Rural Water

Guest post by : Aarti Kelkar-Khambete

The workshop was hosted by Government of Kerala and the Water and Sanitation Program, South Asia with the Government of India, The World Bank Institute and the World Bank was held at Cochin, Kerala from December 7th to December 8th, 1999.

Content courtesy: Janhit Foundation

The monsoon has become active in the states of Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Lakshadweep and parts of coastal Andhra Pradesh. There are also reports of heavy rainfall in parts of Karnataka. At the same time, news from the north in the states of Himachal Pradesh and Kashmir includes reports of a cold wave and rains and the first snowfall of the season.

Northeast monsoon

This study published in the journal The American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (AJTMH) aimed at assessing water contamination and the relative effectiveness of three options for point-of-use water treatment in South India.

The Madurai Symposium organised by the

The level of nitrate in drinking water was tested from groundwater artesian wells located within farms and surrounded by crops (mostly rice and wheat rotations).

Nitrate pollution in groundwater is associated with nitrogen loads in the environment. In urban areas, it is associated with sewage and in agriculture areas, with livestock sources and nitrogen fertiliser inputs. Nitrate pollution in drinking water can have serious health impact on humans, especially for babies and children. The most significant potential health effects of drinking water contaminated with nitrate are the blue-baby syndrome (methemoglobinemia) and cancer.

This paper from the gatekeeper series of the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) describes the potential of an innovative rice cultivation practice-the system of rice intensification (SRI)—for allowing Indian rice farmers to not only enhance rice production and their net incomes, but also to solve the water crisis.

This report by the Water and Sanitation Program of the World Bank provides an account of the field level initiatives on drinking water security in India. The country faces many challenges in ensuring reliable, sustainable safe drinking water supply to rural households.

Though, in terms of provision of safe drinking water, more than 90 percent of the rural households have been covered, according to the NSSO 65th round survey 2008-09, much remains to be done to improve levels of service delivery, water quality and sustainability.

Now-a-days heavy metal arsenic poses a health risk problem throughout the world. Arsenic may be found in water which has flowed through arsenic-rich rocks. Severe health effects have been observed in populations drinking arsenic-rich water over long periods in countries world-wide.