Health

Through a maze of winding, curving roads off a main highway in Tamil Nadu, one must travel to reach the small, agrarian village of Muthampatti.

Priyadarshini, or Priya to friends, wanders inquisitively around a large cement pad where a group of about thirty women and men are gathering to create a map of their village using a colored chalk powder called Rangoli.

The newsletter explores the ways in which national laws, court pronouncements and judgements and international commitments can be interpreted to imply a right to water and sanitation.

Specific articles cover:

-Individual court cases and Supreme Court pronouncements

KC canal

'Alliance for 5 Life Sustaining Elements' ( ALSE), is a group of 6 senior NGOs (list  is available in the concept note) who are working in the rural development sector since 2 to 3 decades in Andhra Pradesh, have collective

WSSCC Member Flash
Periodic updates for WSSCC members on hot and late-breaking topics   

Global Handwashing Day Special Edition

The practice of handwashing with soap has been prominent in the last few years on the international hygiene agenda. The second annual Global Handwashing Day takes place on Thursday, 15 October 2009 in countries all over the world, including countries where WSSCC is active through its National WASH Coalitions. The guiding vision of Global Handwashing Day is a local and global culture of handwashing with soap. Although people around the world wash their hands with water, very few wash their hands with soap at critical moments (for example, after using the toilet, while cleaning a child, and before handling food).  

Venue: The University of Bonn (Germany)

Description:

The 21st European Conference on Modern South Asian Studies (ECMSAS) is scheduled for July 26-29 2010 at the University of Bonn (Germany). As part of the conference a Coordinated Session focusing on Human Health in Urban & Peri-Urban South Asia is being organized to highlight the examination of human health to provide a powerful lens into the social, economic, political, cultural and ecological transformations of rapidly urbanizing societies in South Asia. The coordinated session proposes two sessions. With the first session focused on urban health patterns and urban health systems in South Asia. The second session explores the relation of peri-urban dynamics and health. Shifting environmental burdens in the name of cleaning cities, changing land use practices, poor regulatory authorities, industrialization, market forces and demographic pressures have placed enormous stress on water resources in peri-urban societies of Asia. The Session is inviting papers reflecting the current situation, focused on identifying the linkage between several underlying conditions & their contribution to water transmitted diseases in peri-urban areas.

Arsenic contamination of irrigation water, soil and crops in Bangladesh: Risk implications for sustainable agriculture and food safety in Asia.

Click here to download the paper

1. Climate change and diseases: A double Jeopardy

Climate change is bound to affect the basic requirements for maintaining health - clean air and water, sufficient food, adequate shelter, and freedom from disease given the already high level of poverty, low nutritional levels and poor public health infrastructure in the country. (Dream 2047, Vigyan Prasar)