Health

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August 16, 2024 A recent study finds that majority of the poor in India are likely to have open drains or no drainage systems to convey and treat their waste flows, threatening their health.
Open drains, harbingers of illhealth. Image for representation only (Image Source: SuSanA Secretariat via Wikimedia Commons)
August 10, 2024 While citizens need to play their part to prevent diseases such as Zika, municipal bodies/urban area authorities need to pull their socks up and set right the poor governance mechanisms that are slowly turning cities into hotbeds of diseases, filth and mismanagement.
The Aedes aegypti mosquito, the culprit for causing Zika (Source: Wikimedia Commons)
August 1, 2024 Recognising the limitations of relying solely on herbicides, a strategic shift towards preventive measures is crucial
Relying solely on chemicals to keep weeds at bay isn't sustainable and can harm the environment. (Image: Needpix)
June 12, 2024 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)
April 30, 2024 As temperatures soar, what should India do to adapt to changing conditions to mitigate the adverse impacts of climate change?
Heat waves sweep across India (Image: Maxpixel, CC0 Public Domain)
March 30, 2024 A recent study finds that climate change induced extreme weather events such as droughts can increase the vulnerability of women to Intimate Partner Violence (IPV).
Droughts affect women the most (Image Source: Gaurav Bhosale via Wikimedia Commons)
Piped water scheme changes the lives of Odisha villagers
Bandhabhuin village went from having 1 handpump for 400 people to 7, toilet facilities in 55% of the houses and had an overall improvement in its social and economic fabric. Posted on 19 Sep, 2015 05:55 PM

In India, about Rs.70,000 crore 

Anup Munda showing his functional toilet at Bandha Bhuin
Fact Checker's random school survey casts serious doubts about the government's 100% toilet coverage claim
Posted on 14 Sep, 2015 10:06 AM
Fact Checker's random school survey casts serious doubts about the government's 100% toilet coverage claim
 
A random check carried out by Fact Checker has revealed that many schools in some of India’s backward districts still remain without toilets
Direct discharge of human waste from railway coaches onto the tracks makes the National Green Tribunal very unhappy
Posted on 07 Sep, 2015 10:16 AM
National Green Tribunal unhappy with Railways’ practice of discharging waste directly onto the tracks
 
Nepal earthquake affected women more than men
Disadvantaged groups suffered greater death, injury and livelihood asset losses. Dr Bimala Rai Paudyal, Hon’ble Member Planning Commission of Nepal says it is possible to reduce this vulnerability. Posted on 05 Sep, 2015 12:32 PM

April 25, 2015 dawned as any other ordinary day in Nepal. Until 11.56. Then, a massive earthquake of magnitude 7.9 rattled the country and shook its very foundation. The tremors travelled outwards from the epicentre at Barpak Gorkha district moving the earth, distorting buildings, causing convulsions on the ground and creating panic and mayhem all around.

A family beside a damaged house near Naglebhare, Nepal (Source :Asian Development Bank)
The poisoned waters of Punjab
A study found that drinking water samples in SW Punjab were highly contaminated with uranium, thereby increasing the radiological and chemical risks to human health. Posted on 29 Aug, 2015 10:11 PM

Uranium in drinking water

Safe drinking water, a scarce resource (Source: India Water Portal)
Kaun kitne paani mein: Movie review
A Hindi film set in a water starved locale in Odisha asks, "Can water be bartered for love?" Posted on 28 Aug, 2015 06:45 PM

Kitna shaant hai ye paani, aur iske liye yeh rajniti’ (the water is so still, yet there is politics around it).

Water scarcity becomes a source of conflict between two villages (Source: Facebook)
Water problems with quality and access plague Sambalpur, Odisha
Groundwater in Talabeda village in Sambalpur, Odisha has high concentrations of iron but more urgently, its water supply system is dysfunctional for the last 2 weeks due to electricity issues. Posted on 27 Aug, 2015 04:00 PM

It's been more than 15 days and the drinking water crisis in Talabeda village in Sambalpur, Odisha is yet to be addressed. The water supply system of the village collapsed due to a fault in the transformer located within the premises of the Talabeda pump house, and no one has the time to fix this and restart the water supply system. 

The colour of the tiles around the public stand-post at Talabeda, Odisha have changed from white to red due to iron contamination.
Water poverty in Mumbai slum
Water service delivery failures can negatively impact household economy, employment, education, quality of life, social relationships, community cohesion, and people’s sense of political inclusion. Posted on 27 Aug, 2015 01:42 PM

One characteristic of most Indian slums is their inadequate access to water, which has a serious impact on the health of its residents. Most of the research on water service delivery in slums until recently has focused on water quality and health outcomes, especially diarrhoeal illnesses.

An illegal settlement (Source: Wikimedia Commons)
Catching rain in the land of "too much water"
Rainwater harvesting in a school in Jorhat, Assam helps address water quality issues, improves attendance and serves as an example for others in the area to fight arsenic and fluoride contamination. Posted on 23 Aug, 2015 08:16 PM

Even in the remotest village of Assam, you would often find one saying ‘paanir nisina daam’ (meaning as cheap as water) or ‘paanir nisina xorol’ (as simple as water) over a good bargain or an easy task. Water is, almost always, associated with simplicity and abundance.

But those were the good old days.

Children drinking rainwater collected in tanks at Melamati Government Junior Basic School, Jorhat (Assam).
Colourful fabrics lead to murky waters
The textile printing cluster at Sanganer near Jaipur presents a Catch-22 situation on the right to pollution free water versus the right to livelihoods. Posted on 17 Aug, 2015 09:55 PM

Amanishah nallah flowing through Sanganer, a town located 15 kms from Jaipur, is getting murkier by the day as the the textile hand printing industry in the area is getting more prosperous.

Bleaching, dyeing and printing of cottons causes water pollution at Sanganer
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