THE VANISHING LAKES
In the last few decades, the water bodies of north Bihar have either dried up or been reclaimed for agriculture. The rest have been reduced to cesspools. The fragile interface between land and water is threatened, and along with that, the lives of thousands of people who depend on them. Policy-makers do not realise that this part of the state has a water economy, not a land economy. The poverty of the state reflects the mental  poverty that goes into planning in north Bihar. A Down To Earth cover story at

SINGAPORE:BREATHING EASY
Singapore, at one time one of the most polluted Asian cities, has mastered   the art of taming traffic. For 10 years, its pollution levels have remained below the required levels and it is among the cleanest cities in  the world today. Indian policymakers need to take a close look at the  Singapore model that guarantees its citizens the right to clean air. Read more at

WASTING AWAY
Despite the deadline for hospitals to set up bio-medical waste disposal methods having expired, nothing has changed in New Delhi. See it piled up at

HIDE BURNS
Skin diseases and stomach ailments afflict most of the people living around a tannery area in Kanpur - a fallout of the failure of the Ganga Action Plan. Details in a Down To Earth special report at

http://www.cseindia.org/html/dte/dte20000831/dte_srep.htm

A message from the Director, Anil Agarwal:

Jobs and the environment
The brunt of environmental protection cannot just be borne by the poor

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