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 …
WHAT happens when a teabag is placed in a cup of hotwater? The colour of tea immediately diffuses into the hot water. But when the same experiment is tried in a cup of cold water, the colour change is significantly slower. Now, a Russian scientist, Vithold Bakhir, has demon- strated …
As a sequel to a Delhi High Court order, a judicial committee has been established to ensure the availability of drinking water to the capital's residents. The mediation of the HC is part of the process of "judicial intervention to ensure human rights". The 2-judge bench had ordered the Municipal …
What are the most serious environmental problems facing Russia at present? More than 15 per cent of Russia's territory is ecologically unsafe. The poor quality of drinking water and radiation are the main problems, along with air and chemical pollution. Some 75 per cent of Russia's waterbodies are highly contaminated …
The world is heading towards a water crisis. The doubling of the world's population between 1940 and 1990 has led to a doubling in per capita use of water, from 400 to 800 cubic metres per person per annum. The result: global use of water quadrapled. Africa and West Asia …
THIS is Cool Stuff. Pure drinking water may soon cease to be an idyllic dream. Water testing laboratories in every district within the purview of the 8th Plan are being set up by the rural development ministry to monitor and survey the quality of potable water in rural India. The …
BAD water kills. Since its 1979 conference the World Health Organisation (who) has been stressing that the high mortality rate in the rural Third World stemmed mainly from contaminated drinking water. And notwithstanding efforts undertaken by various countries, the problem still largely exists. Hence, many international aid agencies like the …
FILMS and videos have been used by environmentalists as promotional material for spreading their message. In addition to this, flash cards and posters have always formed an integeral part of the rural development programmes organised by governmental and the non-governmental organisations, which base their work on the assumption that if …
Plans are afoot to convert the Bhatti stone mines south of Delhi into a major drinking water source for the water-starved Capital. The gigantic stone mine pits, which were closed last year after protracted protests from environmentalists against the pollution caused by the stone crushers, might be converted into large …
EVEN as diseases caused by arsenic-tainted water continue to ravage several districts of West Bengal, the state government has initiated a Rs 15-crore action plan to supply safe drinking water to the affected districts. The worst hit areas are Malda, Murshidabad, Nadia, the 24 Parganas, Burdwan and Howrah. The state's …
Drinking water in Delhi may soon be safer and more potable. For the first time in India, the Delhi Water Supply and Sewage Disposal Undertaking (DWSSDU) expects to introduce, in May, the ozonisation process at the Okhla water treatment plant. This project is being undertaken with French technology as part …
"WE'VE BEEN repairing this pump since November 1989," says Ajufa Begum, a 27-year-old handpump mechanic in village Hathkhoapara in Assam's Kamrup district. "It has broken down 10 times in the past few years, but now we can handle it confidently." She is one of the five women who are proudly …
A CHEMICAL used originally to kill bacteria in drinking water is now proving extremely effective as a male contraceptive. S K Guha, who is a professor at the biomedical engineering department at the Indian Institute of Technology and the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, both in Delhi, and his …
ANYBODY reading the national media would have thought that environmental issues had precious little to do with the current round of elections in the states of Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Delhi. But the stories that our reporters have brought back show that nothing could be farther …
AN INDIAN scientist from the University of California, Berkeley, suggests ordinary tubelights can be used to cheaply disinfect water, especially in rural areas. "It's not as if I have discovered something new," says Ashok Gadgil. "In fact, breweries, bakeries and pharmaceutical laboratories use mercury vapour lamps (such as tubelights) to …
Municipal authorities in Thrissur, Kerala, have been accused of dilly-dallying though a deadly chemical has reportedly flowed into the town's drinking water reservoir, resulting in at least 30 persons being hospitalised for dizziness, headache and stomach disorders. The reservoir became contaminated when a tanker carrying 12,000 litres of concentrated phenyl …
We are united by a common premise: that human activities are needlessly causing grave and perhaps irreparable damage to the global environment. The dangers are clear to all of us. -- Al Gore, vice president of the United States, speaking at the Commission on Sustainable Development, June 14, 1993. "What …
LIKE OTHER countries, India's strategy at global environmental negotiations is to protect its national interests while safeguarding environmental space for future development needs. Climate Change: India played a leading role within the Group of 77 countries in pushing the issue of equity and stressed that the countries that are responsible …
THE COMMISSION on Sustainable Development (CSD), established as a UN organisation at the Earth Summit in 1992, seems bogged down by talk bereft of action. The commission, consisting of 53 countries elected on a three-year rotation basis, was set up as a global forum to coordinate action to implement an …
IT WAS former UK environment minister Michael Howard who proposed to his Indian counterpart, Kamal Nath, that their countries should form an alliance to push post-Rio environmental issues. Britain was especially interested in reactivating discussions to secure a global convention on forests. Final agreement on the convention, incorporating India's positions …
As a follow-up to the Rio summit, the Canadian environment minister set in motion events that have led to a new environmental grouping. The discussions were held for two days and had no formal agenda or speeches, but it set in motion events that have led to a new grouping …
