Accidential hospital at Samba

Sir,

I would like to attract the attention of the concerned authorities towards the vital issue of Accidential Hospital at Samba city. The Samba city is situated at NH-1A, midway between distt. Jammu & Distt. Kathua. The run from Distt. Kathua to Distt. Jammu is near about 83 Kms. Due to heavy flow of vehicular traffic, the road of Samba is accident prone. Hospital sources said that in the year 2001, 760 cases of accident were registered. Out of these, 160 were referred to Jammu city and 16 deaths took place at Samba Hospital. They themselves admitted that if the dead persons could be timely operated, their lives can be saved. Again in the year 2002, out of 840 cases, 18 died at Samba and 200 were referred to Jammu. This data does not include the deaths that might have occurred to the referral cases because no data is available about them. This data again shows that the number of accident cases & deaths is increasing as the years pass by, and also increase in the number of referral cases. This is all due to the one and only reason that is no accidental hospital in Samba. The present infrastructure of Samba Hospital is too insufficient to accommodate the heavy rate of accidents. There is neither equipments nor any Blood Bank to deal with these types of cases. So the victims have no other alternative except to wait for the death because both Jammu & Kathua District Hospitals are too far away (i.e 41 Kms) from Samba. This distance is too far for a patient who is suffering from injuries, which are to be operated soon. Repeated demands and deputations by the people of Samba town did not make authorities to bother about this. I highlight this issue once gain to save people from unnatural deaths.

Yours'etc...
Rahul Sambyal
Samba

Water conservation

Sir,

Our ancestors might not have dreamt about water being sold in neatly labeled bottles. Despite the facts that India is endowed with adequate water resources such as perennial rivers and extensive ground water aquifers, the country is facing threat due to scarcity of water. According to a report published by Tata Energy Research Institute (TERI) by 2050, a severe water shortage will hit many parts of the country. A further worrying aspect revealed in the report was that 95 percent of the water was used for agriculture and that 60 percent of it is wasted.

Hence when we talk about conservation of water, we have to look into both the quantitative and qualitative aspects. The reasons both natural and man made are as follows :-

Vagaries of Monsoon: Monsoon is unpredictable, varies in persistence and has regional variations in so far as precipitation is concerned. The rainy month is short followed by a generally dry period.

Ground water depletion : Free or subsidized electricity means a larger number of boring wells with no back up system for recharging ground water. The result is depletion of ground water and deterioration in its quality.

Misuse of water : In India 95 percent of our water is used for agriculture and 60 percent of it is wasted. Also most of the people have developed a feeling that water is plenty and is easily available.

Water quality deterioration : Both ground and surface water are polluted from industrial effluents, poorly treated sewage and run off agricultural chemicals combined with unsatisfactory household and community sanitary conditions. Traces of metallic oxides, arsenic etc have been reported from many monitoring stations. These are highly toxic.

Water scarcity is bound to slow down agricultural production, damage environment and escalate health related problems. Hence there is an urgent need for an effective water conservation strategy.

Rain water harvesting has assumed additional significance in the wake of recent droughts in India. The techniques adopted include constructing well, shafts, check dams, percolation tanks etc. This will not only restore supplies from the aquifers depleted due to over exploitation but also improve physical and chemical quality of water.

Our Prime Minister Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, has appealed to the nation to ''Observe July and August as water months''. He has stressed upon the need to conserve every drop of water with effective partnership between citizens, various water users, peoples organizations, Govt of all levels. If things need to change for the better, it is better that we assess the ground realities and form a sustainable water management system.

Yours' etc...
Kirti Jamwal
Jammu.