Title: Bathing in polluted rivers, Water-Borne Diseases, and fuzzy measures: a case study in India

Authors: Kedar Rijal, Ashok Deshpande, Vikram Ghole

Addresses: Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Pune (UoP), Ganeshkhind, Pune 411007, India. ' University of Pune, Ganeshkhind, Pune 411007, India. ' Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Pune, Ganeshkhind, Pune 411007, India

Abstract: Religious bathing in river water is practised in India and Nepal since time memorable. The World Health Organization in their report (2002) states that diarrhoeal diseases alone killed over 700,000 Indians in the year 1999. In spite of best efforts, there has been no straightforward solution technique available to prove/disprove the cause – effect relationship between bathing in river waters and Water Borne Diseases (WBDs), and the sequel is an attempt to formalise a structured approach to study the above relationship. The study reveals that there exists a strong association between bathing in polluted river and water borne diseases, and the evidence supporting diarrhoeal diseases is 0.58.

Keywords: religious bathing; polluted rivers; water-borne diseases; belief; plausibility; measures; domain experts; Dempster–Shafer theory of evidence; water pollution; diarrhoeal diseases; diarrhoea.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEWM.2010.035061

International Journal of Environment and Waste Management, 2010 Vol.6 No.3/4, pp.255 - 263

Published online: 02 Sep 2010 *

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