DEPARTMENT FOR BUSINESS, ENERGY & INDUSTRIAL STRATEGY

REhabilitation of Vibrio Infested waters of VembanAd Lake: pollution and solution (REVIVAL)

Project disclaimer

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Description

REVIVAL is a project addressing the water quality in Vembanad Lake , the largest water body in Kerala, draining 40% of its surface area and holding 30% of its surface water resource. Some 1.6 million people live around its shores. Its fishing and farming communities follow traditional ways of life; it is a cultural icon of India. Tourism there contributes strongly to state and central revenues. But Vembanad is highly polluted. The inhabitants are not assured of access to water that is safe for drinking and bathing. In this proposal, we will study the risk to public health from biological pollution in the lake. We will examine how pollution affects health, and how it might lower performance in the workplace, cause loss of revenue, and lower quality of life, threatening orderly and sustainable economic development of the region. Scientists from India and the UK will join forces to study microbiological pollution in the lake to understand the conditions that allow pathogens to proliferate in the lake. They will find the major point sources of biological contamination in the lake. They will ascertain the organisms in the lake with which the pathogens are associated, how pathogens move within the lake, how their number changes with season, how they infect people, and the environmental conditions under which their virulence is expressed. Data will be collected in the field and by instruments carried on satellites in Earth orbit, as well as by instruments mounted on miniature drones, allowing. Detailed and extensive measurements with daily repetition and observations in places that would otherwise be dangerous to reach. Mathematical modelling will help integration and understanding of the observations, suggest actions for remediation of water quality and reduction of risk to public health, and provide a capability to forecast times and localities vulnerable to disease outbreaks. The results will help the team to design a rational protocol for monitoring water quality in the lake after the project is completed and recommend procedures for water quality remediation. Scientists will advise regulators, environmental managers and above all, the local community on policy actions that will help to maintain good water quality into the foreseeable future. Indian and UK scientists will teach young Indian scientists how to use these methods to address similar problems elsewhere. A key activity will be the engagement of stakeholders (local communities, economic interests, civil servants) in the planning, execution, and interpretation of the work and translation of the results into action. There will be public awareness meetings at the outset, building on grass-roots initiatives already under way in the community. The project will have a citizen science component in which members of the community will be supplied with novel but inexpensive, simple but effective equipment to monitor water quality properties (temperature and turbidity). The measurements will increase the spatial coverage and frequency of the observations.. The citizen scientists will be informed about the significance of their results, how they help to understand the dynamics of water quality in the lake (including the dynamics of the epidemics) and how that might be translated into evidence-based action for lake restoration. Improving the water quality in Vembanad Lake will provide a solid foundation for augmentation of public health and welfare, an essential step in improving quality of life and securing a sustainable economic development of Kerala. Involving the general public, as well as economic and administrative interests, will ensure that proposed solutions for lake restoration have a high probability of being implemented, such that economic growth can proceed hand in hand with maintenance of traditional life styles of fishing and farming communities.

Objectives

The Newton Fund builds research and innovation partnerships with developing countries across the world to promote the economic development and social welfare of the partner countries.

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Location

The country, countries or regions that benefit from this Programme.

India

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