India-UK Water Centre Workshop

he India UK Water Centre (IUKWC) is a virtual Joint Centre between the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES), Govt of India and the Natural Environmental Research Council (NERC), UK; hosted by the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology in India and the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology in the UK. IUKWC implemented its first set of Grassroots Field Exposure Initiative (GFES) from 13th December to 15th December 2018 in Kolkata. It was aimed to promote the assimilation of local knowledge and users’ experiences to progress the concept of co-production and co-design and facilitate user feedback into science and policy. On behalf of SIGMA Foundation Dr. Debasri Mukherjee attended the workshop and shared her thoughts on water quality scenario in West Bengal context. Dr. Mukherjee clearly stated the mitigation measures of fluoride affected districts in West Bengal especially Tapan and Gangarampur block of Dakshin Dinajpur where Public Health Engineering Department (PHED) is suppling safe drinking water in 482 villages and 1,547 habitations. In context of arsenic affected blocks of Habra-I, Habra-II and Gaighata in North 24 Parganas, PHED is supplying water in 327 rural mouzas and 799 habitations.