Water Supply Status Of Indian Rural Water Supply Programme An invitation has been extended by the World Health Organization Regional Office for South East Asia in New Delhi to State Chief Public Health Engineers and some other officials associated with the Rural Water Supply Programme, being developed since 1962 by the Government of India in nine States with the assistance of UNICEF and WHC. The conference on the Rural Water Supply Programme in the World Health House will start on 27 December and will last for two days. Chief Engineers of Orissa and Uttar Pradesh will open the discussions with statements on the present status of the WHO/UNICEF-assisted rural water supply projects in their States. Dr. V. Ramakrishna, Director, Central Health Education Bureau, and the Chief Engineer of the State of Punjab, will continue the discussions with suggestions for improvement of the programme. In the latter discussions, the main theme will be the relationship between the Engineering Department and the Public Health Department, and will cover particularly health education activities as they apply to the development of the rural water supply and sanitation programme. Safe Water Is Needed Of the 360 million population in the rural areas of India, 75 per cent are without adequate water supply; thus, water-borne diseases such as typhoid and paratyphoid, bacillary and amoebic dysenteries, cholera and diarrhoeal diseases are still high among the leading causes of death and disability. Safe water, properly distributed, is not only tremendously important for the health of the people but, at the same time, adequate water supplies are vitally necessary for the econo mic and social development of a country. Industrial development can be seriously retarded due to unavailability of community water supplies. Effective Rural Sanitation Rural sanitation, to be effective, requires the willing participation of the rural family. In the cities, sanitation can often be done for the people; in the rural areas, it must be done by them. This fact leads to the inevitable corollary that all rural sanitation work must be accompanied by effective health education. Projects such as those that will be discussed at the conference on the Indian rural water supply programme have a value that is hard to estimate. The contribution of WHO is a modest one, but the number of workers and the financial contribution of the Govern ment are large. In many projects, the contribution of local communities and individuals in terms of money, local materials and labour by far exceeds the combined support of WHO, UNICEF and the Government. Millions Without Water Dr. Y. K. Subrahmanyan, Assistant Director-General of Health Services, India, stressed the importance of environmental health and described some of the problems facing India in this regard, in his address to the W. H. O. Regional Committee for South East Asia in New Delhi (in session from September 27 to October 3) Seventy five per cent of India's urban population was still without adequate sewesupplies, Dr. Subrahmanyan said. Of the rage and 40 per cent without safe water 360 million people living in rural areas, 75 per cent did not yet have safe water supplies. During India's first two plans, 399 urban water supply schemes and 104 sewerage schemes had been implemented. In the Third Pan, 435 urban water supply and sewerage schemes had been put into effect at a cost of 209 million rupees, and the Fourth Plan (1966-71) now provided 730 million rupees for water supply and sanitation schemes. In connection with the discussion on environmental health, Mr. B. S. Murthy, Union Deputy Minister for Health and Family Planning, India, informed the (Continued on page 31) Plastic Traps For Waste An Australian firm has applied for world patent rights on a new range of plastic P and S traps that it bas designed for fast, toolfree connection to most standard waste pipes. The firm is Industrial Products Pty. Ltd., manufacturers of Caroma sanitary and plumbing fittings, of 76 Magill Road, Norwood, South Australia. It is already marketing the traps in New South Wales and South Australia where the Water Boards have approved their use. Water Boards in the other States are examining the products. Moulded in polypropylene and fitted with special connections, the traps are completely impervious to corrosion. They withstand boiling water and even steam without softening or distortion. Also, they incorporate a number of time saving features of particular value to building and plumbing contractors. The stepped down outlet connectors on both the P and S-type traps can be fitted easily and quickly to either galvanised iron, copper or plastic waste pipes of different diameters. The connector nuts, made Acetal Co-polymer, need only be handtightened to ensure a perfectly watertight seal. of Pipes The new Caroma P and S traps are available in sizes of 1țin., 1țin. and 2 in. Europe's Largest Industrial In the parent factory of Hoechst dyeworks a monster plant for biological purification of industrial sewage is being built at a cost of at least 80 million Marks. The first stage will cost 20 million Marks. On completion of the first stage the running costs for biological purification will be eight million Marks a year. The capacity of the first stage alone will make Hoechst's the largest industrial sewage plant in Europe at the moment and the second largest in the world, it was stated at a press conference given by the firm. The new plant will supplement 49 existing mechanical sewage plants. Its first stage will process 24,000 cubic metres of industrial sewage from petro-chemical, plastics and solvents factories. The sewage is ventilated in large single-cast, reinforced concrete filter-beds where bacteria absorb impurities. After the bacterial sludge has been separated into a filtration zone the purified water flows back into the river Main. The total volume of the beds required for ventilation and previous and subsequent treatment is 30,000 cubic metres. 1,100 tons of special cement are needed for their construction. Beforehand 11,000 tons of gravel had to be rammed seven metres down to compact the soil. A newly-installed drainage network brings the sewage to the purification plant. It comprises plastic pipes up to 1.2 metres. in diameter. According to the management these pipes are specially suitable for drainage channels because they resist corrosion and can be laid without joints, i. e. they are completely watertight. The system of biological purification has been developed over a period of years, first in laboratory tests, then in a pilot scheme. On the basis of test results a purification (Continued on page 33 ) OVER 80,000 ANAND-ASAHI WATER METERS AA REASON? Wherever it goes, Anand-Asahi sets the standard for quality Water Meters. Remember, It was the first in India to get ISI certification. Its straight-reading type dial ensures easy, quick and accurate reading. Right from the beginning, it has been placed on the D.G.S. & D. Contract List. Its design has been developed after years of research by one of the world's best known manufacturers of Water Meters: Osaka Kiko Ltd. Manufactured by ANAND WATER METER MFG. COMPANY Bensons 3-AWM 5C Air And Water Pollution Control In Netherlands Even in the Netherlands, the problems of air and water pollution are becoming more and more acute; or rather, it would be more correct to say that it is particularly in the Netherlands and particularly in the last few years that they have become so. For this country is small, is the most densely populated in the world and has a population that is steadily expanding. Moreover, the geographical position of the Netherlands in Western Europe, situated as it is at the mouth of three busy rivers (Rhine, Meuse and Scheldt), is in itself an establish not only basic industries, but ancillary industries, too. invitation to The result of these developments is that the quantity of underground water available has become insufficient to meet the increasing demand for wholesome drinking water and suitable water for industrial use, and so surface water has now to be used for these purposes. Since surface water has become the chief source of supply a stop had to be put to the indiscriminate disposal of unpurified sewage and industrial effluents. Since the Netherlands has always had not only to keep water out of the country but at the same time ensure that the level of all its inland waterways was high enough for the agricultural and fishing industries, the emphasis in water control was until recently laid on quantity rather than quality. (Continued from page 31 ) coefficient of 95 per cent is expected. To achieve it the bacteria of the ventilation-bed must be fed phosphorus and nitrogen compounds-3.5 tons of them a day. The excess sludge caused by the growth of bacteria in the purification process presents special problems. It is first thickened in a circular concrete basin and then, after the addition of filtration agents, dehydrated in four large revolving vacuum filters each with a filter surface of 40 square metres. After trials a daily surplus of 100-120 cubic metres of dehydrated filter-cake is expected in the first stage alone. It is to be incinerated. In the "Wet op de Verontreiniging van Oppervlaktewateren" (The Prevention of Pollution of Surface Water Bill) now going through Parliament, the responsibility for safeguarding the quality of the water is to be entrusted to the same authorities as have hitherto been in charge of the quantity. Under this Act, new duties will devolve on the Central Government (in respect of the large rivers and estuaries), on the Provincial Executive (in respect of the more important regional waterways), and on the Polder Boards (in respect of canals and other watercourses essential to agriculture and fresh-water fishing), but it is the Provincial authorities that will bear most of the responsibility, though control by the Government health authorities will provide the ultimate safeguard. The new Act will partially repiace the "Hinderwet" (Abatement of Nuisance Act), this Act which dates back as far as 1875 and has continually been adapted to changing danger, damage or nuisance particularly that circumstances, is designed to prevent caused by the kind of enterprise specifically mentioned in the Act, i.e., factories and workshops. The municipalities are responsible for giving effect to the provisions of the Act. The "Hinderwet" is also the only Act under which air pollution can be controlled. Since, however, air pcllution cannot be confined within municipal boundaries and is not caused solely by the enteprises referred to in the "Hinderwet", it will be essential to amend the Act. It will probably even be necessary to draft a special Act for the control of air pollution, under which powers would be accorded to authorities higher than Municipalities in view of the expert knowledge required in judging what does and what does not constitute a "nuisance". In fact, quite a number of industries are already doing excellent work in seeking means of controlling both air and water pollution. It is being more and more widely realized that productivity is affected not only by the conditions under which we work but also by the livability of the surroundings in which we live. |