An integrated water, environment and public health project for slums in the Indian Subcontinent

Urban slum communities throughout the Indian subcontinent face critical challenges including inadequate access to safe water and environmental degradation, resulting in significant public health impacts. A research collaboration between Queen’s University and the Indian Institute of Technology (Madras) has been established on water, environment, and public health in slums, aiming to develop and evaluate technological and policy alternatives for sustainable safe water provision in slums. Point-of-use water quality treatment and detection techniques will be developed in the lab and then assessed for efficacy at controlling diarrhoeal and other water-borne diseases through a community-level integrated intervention in Mylai Balaji Nagar, Chennai, India. Reflecting the complexity of the issue, potential solutions must go beyond the technical to the social, economic, and political if they are to be sustainable; issues on water systems management will also be explored by the research collaboration.

As the process of urbanisation continues at breakneck speed throughout the underdeveloped world, the living conditions of urban slums rapidly degrade. Development and infrastructural needs far outstrip resources stretched thin by population growth. Provision of essential services in slums, particularly safe water, as well as general improvement of environmental conditions remains a distant prospect. The public health consequence of this deficit is tragic. Alternative safe water systems will be explored by recently-established research collaboration between Queen’s University and the Indian Institute of Technology Madras. The effectiveness of promising alternatives will be assessed with a community-level intervention in Mylai Balaji Nagar, a slum community in Chennai, India. The findings of this study will serve to inform the appropriate delivery of essential services in the future.