ICEH Papers

 

URBAN ECOSYSTEMS AND HEALTH IN KATHMANDU:
COMMUNITY-BASED BIOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT OF DRINKING WATER SOURCES


Govindarajalu, Dr. K. “Industrial Effluent And Health Status - A Case Study Of Noyyal River Basin” in Martin J. Bunch, V. Madha Suresh and T. Vasantha Kumaran, eds., Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Environment and Health, Chennai, India, 15-17 December, 2003. Chennai: Department of Geography, University of Madras and Faculty of Environmental Studies, York University. Pages 150 – 157.


Abstract:

Industrial pollution has been and continues to be, a major factor causing the degradation of the environment around us, affecting the water we use, the air we breathe and the soil we live on. But of these, pollution of water is arguably the most serious threat to current human welfare. Environmental pollution is an ‘externality’ in welfare economics. An externality is present whenever individual A’s utility and production relationships include real (i.e. non-monetary) variables, whose values are chosen by others (persons, corporations, governments) without particular attention to the effects on A’s welfare (Baumol and Oates, 1988). An externality can be either beneficial (positive) or harmful (negative). Negative externalities include noise pollution by aircrafts using an airport, which enters as a real variable in the utility functions of persons living in the neighbourhood, and the pollution of a river, which enters as a real variable in the production function of water-supply undertakings drawing from the river or agriculture.

The present study is mainly aimed at studying the nature and impact of water pollution in the Noyyal river basin in Coimbatore, Erode and Karur districts. The main thrust of the study is on the health status of villagers, agriculture and the livestock population. For this purpose 31 villages and 600 households have been selected for primary survey. To understand the magnitude of the impact of water pollution on the health status of the villagers, 3 major health camps were conducted. It was evident from the study that almost all the 31 sampled villages were affected by the industrial effluent. Health problems such as skin allergy, respiratory infections, general allergy, gastritis and ulcers were the common diagnosis by the medical team. The impact of water pollution was significant on the rural community in the areas of health, agriculture, livestock and drinking water.

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