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 …
function openmap(){ var popurl="html/20030415_map.htm" winpops=window.open(popurl,"","width=650,height=500,scrollbars=yes") } Welcome to Wah india, a hazy land born of perfidy and malicious grace. Spread over territory co-extensive with 19 states in India, it is both traceable and unknown. Its physical geography, for instance, is quite virtual: Wah india keeps getting discovered; its expanding contours …
The 1970s and 1980s were a time of massive state investment in rural water development. Not only had more land to be brought under irrigation, but also drinking water supplied. These decades saw an exponential rise in the number of privately-owned pumpsets and wells, even as investment in public wells …
The official attitude towards fluoride-laced groundwater is best seen in the manner the state has gone about solutions. In a 1999 nationwide study New Delhi-based Fluorosis Research and Rural Development Foundation (frrdf) found that "only a few laboratories in the country have specified the methodology for fluoride analysis.' Experts claim …
Human negotiation with its own capacities and actions often tends to be triumphalist. A man admires his muscled torso; an elite believes itself to be the omphalos
the Orissa government has finally begun disbursing compensation to likely oustees in the lower Suktel dam project. Nineteen families of Magurbeda village in Balangir district have been handed over a rehabilitation package of more than Rs 12.5 lakh. Ironically, the first lot of beneficiaries chosen by the state authorities will …
Fluoride is an acute toxin, with a rating slightly higher than lead. It is, in fact, one of the most bone-seeking elements known to human beings. And groundwater in India shows the presence of unhealthy quantities of fluoride. A worrying scenario: daily ingestion of just 2 milligram (mg) of fluoride …
German metal company Aluminium Rheinfelden will temporarily close an aluminium recycling plant after supplies dwindled, following the introduction of a deposit on drinks containers. The plant at Rheinfelden in south Germany melts down drinks cans, fish tins and other metal scrap. It will stop operations by the end of March, …
timely action by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation ( bmc) has led to the detection of 280 tonnes of contaminated alum in drinking water. Alum, used to purify the city's water, was contaminated with organic compounds such as chloroform and benzene. Both are carcinogenic in nature. The polluted alum was found …
In a study similar to the one conducted by the Centre for Science and Environment (cse) in Delhi and Mumbai, a research body in Bangladesh has uncorked unpleasant facts about bottled water. While cse found pesticide residues in packaged water being sold in the two metros, application research laboratory Plasma …
After we released our study on pesticide residues on bottled water, an experienced science journalist called me to verify something I had said in the press conference. He wanted to know if it was really true that the government had not laid down quantified standards for pesticide residues in drinking …
There was a time in the recently liberalised past when people didn't quite know how to refer to a new product called drinking water. They would say 'bottled water' and 'mineral water' to freely refer to one or the other kind of water, perhaps meaning the same one. It used …
Why are there pesticide residues in bottled water? This isn"t an isolated query. It condenses 3-4 lines of questioning: • What kind of water do companies use as raw material? • Companies are supposed to "treat" the raw water, clean it up. If so, then what kind of clean-up is …
'corporate Responsibility' has died a fancy death at the altar of public relations. A recent chemical analysis of branded packaged drinking water (commonly called bottled water) conducted by the Pollution Monitoring laboratory of Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment has brought out a horror story (see: gulp). All the major …
The coastal city of Kochi in Kerala might finally have some respite from acute water shortage. And the famous Maharaja's College in Kochi is leading the way. Kerala's largest rainwater harvesting project, with a capacity of 300,000 litres, was inaugurated in the college campus. Two abandoned tanks, earlier used for …
here, children are resigned to walking with a limp. And women, weighed down by sheer pain, have stopped looking skywards. In fact, age and sex appear to be no bar as infirmity pervades the entire area. Welcome to the Kachnarwa panchayat in Sonbhadra district of Uttar Pradesh, where disability has …
On November 19, the Allahabad High Court (HC) ordered the Uttar Pradesh government to file an affidavit within three weeks indicating steps taken to prevent, treat and control fluorosis in Chopan block of Sonbhadra district. It also demanded details of the measures taken to rehabilitate the affected villagers. The court …
Andhra Pradesh is reeling under an acute water crisis. Apart from its capital Hyderabad, 53 municipalities in the state are facing drinking water shortage, reveals a survey conducted by the municipal administration department. The worst hit areas are Ongole, Sattenapalli, Chilkaluripeta, Chittoor, Bhongir, Nalgonda and Guntakal. Alive to the magnitude …
