Clean water for all is a very important societal mission where the scientific community and the industry have to find synergies, says former president A P J Abdul Kalam.


Former President APJ Abdul Kalam has called for efforts to create an open source initiative for providing safe drinking water to people across the world. "Such an initiative ought to involve scientists, technocrats, societal leadership and the community at large," he said at the launch of the two-day Global Indian Scientists and Technocrats forum in the city on Sunday.

The forum, headed by former chairman of Atomic Energy Commission, Anil Kakodkar, aims to involve scientists and technocrafts from among the 20 million strong Indian diaspora around the world to work on key developmental problems like water, energy, health, agriculture and biodiversity with focus on India.

While the forum plans to hold global conventions, focused on one of the key developmental problems at regular intervals, its launch on Sunday coincided with the theme of the main convention-cum-exhibition: scientific and technological approaches for sustainable use of water resources'.

Kalam described drinking water as a significant societal area that needs technological and industrial partnerships. "Clean drinking water is a global requirement with about one billion people lacking access to it," he said. "Every year more than 3.5 million deaths occur solely due to diseases borne out of water, which means that unclean water is killing seven human beings every minute around the world," he added.

"In India, the World Bank estimates that 21% of communicable diseases are related to unsafe water. Diarrhoea alone causes more than 1,600 deaths every day. Hence clean water for all is a very important societal mission where the scientific community and the industry have to find synergies," he said. The problem can be solved by combining effort of technology, societal leadership and the spirit of entrepreneurship, he added.

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