earthPoems
Celebration of LifeArchive for June, 2008
Lightbulbs To Leadership Video on Global Warming
View a video on global warming
Lightbulbs to leadership
Provided by: www.lightbulbstoLeadership.org
Sign the Petition for Strong Action on G8 Summit
There is still time to lobby with the Eight richest countries in the world to take strong action by setting mid term targets to cut greenhouse gas emissions at the G8 Summit in Japan tomorrow; and, to support developing countries to build safe energy and development resources.
International lobbying organizations have floated a petition urging Japan’s Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda to take bold action for climate change at the Summit. Please click the link below to sign this petition.
www.avaaz.org
Info Patch
Canadian Environment Week and United Nations World Environment Day
The United Nations World Environment Day is June 5 while Canadian Environment Week (CEW), an annual event, takes place this year from June 1-7. More info at: EnviroZine
Half of Lahore’s Population Drinking Contaminated Water
It may be ironic to some people that the first post at Earthpoems is about an issue as unpoetic as the contaminated water of Lahore. But then who knows what ‘poetic’ is when faced with erosion and decay in one’s city of birth, and so, this issue descends on me like a sad poem of love.
The Institute of Public Health (IPH) reports that faeces is found in about half of the drinking water samples collected from Lahore. Farkhanda Kokab, an Epidemiologist of the IPH, says that some 92 drinking water samples were tested between May 1 and 15, and faeces were found in 43 of them. “The presence of faeces in potable water is very dangerous and alarming. The authorities concerned must take a serious note of it and do the needful” she said.
According to a survey done by the Environment Protection Department (EPD) of the Punjab, a defective sewerage system is causing water contamination by allowing sewage water to mix in with the supply lines of drinking water. As well, it is recommended that the discharge of industrial refuse into the subsoil through holes should be banned to avoid further contamination of ground water.
The (Monitoring) Director of Punjab Environment Protection Department (EPD), Dr Shagufta Shahjahan said that the department had carried out tests on drinking water samples in the Punjab province earlier, and 25 per cent water samples collected from Lahore were found ‘unfit’ for drinking, and that the City District Government and Water and Sanitation Agency (WASA) were advised to chlorinate and clean the City’s water supply lines.
Ms. Kokub of the IPH stresses that Lahore’s posh areas are no exception to drinking water contamination. To the citizens of Lahore, she suggests that “the best solution to ensure the cleanliness of drinking water is to boil it”!
An offshoot of this problem is the marked increase in the production and consumption of bottled water. Not only that water is selling almost at the price of milk but that it will soon add to the environmental hazard already clogging the city of Lahore in the form of roadside garbage dumps.
Information provided by Whiz News from Khaleej Times.
