Arsenic and Fluoride contamination of Groundwater in India (A letter to the Hon. PM of India) Rainwater Harvesting Technologies for diluting Arsenic and Fluoride contaminated groundwater in order to make the groundwater less health hazardous . A letter (3rd draft) to the Honorable Prime Minister of India is given below. Please feel free to comment. If anyone would like to include their name (along address or title, or both) please let me know and I will be glad to add it - “Mr Narendra Modi Honble Prime Minister of India Delhi , India Developing and utilising Rainwater Harvesting Technologies (RHTs) for Mitigating Adverse Health Hazardous Situations Arising Because of Arsenic and Fluoride Contamination of Groundwater Resources (GWRs) Dear Hon’ble Prime Minister, “Industrial Development & Environmental Health (IDEH)”, the group I am volunteer coordinator, is an informal research facilitating organization that uses free-social media services like Facebook, Google+, Twitter, etc for communicating sustainable development matters globally. This main group (i.e. IDEH) and its many sub-groups (e.g. Infection Control, Water Quality, Air Quality, Agriculture, Plant Science, Solid & Hazardous Waste and Renewable Energy, Water Treatment, Water Resources, Soil Conservation) are focused on improving human health situations around the world including communities in India. The members of IDEH represent many countries including ones from Asia, Africa, Europe, North and South America and are from diverse educational and occupational backgrounds which include public health, medicine, engineering, science, agriculture, environmental health and soil and water conservation. This communication is in regard to arsenic and fluoride contamination of GWRs in certain parts of India. Many parts of India and surrounding regions utilize groundwater for domestic consumption purposes, including drinking, bathing, irrigation and for satisfying domesticated animal needs. In certain locations throughout India this water is contaminated with arsenic or fluoride to levels that hazardous to human health. In most instances rainwater is free of health hazardous contaminants like fluoride and arsenic, especially in areas, where the air is relatively clean. Utilizing rainwater instead of groundwater, or diluting the contaminated groundwater with rainwater may help mitigate or actually solve problems associated with geogenic contamination GWRs. Considering the present situations, the demand in need is with regard to Sustained Design & Installation, Education & Motivation, R&D, Plumbing, landscaping, roofing, monitoring and maintenance for Rainwater Harvesting Resources (RHRs) and RHTs. The IDEH groups would like to assist the Central Government of India (CGI) as well as concerned state and local governments and all other stakeholders with this matter. Currently we do not have any financial resources at our disposal. But IDEH will be glad to provide the logistics needed to develop and continue RHRs and RHTs where needed through IDEHs networks in India and the rest of the world. Additionally since this matter of fluoride and arsenic contamination of GWRs is a global problem, IDEH would like to see this matter addressed at regional level via organizations such as SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) and South Asia Co-operative Environment Programme (SACEP), and at the global level via the World Health Organizations (WHO), Unicef, World Bank, USAID, UNDP etc. If needed, IDEH would be glad to assist CGI, and the relevant state and local government liaise with these regional (e.g. SACEP) and global organizations (e.g. Unicef) Please feel free to communicate with this group via the contact details given below. Thanking you for your time. Respectfully, Dilojan Romesh Senanayake Volunteer Coordinator Industrial Development & Environmental Health (IDEH) 409 N 3rd Street , Suite #2 Grand Forks, ND 58203 United States Email: dilojanRS@gmail or dilojan_s@yahoo Nripendra Kumar Sarma Assistant Executive Engineer (PHE), Nagaon, Assam, India email ID - sarma.nripendra@gmail Web (Facebook): Assam, India - IDEH (Industrial Development & Environment Health) https://facebook/groups/773019826068945/ Industrial Development and Environmental Health (IDEH) https://facebook/groups/IDEH.Main.Group/ IDEH - Assam, India (Environmental Health) - Community - Google + https://plus.google/u/0/communities/107300802885564039347 “ “The pump was installed in Shataps village of Hirapur, in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, during the UNs International Water Decade of the 1980s. Its borehole was one of millions sunk worldwide in a highly publicised race to provide the worlds poor with safe drinking water, planned and part-funded by aid agencies such as the UN childrens fund, Unicef. The underground water was indeed mostly free of the bacteria that can infest polluted surface water. But nobody ever tested the underground water for natural chemicals, such as fluoride, even though they were known to be widely present in rocks from which the water was pumped. Madhya Pradesh itself is famous for its rich mineral deposits. The problem is enormous, unbelievable, says Andezhath Susheela of the Fluorosis Research and Rural Development Foundation in Delhi. She has been unravelling the national story for a decade during which time her estimate of the number of people leading a painful and crippled life from fluorosis has risen from one million to 25 million and now to 60 million - six million of them children - spread across tens of thousands of communities. In some villages three-quarters of the population are seriously affected. - nofluoride/guardian_india.cfm “India and Bangladesh[edit] Arsenic contamination of the groundwater in Bangladesh is a serious problem. Prior to the 1970s, Bangladesh had one of the highest infant mortality rates in the world. Ineffective water purification and sewage systems as well as periodic monsoons and flooding exacerbated these problems. As a solution, UNICEF and the World Bank advocated the use of wells to tap into deeper groundwater. Millions of wells were constructed as a result. Because of this action, infant mortality and diarrheal illness were reduced by fifty percent. However, with over 8 million wells constructed, approximately one in five of these wells is now contaminated with arsenic above the governments drinking water standard. In the Ganges Delta, the affected wells are typically more than 20 meters and less than 100 meters deep.[citation needed] Groundwater closer to the surface typically has spent a shorter time in the ground, therefore likely absorbing a lower concentration of arsenic; water deeper than 100 m is exposed to much older sediments which have already been depleted of arsenic.[5] The issue came to international attention in 1995.[6][7][8] The study conducted in Bangladesh involved the analysis of thousands of water samples as well as hair, nail, and urine samples. They found 900 villages with arsenic above the government limit. Criticism has been leveled at the aid agencies, who denied the problem during the 1990s while millions of tube wells were sunk. The aid agencies later hired foreign experts who recommended treatment plants that were inappropriate to the conditions, were regularly breaking down, or were not removing the arsenic” en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arsenic_contamination_of_groundwater
Posted on: Fri, 12 Dec 2014 17:43:15 +0000
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