Forwarded by Water Aid Safe Drinking Water in Rural Areas: Community Based Approaches April 08-10, 2008 India Habitat Centre, Lodhi Road, New Delhi Click here for Conference AgendaThere are many organizations, individuals, experts and NGOs that are working with great dedication and energy, on different aspects of water quality problems and their solutions. While each one of us have strengths, we believe there is a need for urgent engagement by all of us in the three core areas of water quality surveillance, monitoring and mitigation today for:
- Strengthening community based water quality monitoring and mitigation, to address some of the burning water quality issues on a priority basis.
- Improve water quality surveillance and monitoring systems at the state level. To make this effective and for the results of this work (data) to be available in the public domain
- Review Water Quality Standards that are appropriate for India(the economic and dietary context of our people)
Partner organizations of WaterAid India have been working on monitoring water quality in all the programme areas and building capacity of local communities to do regular water quality monitoring. In the past two years, WaterAid India has built an inventory of water quality data in the project areas where we have been working, undertaken capacity building of partners and communities in community based water quality monitoring and mitigation measures and gained experience of larger issues in water quality monitoring. Purpose of the conference"Safe water"is life, is a new reality we live in today. A few decades ago, there was no distinct category as "drinking water,"now we are buying drinking water in both rural and urban areas. Ground water that was once considered safe and secure, is increasingly found to be contaminated with bacteriological and chemical pollutants. Technological interventions alone are becoming inadequate to address safe, affordable and sustainable drinking water access for the common people. There is a real risk of false Malthusian interpretations (putting the blame on current water quality problems to increasing populations and water stress) becoming a norm. We have destroyed aquifers and river beds in large tracts of India, on a large scale, by indiscriminate industrial pollution and urban sewerage dumping. Reverse dumping of dangerous chemical industrial waste in ground water aquifers in some parts of India is shocking and irreversible damage to our environment. When water quality problems first emerge, their impact is felt on people's health. However, it is only when health problems become compounded, the potential link with water quality is considered and monitoring is done to establish causal relationships. To correlate, isolate and identify the cause-effect of a particular pollutant/contaminant. Integration of health and water quality however, remains a challenge and a growing concern. It has been found that bacteriological contamination is a silent killer, poor communities spend a considerable sum of their earnings on treating water borne diseases and other diseases from stagnant waters and bad sewerage. Contamination from Fluoride and Arsenic has visible physical impacts and deformities. General medical practitioners and medical systems are not able to cope up with diagnosing and treating water contaminated ailments from Fluoride and Arsenic. Public health systems and infrastructure is also falling apart. Food consumption and dietary diversification is an important consideration, when considering mitigation measures for water quality. However poverty induced low calorie and mono food diets for a majority of our people, further exacerbate the effects of water contamination on poor peoples health. Poor people in rural areas as well as urban slums, are therefore more at risk by poor quality drinking water, than the well off. Highlighting water quality problems through monitoring and not doing anything to mitigate the problem, demoralizes the community. There are many organizations, individuals, experts and NGOs that are working with great dedication and energy, on different aspects of water quality problems and their solutions. While each one of us have strengths, we believe there is a need for urgent engagement by all of us in the three core areas of water quality surveillance, monitoring and mitigation today for:
- Strengthening community based water quality monitoring and mitigation, to address some of the burning water quality issues on a priority basis.
- Improve water quality surveillance and monitoring systems at the state level. To make this effective and for the results of this work (data) to be available in the public domain
- Review Water Quality Standards that are appropriate for India(the economic and dietary context of our people)
Partner organizations of WaterAid India have been working on monitoring water quality in all the programme areas and building capacity of local communities to do regular water quality monitoring. In the past two years, WaterAid India has built an inventory of water quality data in the project areas where we have been working, undertaken capacity building of partners and communities in community based water quality monitoring and mitigation measures and gained experience of larger issues in water quality monitoring. In preparation to the National Conference, two regional water quality workshops were organized in Konark and Lucknow by WaterAid India and our partners. Problems and experiences shared by practitioners and experts, and recommendations emerging from these workshops, form inputs to the national conference. We are pleased to have over 60 contributions for this conference from all over India and some from abroad as well. The three day conference is organized on six main themes, across nine sessions and has a valedictory session at the end. There is an exhibition of product manufacturers and agencies dealing with water purification products on the first day. We are grateful to the Honourable Minister Rural Development, Mr. Raghuvansh Prasad for providing the keynote address. The national conference will aim at the following results; 1. Bringing on one common platform, various organizations and individuals who have done pioneering work on community based water quality monitoring and mitigation, organizations and experts who have worked on technical and institutional aspects of safe drinking water and policy makers and service providers to come and share their experiences and arrive at key directions and actions. 2. Identifying critical gaps in the present water quality surveillance, monitoring and standards , in relation to health and socio economic conditions in India. 3. Identifying concrete mitigation actions and interventions. 4. Recommendations for improving community based water quality monitoring, improving systems of water quality monitoring at state and district levels and its integration with health systems. 5. Setting up an Advisory Group , a team of experts and practitioners on water quality. To develop recommendations and to provide guidance and support at the national level for atleast one year. The conference will provide a learning opportunity and networking among stakeholders from community organizations, government, NGOs, research institutions, private sector organizations and experts from the field of health and engineering. We are confident that this Conference will contribute towards the immediate and long term goal of making safe drinking water a right for all citizens of our country. That we will forge partnerships of ideas and action and a commitment for change. Advisory Group members 1. Dr. Indira Chakravarty, Director, All India Institute for Hygiene and Public Health, Kolkatta, West Bengal 2. Dr. K J Nath, Chairman Arsenic Task Force, Kolkatta, West Bengal 3. Dr. Arunabha Majumder, Emeritus Professor Jadavpur University, West Bengal 4. Dr. AK Suseela, Executive Director, Fluorosis Research and Rural Development Foundation, New Delhi 5. Dr. J.K. Bassin, Regional Director, NEERI, New Delhi 6. Dr. A K Ghosh, Professor, AN College, Patna, Bihar 7. Ms. MV Shashirekha, Chief Chemist, Department of Mines and Geology, Bangalore, Karnataka 8. Dr. Ravi Chopra, Director, People's Science Institute, Dehra Dun, Uttaranchal 9. Dr SS Meenakshisundaram, Deputy Chairman, Karnataka State Planning Board, Bangalore, Karnataka 10. Dr Seetharam, SVYM, Mysore, Karnataka 11. Dr B S Garg, MGIMS, WARDHA, Maharashtra 12. Apoorva Oza, AKRSP (I), Ahmedabad, Gujarat 13. Gayatri Parihar, VASUDHA, Jhabua, Madhya Pradesh 14. Saurabh Singh, Inner Voice Foundation, Balia, Uttar Pradesh 15. Mr. Panigrahi, Chief Engineer RWSS, Orissa 16. Mr. Rajendra Prasad, Chief Engineer RWSS, Jharkhand 17. WaterAid India