Contamination, Pollution and Quality

We get a sense of water purity from its appearance, smell and taste to figure out if the water is clean to drink. But unsafe water can be tasteless and odourless too, making it difficult to determine its quality. Water can have chemical, mineral and biological contaminants that can make us sick in the short and long run. 

The context

Globally, over 3 billion people are at risk of disease because the water quality (WQ) of their rivers, lakes and groundwater is unknown, due to a lack of data.

Tamil Nadu unveils organic farming policy with a focus on promoting chemical-free agriculture

More than 10,000 people in Bhagalpur and Buxar districts of Bihar have been given access to life-saving clean, drinking water through Halma plc’s Water for Life campaign in partnership with WaterAid.

Even as the entire world was tackling COVID-19, a revolution was taking place in India during the years 2021–22.

Healthy pond ecosystems are critical for achieving several sustainable development goals (SDG) through numerous ecosystem services (e.g., flood control, nutrient retention, and carbon sequestration).

Delivering training is as important as creating good quality content. Engaging an audience in virtual sessions is not an easy task. We at INREM Foundation have found some success in the last two years by approaching online interactions differently. Here is a snapshot of our methods that have worked for us.

Multimodal learning 

Pesticides and fertilisers have been used indiscriminately to increase crop yields and agricultural output in India and their excessive use has been feared to threaten human health as well as biodiversity through contamination of surface and groundwater resources. 

Our drinking water is fraught with quality issues like chemicals, microplastics, excessive minerals, bacteria, and other contaminants, which tend to be local in nature, and require mitigation action at the local level. Frontline workers in these localities require an understanding of how to assess the local water quality and what steps to take to address issues that are discovered in water.