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  Shakti Saran June 6, 2013 at 11:01pm

  Water, Environment and Development - Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, Chairman of the Board at Nestlé S.A.

  Asit Biswas is the founder of the Third World Centre for Water Management in Mexico, and a distinguished visiting professor at three institutions: Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, Singapore; Wuhan University, China; and Indian Institute of Technology, Bhubaneswar, India. He won the Stockholm Water Prize in 2006 and was named by Reuters in 2012 as one of the Top 10 Water Trailblazers of the World.

  Asit Biswas and I have jointly written the piece below, coinciding with World Environment Day, looking at the interrelationship between water and the environment.

  This World Environment Day (June 5), it would be pertinent to reflect on why a serious issue like water and its close interrelationship with the environment has for all practical purposes disappeared form the global political agenda.

  The increasing demand for water, coupled with poor management practices over decades, has already caused a lot of damage to the environment.

  I've shared the above on my Security and India LinkedIn group's post: Ganga is now a deadly source of cancer, study says. "The consequences of using or drinking this poison can manifest earliest in two years and latest in 20. But by then, it's way too late." http://lnkd.in/wa2Zee
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  Shakti Saran May 16, 2013 at 1:08pm

  Thank You China for making the laptop to help me express when I feel like an Indian street dog or pig or donkey and that then mention that I'm a human. Also, thank you for many other things. Are you also making the filter in my water filter? Please do your best! http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/we-must-shake-hands-to-r... I wish www.healthfitnessindia.com would also be of value. Best!
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  Shakti Saran October 22, 2012 at 2:15am

  Ganga is now a deadly source of cancer, study says. "The consequences of using or drinking this poison can manifest earliest in two years and latest in 20. But by then, it's way too late." 

  http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2012-10-17/news/345255... 

  "This is the consequence of years of abuse. Over years, industries along the river have been releasing harmful effluents into the river. The process of disposing of waste has been arbitrary and unscientific. The river and those living along its banks are paying a price for this indiscretion," Chittaranjan National Cancer Institute director Jaideep Biswas said. The Kolkata-based cancer institute is an associate of the National Cancer Registry Programme.
  
  Biswas, a senior oncologist, said Ganga water is now laced with toxic industrial discharge such as arsenic, choride, fluoride and other heavy metals. Dipankar Chakarabarty, director, Jadavpur University School of Environmental Studies, concurs. "We've been extremely careless. Indiscriminate release of industrial effluents is to blame for this."
  
  "The arsenic that's gets into the river doesn't flow down. Iron and oxygen present in the water form ferroso ferric oxide, which in turn bonds with arsenic. This noxious mix settles on the riverbed. Lead and cadmium are equally heavy and naturally sink in the river. This killer then leeches back into the groundwater, making it poisonous," Chakrabarty explains.
  
  Surface water, Chakrabarty explains, is treated before use. But that's clearly not the case with groundwater and it's mostly consumed raw, often straight from source. The impact is devastating. "The consequences of using or drinking this poison can manifest earliest in two years and latest in 20. But by then, it's way too late." Those who've been bathing in this poison river are equally at danger, says Biswas. The need of the hour is to strictly implement laws regulating discharge of industrial waste into the river. 

   

  I've also shared it on http://www.linkedin.com/groups/Ganga-is-now-deadly-source-4667311.S...