, water problems are 'man made': Comments on the draft water policy-2012
“Man has the fundamental right to freedom, equality and adequate conditions of life, in an environment of a quality that permits a life of dignity and well-being, and he bears a solemn responsibility to protect and improve the environment for present and future generations.” Principle 1, The Stockholm Declaration
Nagesh Hegde
Posted on 29 Feb, 2012 11:02 AM

Author : Nagesh Hegde
Draft National Water Policy 2012 - Dialogue organised by NEER Foundation, Meerut on February 18, 2012
The Ministry of Water Resources (MoWR), Government of India (GoI) has recently prepared a National Water Policy whose draft has been put up on the Ministry's website for public comments by February 27, 2012. The MoWR also stated that it would incorporate reasonable comments and suggestions into the new water policy after discussions. NEER Foundation, Meerut organized a one day intensive dialogue on February 18, 2012 at Hotel Crystal Palace, Meerut on the policy draft in which experts from across the country and farmers participated.
Raman Kant Tyagi
Posted on 27 Feb, 2012 10:07 AM

Guest post by: Raman Kant Tyagi

Meeting
Quantitative data on water quality: A compilation of papers that present physico-chemical analyses of various water sources in India
This post presents five papers that were recently published on the physico-chemical properties of water. These papers present the water quality data and analyse these figures. Locations in Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Assam and Gujarat are studied. Download the papers by clicking on the titles.
Bhabajit Bhuyan
DD mishra
Debajit Bhuyan
Hemant Pathak
IR Ustad
Kohinoor Arts Commerce and Science College Khuldabad
KR Aher
Krishna Vaidya
Milind Jadhav
Mohini Gadhia
Neelesh Srivastava
PK Mishra
Rafiullah Khan
Sir Sayyed College
SM Deshpande
SN Limaye
Posted on 24 Feb, 2012 08:31 AM

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.
"In search of old ideas" - A discussion of the draft national water policy 2012, by Jayanta Bandopadhyay in The Telegraph
In this article published in the Telegraph Jayanta Bandopadhyay discusses the draft national water policy 2012.
Jayanta Bandopadhyay
Posted on 22 Feb, 2012 05:05 PM

Author: Jayanta Bandopadhyay

Article and image courtesy: The Telegraph
Prevalence of dental fluorosis and associated risk factors in school children from Kanyakumari district, Tamil Nadu - Paper published in the Indian Journal of Dental Research
This paper published in the Indian Journal of Dental Research describes the findings of a study that aimed at assessing the oral health status of 11-15 year old school children from Kanyakumari district. The survey focused on determining the prevalence and severity of dental fluorosis along with assessing the various risk factors involved. Nearly 12 million of the 85 million tons of fluoride deposits are found in India. It is therefore not surprising that dental fluorosis is endemic in 15 states of India. The highest rates of endemicity have been reported from Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Karnataka, Punjab and Tamil Nadu.
Ashwath Narayanan
Clement Roger
Jagan Kumar Baskaradoss
Posted on 22 Feb, 2012 01:51 PM

A total of 1800 children  from all the nine blocks of Kanyakumari district from 6th to 10th standard were examined using type III examination. Dental fluorosis was present 15.8% of the study population and varied from as low as 1.4% to as high as 29.4% in different areas. There was a significant difference in dental fluorosis levels between rural and urban residents.
New water policy more contentious; least helpful in tackling existing issues
The new water policy (NWP) draft 2012 is reportedly replete with more contentious issues and least helpful in tackling existing issues. The formulation of new draft policy has been facilitated in an undemocratic way sans participation of all stakeholders. Undoubtedly the draft explicitly states that water needs to be managed as a community resource held by the state under public trust doctrine, but concurrently it underscores the need to treat water as an “economic good”. Instead of treating water as ‘economic good’, it should be treated as sustainable development instrument.
Arvind Kumar
Posted on 22 Feb, 2012 12:34 PM

Author : Dr. Arvind Kumar
How valuable are environmental health interventions? - Evaluation of water and sanitation programmes in India - Paper published in the Bulletin of the World Health Organisation
This paper published in the Bulletin of the World Health Organisation presents the findings of a valuation study that estimated the economic value of the average “treatment effect” of a community demand driven water and sanitation programme. The study employed a unique combination of propensity-score “pre-matching” and large panel data to estimate the economic impacts of a multi-dimensional environmental health programme.
Christine Poulos
Jui Chen Yangb
Subhrendu K Pattanayak
Sumeet Patil
Posted on 21 Feb, 2012 06:11 PM

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%.
An ecological quantification of the relationships between water, sanitation and infant, child, and maternal mortality - Paper published in the Journal Environmental Health
This paper discusses the findings of a study that aimed at quantifying the relationship between water and sanitation and infant, child, and maternal mortality.
Andrew Mente
Bruce K Newbold
Corinne J Schuster Wallace
June J Cheng
Susan Watt
Posted on 21 Feb, 2012 03:30 PM

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.

Impacts of climate change on public health in India - Future research directions - Paper published in Environmental Health Perspectives
This paper discusses the observed relationships between climate variability and human health.
Aley Joseph
Arun Agrawal
Carina J. Gronlund
Daniel G. Brown
George Luber
Howard Frumkin
Howard Hu
Jeremy Hess
Joseph Eisenberg
Kalpana Balakrishnan
Kathleen F. Bush
Mark L. Wilson
Mercedes Pascual
R.C. Dhiman
Richard Rood
R.S. Dhaliwal
S. Rani Kotha
Stuart Batterman
Tanvir Kaur
Vikas Kapil
Posted on 19 Feb, 2012 11:00 PM

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.

Understanding governance in WASH sector in Andhra Pradesh - A study by WASSAN
The paper examines the issue of water governance- its key elements, applicability, and influence on service levels.
MV Rama Chandrudu
R subramanyam Naidu
Safa Fanaian
Posted on 18 Feb, 2012 03:38 PM

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.

contrasting pictures of a well maintained hand pump and one that is standing in a pool of dirty water

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