Tag: sanitation

IIT Kharagpur and University of Leeds Sign MoU for Joint Supervision of PhD Programs

Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur signed of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the University of Leeds (UoL) in recognition of the growing importance of India and a long-term partnership with University of Leeds. This collaboration aims to enhance academic and research cooperation through the joint supervision of PhD programs in the fields of Civil Engineering, Transport Studies, and Biological Sciences.

A team from IIT Kharagpur was invited to join the University of Leeds’ 25-Year Celebrations in Delhi on the 28th of June 2024. This special occasion also featured the signing of the Joint External Supervision Agreement, commemorating the longstanding relationship between University of Leeds and IIT Kharagpur.  The signing comes at an opportune moment for IITKGP, hot on the heels of a 13-member team visit of faculty members from IIT Kharagpur to University of Leeds during June 4-6, 2024.

Prof. Rabibrata Mukherjee, Dean, International Relations, IIT Kharagpur, opined that “IIT KGP is excited to team up with University of Leeds to explore the diversity of academic partnership. Under the aegis of the MoU, several activities have been carried out including joint research projects, exchange of students and faculty members, joint guidance of student thesis, etc. To further strengthen the collaboration, the two Institutes now have the External Joint Supervision Agreement, which will immensely benefit doctoral students, wherein they will receive mentorship and guidance from faculty members of both the Institutes. The initial themes of collaboration that have been identified are Clean Energy for All, Sustainable Transport, Resilient Infrastructure, Healthcare and Well-Being, Chemicals and Waster, and Water and Sanitation which also address some of the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations.”

University of Leeds

Prof. Manuel Barcia, Dean of Global Engagement at the University of Leeds, commented on the partnership, saying, “We are thrilled to embark on this collaborative journey with IIT Kharagpur. This MoU not only strengthens our international ties but also underscores our commitment to fostering global academic excellence. By integrating our research capabilities and academic expertise, we are paving the way for innovative solutions to some of the world’s most pressing challenges. This partnership will undoubtedly enhance the educational experience for our students and contribute to groundbreaking advancements starting with the fields of Civil Engineering, Transport Studies, and Biological Sciences. We are optimistic that as this partnership strengthens further, we will broaden our collaboration to other subject areas to benefit more students, researchers and the world at large.”

In an endeavour to continue the path of sustained collaboration with University of Leeds, IIT KGP has already started discussions on the ‘Jointly Funded Bilateral Mobility Agreement’ and it is also expected that IIT KGP will be a part of the ‘Joint Virtual Centre of Excellence on Sustainable Development’ which is being envisioned by the University of Leeds.

IIT Kharagpur

In addition to the above, IIT KGP is also looking into the possibility of participating in the ‘Leeds International Partners Conference’ which is slotted to take place in December 2024 and will be the first of its kind for Leeds. It is expected that this would give IIT KGP an opportunity to make its existing collaboration with the University of Leeds more robust and effectively use the platform to engage with its partners and share knowledge on topics of mutual interest.

This collaboration between the University of Leeds and IIT Kharagpur is poised to have a transformative impact on the future of higher education and research in both countries. By combining the strengths of two leading institutions, this partnership will foster an environment of innovation, creativity, and intellectual exchange. Students and researchers will benefit from diverse perspectives and cutting-edge resources, paving the way for groundbreaking discoveries and advancements.

Also, by working together to tackle global issues, this MoU will serve as an example of international cooperation. Biological sciences, transport studies, and civil engineering are among the fields where the merger of knowledge and experience from both institutions would not only improve research and education quality but also help solve important problems. Through this relationship, other universities will be inspired to explore comparable projects to strengthen international academic and research networks and set the standard for future collaborations.

The new partnership is in line with both institutes’ strategic objectives to promote multidisciplinary research and broaden their global networks. The University of Leeds and IIT Kharagpur are sure that their partnership will result in ground-breaking findings and have a long-lasting effect on society.

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Clean India, Healthy India

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Does economic growth have a positive correlation with clean drinking water in India? Researchers at IIT Kharagpur seem to be not only agreeing with this idea but even found concrete proofs. In a recent study published in the Scientific Reports, the link between the influence of economic growth in reducing fecal pathogens in groundwater has been established. These are the pathogens that are considered to be one of the key causes of water-bourne diseases, across India.

Water-bourne diseases like diarrhea have been the cause of 15.5% of total deaths in India from 1990 – 2016. The study has made first-time observations on a significant reduction of fecal pathogen concentration in the spatially variable groundwater from 2002 to 2017. The study, however, reported elevated fecal coliform concentration in potable groundwater in rural regions across India than UNGA’s safe limit of zero pathogens. Download Paper

“Looking beyond the country globally, more than one-third of the total country’s population, living in economically stressed areas of Africa and South Asia still do not have access to basic sanitation, and more than 1 billion still opt for open defecation. Until recently, India has more than 500 million open-defecating population resulting unsafe disposal of fecal waste to nearby drinking water sources poses a serious environmental crisis and public health concern,” says Prof. Abhijit Mukherjee, faculty at the School of Environmental Science and Engineering and Dept. of Geology and Geophysics at IIT Kharagpur who led the research project. 

In recent years, sanitation development to achieve goal-6 of UNGA’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) has been encouraged across India by implementing Clean India (Swachh Bharat) Mission. But their effect on groundwater quality and human health are yet unquantified until now. The study, published on October 23 on the Nature group of journals, gives long term, high-spatial-resolution measurements of fecal coliform concentration (>1.7 million) and acute diarrheal cases for the first time. The study data covered almost the last three decades to delineate the long-term improvement trends of groundwater quality across India, as a consequence of development.

“A uniqueness in this study to determine economic development was instead of GDP or other economic growth data, we have used satellite-based nightlight (NL) information from NASA for the period 1992-2013 which was used to investigate the statistical trends and causal relationships. In most areas’ economic development, suggested by increasing satellite-based nightlight correlated to the reduction in faecal coliform concentration and alleviation of water quality. While, sanitation and economic development can improve human health, poor education level and improper human practices can potentially affect water-borne diseases loads and thus health in parts of India.” explained Srimanti Duttagupta, Ph.D. scholar at IIT Kharagpur, second author of the research paper which has come out recently based on this study. 

Numerical and statistical analyses were performed on aforesaid culled datasets to understand the efficiency of development in alleviating the water quality and public health, and relationship with economic development. Enhanced alleviation of groundwater quality and human health have been observed since 2014 with the initiation of accelerated construction of sanitation infrastructure through Swachh Bharat Mission.

In the study it was observed that in more than 80% of the study region, night-time light demonstrated to be a strong predictor for observed changes in groundwater quality, sanitation development and water-borne disease cases.

However, the goal of completely fecal-pollution free, clean drinking water is yet to be achieved, Prof. Mukherjee remarked, however, needs more data to confirm.

“Nevertheless, in areas with inferior water quality, improper human practices outweigh economic development in affecting human health,” he added.

It has been further observed that very high population density deteriorates the quality of water in certain areas. The problem of overpopulation and slums is an intricate problem that is reflected in all life aspects in countries like India. Different statistical analyses conducted in this study showed about a 3.09 % decrease in fecal coliform concentration and a 2.69% decrease in acute diarrheal cases per year for the last three decades. Groundwater quality with respect to fecal coliform concentration and acute diarrheal cases generally reduced in most areas of India and has been mostly caused by sanitation development, urbanization and related land-use changes.

Since 2014 the government has built over 100 million toilets in six lakh villages and 6.3 million toilets in cities covering a total of 600 million people (almost 60% of India’s population) which is more than the total figure for toilets since 1947. Currently, 93% of village households have toilets with a usage rate of over 90%. On October 2, while celebrating the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared that India was open-defecation free. But there are facts beyond statistics primarily challenging the initiative at the level of societal and poor human practices.

The researchers opined that use and disuse and beliefs are mostly related to lower literacy rates. In turn, these results in a lack of awareness and encourage malpractice on sanitation, eventually leading to increased fecal waste into drinking water sourced from groundwater.