GUWAHATI, Feb 20 - The Senior Engineers� Forum, Guwahati (NE Region) held a symposium here today to generate awareness about contamination of drinking water and the impact of such contamination on living beings.
Dr Sunderrajan Krishnan, executive director of the INREM Foundation, Anand, Gujarat presented the keynote address at the inaugural function. He gave a detailed account of the areas of the country where groundwater is contaminated by presence of excess arsenic and fluoride.
Dr Sunderrajan, himself an engineer of repute, travelled to different parts of the country to obtain first-hand reports on the contaminated water-related woes of the people. For the purpose he had also visited some of the arsenic-affected areas of Nalbari district.
In the technical session, papers on the problems caused by fluoride and arsenic contamination of drinking water were presented by Dr Somnath Sarma, Director Geological Survey of India (NER); AB Paul, a former chief engineer of the Public Health Engineering Department of the State; Dr Rabin Dutta of Tezpur University; Dr Manigreeva Krishnatreya of B Borooah Cancer Institute; Sweta Patnaik from UNICEF, among others.
Churamani Saikia, programme manager SWACHA, a unit of INREM Foundation, presented an outline of the activities of the organisation.
The programme was inaugurated by Prof Bhabesh Chandra Goswami, Vice Chancellor of Cotton University. He lauded the initiative of the forum in generating awareness about such a vital issue and described the symposium as a timely one.
KG Deb Krori welcomed the guests and participants and gave a brief outline of the activities of the forum. The inaugural session was presided over by ANNI Laskar, president of the forum and was anchored by Parag Phukan and P Dev Choudhury. Ten elderly engineers were felicitated and three young engineers were also presented awards at the inaugural function.
The technical session was chaired by a presidium comprising KG Deb Krori and AB Paul. Secretary of the forum Niranjan Kakati offered the vote of thanks.
