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