Minister for rural development Raghuvansh Prasad Singh has stressed upon the supply of good quality of water and given highest priority to sanitation programmes in the Interntional Sanitation Year. Addressing a press conference about the out come of the recent two-day meeting of the state secretaries in charge of rural drinking water supply and sanitation in the country, he said sustainability of water sources and convergence among various programmes to achieve drinking water security was of the utmost importance.

Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today called for chalking out a multi-pronged time-bound strategy to achieve the objective of "safe drinking water for all' through proper monitoring of rural water supply schemes by the application of reverse osmosis (RO), silver ionisation and ultra-violet techniques depending on the quality of water.

Though successive Governments at the Centre and in the State have adopted several ambitious schemes like Sajaldhara to supply safe drinking water to people, due to the alleged indifference and lack of proper follow-up action of the Government, there has been no desired results. The Government observed 2003 as the year of safe drinking water. But it is a matter of great regret that even after five years, the objectives of the scheme have been relegated to the background as is evident from the dismal water supply schemes in several parts of Barpeta district.

the pleas of the 50 survivors of the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy, who reached Delhi on March 28, are far from being heard. Travelling over 800 km on foot, they came to the capital to remind the prime

Nearly 15 lakh residents of Pimpri-Chinchwad can now look forward to getting clean drinking water. If the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation is to be believed, citizens' long-cherished dream of getting "completely clean, pure and unpolluted drinking water' will come true in two years time.

Dirty and unsafe water is being supplied to citizens of Kurnool city. But the municipal authorities are content with an explanation for the reason without taking any measures for the purification of stagnant tank water. Despite opposition corporators raising the issue and expressing concern at the authorities over supply of poor quality water in the recent council meeting, the authorities merely told members that the reason lay in the lower levels of the supply water tank but gave no assurance of addressing the problem.

This is Dhirubhai Ambani's birthplace. Located right on the coast, it is one of the hundreds of villages along Gujarat's 1600-km coastline which have been inflicted by salinity of soil. Kukasvada, which has a population of 10,000, does not have sweet water wells. Villagers have stopped getting drinking water in the taps. The few rich families here purchase water from private tankers at Rs 350 per 1,000-litre. Others travel several kilometres to fetch water.

One person died and four others were admitted to the government hospital here on Tuesday with the symptoms of diarrhoea and dysentery. More than a dozen people were treated as outpatients.

The ground water quality of the 14 Metropolitan Cities of Faridabad, Delhi, Jaipur, Bhopal, Indore, Jabalpur, Nagpur, Nasik, Pune, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Vishakhapatnam, Patna and Kochi has been assessed to see the suitability of ground water for domestic and irrigation applications. Twenty five ground water samples were collected each during pre- and post-monsoon seasons in the year 2004 and analysed for various physico-chemical and bacteriological parameters, heavy metals, pesticides and polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons.

How safe is your tap water? Check for the bio-films formed on your house tap, which can be potentially hosting bacteria and you will get the answer.

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