Treatment and Purification

Although significant progress has been made in terms of individual household toilet coverage in the state, usage by the population is still low at 12.9 per cent (DLHS 2007-08). Access to toilets for schools and angawandies has seen a marked increased but rural solid and liquid waste management has seen little or no attention.

The two concepts required for analysis of water as regards human consumption are availability and access. Availability refers to the physical presence of adequate water supplies and is influenced by physical and environmental factors.

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.

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.

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%.

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.

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.

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.