The World Meteorological Organization’s State of the Climate in Asia 2024 report warns that the region is warming nearly twice as fast as the global average, driving more extreme weather and posing serious threats to lives, ecosystems, and economies. In 2024, Asia experienced its warmest or second warmest year on …
The CAG blames the Orissa government's failure to provide safe potable water for the outbreak of diseases in the State. While natural disasters and starvation are known to take their toll regularly on Orissa, contaminated water seems to be emerging as the latest lethal killer, particularly in the urban pockets …
For the first time, the Assam government has admitted the severe threat to people's health posed by arsenic and fluoride contaminated drinking water in the state. The state's minister for public health engineering, Dinesh Prasad Goala, recently told the assembly that the government has initiated steps to provide alternative sources …
• Ukraine and Turkmenistan are going to propose the establishment of a consortium with Russia and Kazakhstan for transporting gas to Europe. This was announced by Ukraine's deputy prime minister Anatoly Kinakh after Turkmenistan's president Saparmurat Niyazov and Ukraine's president Viktor Yushchenko held talks during the latter's two-day official visit …
On the outskirts of Chittaurgarh city, in district Chittaurgarh, Rajasthan, lies an abandoned mine. Chhatriwali khaan is a huge crater right beside the highway to Udaipur. Suddenly, disquietingly, the flat terrain gives way to a pool of rippling white fluid laced with pink, blue and brown
a proposed uranium processing plant at Seripally village in Andhra Pradesh's (ap's) Nalgonda district is facing vociferous public opposition. The area's native Lambada tribals, local leaders and many civil society groups voiced their disapproval of the project at a recent public hearing watched over by an unusually large contingent of …
It isn't often that a post-graduate college decides to test the quality of water in its surrounding areas. In a five-month project begining January 2004, final year B pharma students of Gupta College of Technological Sciences in Asansol, West Bengal did exactly that. The students had to undertake a project …
The discussions on the Union budget 2005-2006 reflect the media's middle-class obsession. The finance minister's proposal for a fringe tax - on perquisites and other benefits of the salariat - was all that was found worth discussing. Nothing else mattered. But it should. The budget is about expenditure for development …
the new Veeranam Extension Project, envisaged to supply drinking water to the Chennai Metropolitan area from six proposed collector wells in the Kollidam (Colleron) riverbed, has evoked strong protests from farmers of villages situated on the river's banks. They fear the project will increase their water woes. The Rs 300 …
scientists have detected arsenic-induced damage to a type of white blood cells among people from North 24-Parganas district in West Bengal. "Chromosomal aberrations (cas) like breaks, deletions and gaps in peripheral lymphocytes (a type of white blood cell) have been found in people drinking water contaminated with arsenic,' says Ashok …
Colours are inescapably embedded in everyday life. So it’s critical to know, and to regulate, the way they operate. Having said that, it’s not easy to recognise the problems associated with their use. Adulteration in food colours, or allergic reactions to elements in fabric apart, consumers are unaware of problems …
Sanganer, a small industrial town near Jaipur, is famous for hand block printed fabrics. But for its residents, dyeing units are a serious problem. Says Purshottam Singh: "Sometimes the supplied water is red and at other times bluish. How can we drink this?'. Sanganer's problem is typical of areas where …
colour: Light transmitted through a filtered wastewater sample is measured to give a single figure, denoting overall colour turbidity: Gauging wastewater's light-scattering properties true/apparent: Combines colour and turbidity. True colour is measured without particulate matter; apparent colour is measured with it; true is usually much lesser. Measuring colour in wastewater …
This last fortnight, after two disparate experiences, I came to realise there is not much difference between colas and cars. Let me explain how. A year ago, we released a study on the cocktail of pesticides we found in all soft drinks brands. We argued the pesticides were in the …
A study to assess the supply of drinking water quality in Delhi, by examining the various physico-chemical parameters, namely pH, conductivity, TDS, SS, DO, BOD, COD, calcium and magnesium hardness, total hardness, alkalinity, salinity, turbidity of the pre-treated water samples from Bhagirathi, Wazirabad, Chandrawal, Haiderpur and Okhala Water Treatment Plants …
A cruel summer has been left behind. Pipes are gurgling to life and the surge of water tankers on Chennai's streets is on the ebb. People and leaders are now free to discuss issues non-aqueous. There are even days when Chennai's papers skip the almost mandatory columns devoted to water. …
chemists at the Indian Institute of Technology (iit), Chennai, have developed a nanoparticle-based technique to remove pesticides from drinking water. The feat is noteworthy, for exposure to pesticides can trigger genetic mutations and neurological disorders. The method was developed by A Sreekumaran Nair and T Pradeep from iit's Department of …
In September 2003, the Bureau of Indian Standards set the desirable limit of arsenic in drinking water as 0.01 mg/l. This is in consonance with the standard recommended by the World Health Organization (who) and the us-Environmental Protection Agency (epa). However, in a recent paper (
Arsenic in groundwater is becoming a difficult problem in many parts of the country. Many blame Jal Nigam officials and the public engineering department for the malaise. But this is quite akin to finding convenient scapegoats when the problem is actually quite complex. The point is people need groundwater: both …
When Neena Khanna from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences called to tell us that her patient who lives in Ballia district of Uttar Pradesh had high levels of arsenic in his blood, hair and nails, we were stunned. Why Ballia? We knew of arsenic in West Bengal and …
