Contamination, Pollution and Quality

These two documents from the KSPCB website, provide monthly water quality status data, for the rivers Tungabhadra, Cauvery and Kabini, monitored between January to June 2007, at various points along the rivers.

The data recorded are Temperature, pH, Dissolved Oxygen (DO), Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD), Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) and Faecal Coliform.

Dear Users of IWP,

This field report describes the work of WaterHealth India (WHI), in organising safe drinking water using low-cost water purification units, in several villages of Andhra Pradesh. The work was taken up with financial support from IFMR Trust.

Vinjinampadu village in Guntur district, Andhra Pradesh, is one of the villages where WHI worked to establish the unit. The village had lacked potable water supply, because of which its people suffered from a range of water-borne diseases. The situation was similar in many of the other villages in which WHI initiated this work.

This paper by A Jagadeesh of RMK Engineering College, describes the design and testing of a portable, low-cost, and low maintenance solar disinfection unit, that can provide potable water. This system was tested with bore water, well as well as with waste water. In 5 hours, the unit eradicated 99.99% of the bacteria contained in the water samples.

This unit can provide about 6 liters of pure drinking water and larger units can be fabricated for providing safe drinking water at a community level.

Drinking Water Supply in rural areas of Assam ( India ) is managed by the Public Health Engineering Department (PHED), Government of Assam and the challenge is indeed enormous and achieving the targets requires well planned and strongly determined strategies and approach. Government has already formulated the necessary strategy to ensure sustained supply of safe drinking water in rural areas. However for achieving the desired end results from the Government initiatives, the community needs to be mobilized to own and sustain these programmes and to become an active partner in their implementation. For such a participatory demand driven approach, necessary awareness generation amongst the Community to realize the need for “total water security” and its impact on reduction of water borne diseases, is highly warranted.

Please have a look at the Demonstration video about clearing oil spills in oceans or any other water body.

http://video.godlikeproductions.com/video/CWRoberts_Presentation_2wmv

It is a simple and effective method.

Organizers:TARA Livelihood Academy

Highlights

• Kochi: To Get Rs 100 Crore Modern Sewerage System
• Punjab: Rs 53.58 Crore New Water Supply & Sewerage Project
• Pune: To Construct 120 MLD Water Filtration Plant
• Water.Org: Launches India WaterCredit Forum

This presentation deals with the problem of arsenic contaminated aquifers in the Gangetic belt of Bihar and the failure of the state government in tackling the crisis and calls for the establishment of a centralized knowledge & research hub with an understanding of the regional peculiarities to mitigate the crisis.

It traces the origin of arsenic crisis to the switch from use of surface water to groundwater. The health impacts of arsenic poisoning and the factors that aggravate arsenicosis are explained. A total of sixteen districts (fifty-seven blocks) in Bihar are affected by high levels of arsenic in groundwater, in trivalent form, which is a more toxic form of arsenic.

The report of the Task Force appointed by the Planning Commission presents an action plan for removal of arsenic contamination in West Bengal. It looks at the extent of the problem, its intake sources, technologies available and the operation and maintenance (O&M) issues.

It outlines the diverse technologies based on various scientific principles, assesses them based on their scale of operation (domestic or community) on techno-economic considerations & infrastructure required and provides suggestions. Short, medium and long term measures are outlined for tackling the problem of arsenic contamination in drinking water supply in the state.