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A National Conference on Water Quality Issues is opening tomorrow in Kolkata to deliberate upon issues pertaining to water quality in the country. The contamination of ground water due to arsenic, fluoride and nitrate along with water quality related health issues, community based water quality monitoring/surveillance and research & development in this sector would be discussed at the Conference.
The two-day Conference is being organised by the Ministry of Water Resources in collaboration with the Public Health Engineering Department, Government of West Bengal. The other Departments participating in the Conference are: Department of Water Supply of Ministry of Rural Development; Central Pollution Control Board of Ministry of Environment & Forests and the National Institute of Communicable Diseases and National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases of Union Ministry of Health.
The Conference will be inaugurated by the Union Minister for Water Resources, Shri Priyaranjan Dasmunsi and the Chief Minister of West Bengal Shri Buddhadev Bhattacharjee will be the Chief Guest at the Conference which would be presided over by the Union Minister for Rural Development Shri Raghuvansh Prasad Singh. The Union Minister of State for Water Resources Shri Jai Prakash Narayan Yadav will also attend the Conference along with several Ministers of the West Bengal Government.
The Secretaries of various States, eminent persons in the field of water quality issues and several Non-governmental Organisations (NGOs) are also participating in the Conference.
The Secretary Water Resources, Shri V.K. Duggal has said that the objective of the Conference is to prepare a national action plan to address the water quality issues. The Conference is expected to give recommendations towards water quality management in the country on the basis of sharing of experience of the States and valuable inputs from experts, NGOs and Organisations in the field. It is expected that the implementation of the action plan will help improve the water quality all over the country.
The Conference will have seven dedicated sessions for deliberations on subjects like Water Quality Issues in the Country; Hot-spots and Contamination of Water; Water Quality and Health issues; Arsenic Contamination of Ground Water-Status and Remedy; Ground Water Quality and its Control with special reference to Fluoride; Surface Water Quality and its Control; Water Quality and Community Water Supply, Water Quality Management in Re-use and re-cycling and R&D and Institutional Arrangement for Water Quality Management.
The Valedictory session would be addressed by Shri Kirit S. Parikh, Member, Planning Commission and Shri Gautam Deb, Minister In-charge Public Health Engineering Department, Government of West Bengal.
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