Apr 17, 2010

India leads in child diarroheal deaths-UNICEF India



Every second child in rural India is drinking contaminated water. UNICEF experts believe that 50 per cent of water sources in India have become contaminated.  In Uttar Pradesh, contamination levels are as high as 90 per cent whereas in Gujarat, it is around 30 per cent.  In Krishnagiri district in Tamil Nadu water contamination levels had crossed 90 per cent in one block.

Dara Johnston, a water, santiation and hygience expert with Unicef India for the last four years, pointed out: “Two kinds of contamination prevalent in water are faecal and chemical. In Allahabad district, water contamination levels from faecal contamination have crossed 90 per cent.  We conduct random sampling for bacteria in water sources. Bacteria in water comes from human behaviour (largely faecal contamination ) and our solution is to identify behaviour causing it. We do a sanitary surveillance to identify if there is a toilet within ten metres of the water source, do the villagers practise open defaectaion, is garbage being dumped close to the water source".

About the image: Open defaecation in the financial capital of India, Mumbai.  Image source and credit to: An Englishman in Mumbai

Apr 12, 2010

Police shoot Sikh at Gurudwara of Greater Cleveland

It was reported that a Bedford Police officer shot and killed a Sikh at Gurudwara of Great Cleveland.  Ravinder Nijjar of Bedford was observed brandishing a meat cleaver at Guru Gobind Singh Gurudwara of Greater Cleveland located at 38 Tarbell Avenue in Bedford.

Ravinder Nijjar

Michael Sangiacomo of the Plain Dealer writes,
Duber said the officer told cleaver-wielding Nijjar to stop two times before shooting him inside the Guru Gobind Singh Gurudwara of Greater Cleveland temple. Duber said Nijjar was only 11 feet away when the officer shot him.  Police said the incident started around 4:30 a.m. when two members of the temple stopped a police cruiser and said there was a man with a knife inside the temple. The men said there were two other members also inside.
"Two police officers entered the temple, with the two members," Duber said. "One officer went up a flight of stairs and the other officer went down. The officer who went downstairs into a hallway when Nijjar came down another flight of stairs toward him with the cleaver.
"The officer said 'drop the knife' twice, but the man continued walking toward him," Duber continued. "The officer shot him."

Nijjar was pronounced dead at 5:10 a.m. at the Bedford Medical Center.
Duber said police are trying to determine what happened and why Nijjar went to the temple.