(Download) "Water Contamination: The Way Forward (Commentary) (Report)" by Indian Journal of Medical Research # eBook PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Water Contamination: The Way Forward (Commentary) (Report)
- Author : Indian Journal of Medical Research
- Release Date : January 01, 2009
- Genre: Life Sciences,Books,Science & Nature,Health, Mind & Body,Health & Fitness,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 55 KB
Description
Water-bome diseases accounts for 6 million deaths and over a billion cases of debilitating diarrhoea annually in developing countries. The latter is largely due to poor sanitation in both rural and urban areas (1). Geographic information system (GIS) technologies could be applied for evaluation of health impact of water source in urban and rural communities (2,3). The study by Gopal et al (4) in this issue makes a new contribution in this area. The results demonstrate the application of this methodology in a small village setting. GIS overlay approach demonstrated that close proximity of water pipes to sewage, garbage and faecal matter posed an increased risk of infection, confirming earlier findings on a larger scale elsewhere (2). The risk to water sources was assessed by Coliform counts in water samples. What do these findings mean? First, the findings are interesting because these demonstrate application of the approach to a relatively very small area of a village community setting, rather than large study areas requiring significant human and material resources. The small scale allows community self-help programmes to undertake such projects in collaboration with universities and local authorities, overcoming the bureaucratic bottlenecks that stifle progress in such matters in developing countries.