Further developments from the previous Jaltara water
kit post
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Manipur-Diaspora/message/1594
Can any member organise this in manipur or know of any
expert in this field to scrutinise if the
functionality of the kit is useful to us. It would be
a great initiative if we can get this kicked off
simply from the perspective of raising awareness of
this critical surreptitious health threat to the
entire population. I dont think we should go through a
school level programme currently in manipur but more
of an NGO with involvement of the science department
in case there is a need for scientific guidance. WE
can fund an initial kit and I am sure I could even get
them to give us one free initially if we can
demonstrate to them we have the urgency and the
capacity to start the programme in manipur.
We curently have a membership of only a little less
than 200. We need to get this membership to grow so
that we can tap into every possible resource,
intellect and personnel either directly from members
or through a relative or acquaintance of a member, so
that such programmes can get the requisite support to
succeed.
If anyone has any idea/critique let me know before I
reply back to CLEANIndia.
Wed, 12 May 2004 09:38:55 +0530
CLEANIndia Initiative and JalTara kit cost
Dear Mr.,
Glad to note your interest in the CLEAN-India
Programme. we are yet to begin in north East, we
haven't been able to raise the required funds to
coordinate the programme in east. If you have the
resources we could train you in coordiantion of
various activities of the programme.
Regarding Jal TARA kit following are the details and
attached is the quotation for costs:
Jal-TARA is an easy to operate water quality testing
kit developed by Development Alternatives and can
perform basic tests to ensure that water is fit for
drinking, domestic and other uses. The kit can test 14
essential parameters for drinking and river water
quality. These include simple tests to assess the
levels of specific physical, chemical and biological
components.
The standard kit for drinking and river water quality
can test for:
River water quality parameters: Dissolved Oxygen,
Phophorous, Benthos, Temperature
Drinking Water Quality Parameters: pH, Coliform
Bacteria, Ammonia, Residual Chlorine, Fluoride,
Nitrate, Iron, Hardness, Chloride, Turbidity.
The kit gives quantitative tests for Hardness,
Chloride and Dissolved Oxygen and semi quantitative
tests for Fluoride, Ammonia, Residual Chlorine,
Phosphorous, Iron, Nitrate, pH, coliform, turbidity.
Standards prescribed by the Bureau of Indian standards
are followed for all the tests.
The kit has all the chemicals and accessories to
perform these tests in the field. The kit case is
sturdy and has a foam cushioning for safety of the
chemicals. The kit can test for 100 samples of water
at a time. The shelf life of the chemicals is six
months. For coliform and starch two years and one
month respectivley. Illustrative manual is provided
with the kit such that any person with non-scientific
background can also do the test easily by strictly
following the instructions given in the manual. It is
being widely used by students too.
For more details, kindly visit the Website :
www.cleanindia.org/tools.htm
If you have any further queries please feel free to
contact us
Regards
Anuradha
Wednesday, May 12, 2004 6:47 AM
CLEANIndia Initiative and JalTara kit cost
Hi,
I read about the CLEANIndia Initiative and was
curious to know if this programme reached out to the
North East too. There will be many schools and NGOs
willing to participate in this if you can give us a
little information on the requisites of participating
in the programme.
http://www.partnerships.stockholm.se/search_view.asp?Id=71
Also can you please let me know the cost of the
water testing kit and how many tests it can perform.
http://www.cleanindia.org/jaltarakit.htm Because of
the general ignorance from a lack of education in the
population compounded by the non existence of any
'population safeguarding' scientific institutions in
the north East region, the population requires such
programmes like yours to ensure that the water they
consume is safe. Harmful chemicals in water is not
only an insidious killer but a pervasive one.
Our population eagerly looks forward to hearing from
you so we can introduce this excellent public health
initiative like it is done in the other areas of
india.
Sat May 8, 2004 3:43 am
water testing kits
After a documentary on unsafe drinking water in china
I did some investigations on affordable water testing kits.
I had raised this on my calls to our scientist to
monitor our water quality to safeguard the population.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Manipur-Diaspora/messages/1210
We have an increase in fertiliser usage and deadly chemicals with the increase of industries and small factories. In
some developing countries people have gone beyond dynamites to cyanide to catch fish
and could this be happening in our rivers. Our callous govt is not going to perform that role and I wouldnt rule out
ignorance given the corrupt employment practice. Given the very low education level
of our population, the few experts in these fields must take up this inescapable crucial responsibility and all of us must
help in whatever way we can. I dont know what exist in the hills but our khongbans were perfect sewage treatment plants as most
waste were organic that could be broken down. But with more inorganic chemicals being released and the further reduction in khongbans
with the pressures of a growing urban population we are slowly poisoning our
entire population. I remember as a kid dumping off an
entire drum of
used engine oil waste in our front khongban so we
could use the drum
to collect rain water !
http://www.cleanindia.org/jaltarakit.htm
This Jal Tara kit from clean India is something our
NGOs should get
to ensure that the population is drinking safe water.
They certainly
would be glad to have our schools and NGOs
participating in this
CLEANIndia initiative - something our members in india
can pursue. I
tried to get the prices for it but failed. TARA
(Technology and
Action for Rural Advancement) is the marketing arm of
the
Development Alternatives Group.
http://www.tarahaat.com/tara/water
Other water testing kits
http://www.forestry-suppliers.com/drilldown_pages/view_category.asp?ID=321
Those of you living abroad and going home must take
home one of
these home testing kits and let us know the result.
http://www.watersafetestkits.com/html/drinkingkits.asp
Some of these stories from china are worrying for
manipur...
But agricultural runoff from chemical fertilizers,
industrial effluent and urban waste have rendered the
water in most of its reservoirs undrinkable.
Experts calculate that 700 million Chinese consume
drinking water contaminated with levels of animal and
human waste that do not meet minimum state
drinking-water standards. Any research into the
subject has been discouraged by the government but
China's high
rates of hepatitis A, diarrhea, and liver, stomach and
esophageal cancer may be linked to the pollution.
But until the first wastewater plant was built in
1990, 90 percent of Kunming's wastewater was pumped
untreated into the lake. The lake water is now
undrinkable despite several billion dollars having
been spent trying to clean it up.
From valleys high on the mountain, mines spew a
cocktail of toxic waste straight in to the rivers,
turning the water a bright orange.
In the last decade, the cancer rate in the village has
soared. More than 200 have died, mostly from stomach
and liver cancer.
In China overall, liver and stomach cancer deaths have
doubled since the 1970s, and are now the leading
causes of cancer mortality in rural China (9). China
now has the highest liver cancer death rate in the
world (9). When TVIEs in more polluted areas are
examined, they show a general increase in cancer
mortality. (Fig. 2). Figure 2 also demonstrates that
cancer mortality in polluted areas has been steadily
increasing over time. Although diet and alcohol
consumption may play a role in the increased cancer
rates, environmental factors are also relevant.
According to Dutka, the presence of chemical
contaminants in drinking water supplies is a larger
problem in some parts of the world than the presence
of microbiological contaminants such as bacteria and
viruses. Exposure to waterborne chemicals such as
pesticides, herbicides, and heavy metals can have a
severe impact on human health, causing health effects
ranging from dizziness and tunnel vision to extensive
neurological damage.
http://web.idrc.ca/en/ev-5527-201-1-DO_TOPIC.html
* This article was a part of discussion from Manipuri Diaspora Group in 2003/2004.
You can access them at
Manipuri Diaspora Group
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