"According to the Dhaka Water and Sewerage Authorities, the groundwater table -- the source of drinking water for one-third of this city's 10 million people -- has become contaminated with harmful bacteria. Bangladesh is grappling with the largest mass poisoning of a population in history because groundwater used for drinking has been contaminated with naturally occurring inorganic arsenic.

It is estimated that of the 125 million inhabitants of Bangladesh between 35 million and 77 million are at risk of drinking contaminated water. Arsenic-contaminated drinking water is a public health emergency. The World Health Organization has predicted that in most of the southern part of Bangladesh almost 1 in every 10 adult deaths in the next decade will be a result of cancer triggered by arsenic poisoning."

"The UN Development Program has been working with farm groups in Thailand to boost output and cut back on chemical fertilizers and pesticides. From 2000, the program began donating buffaloes to 11 different communities throughout Thailand. In batches of 10 to 27, they have over time led to sizeable numbers of offspring on farms throughout the country. However, shifting away from modern mechanized agriculture to more traditional farming, including the use of buffaloes for plowing and manure, is no simple task.

Buffaloes need sufficient grazing area and fodder, particularly in the driest months of August to October. In the past some farmers used as many as 10 sacks of fertilizer per 10 rai [1.6 hectares] of rice fields, but now they use only two sacks per 10 rai. In an effort to further reduce their use of high-priced inputs, the villagers are being helped to form a group to produce manure from cattle and buffaloes as well as compost from rice and corn husks and leaves."

"Most discussions on how widely the fruits of India's recent economic progress have been distributed are hampered by referring to a single yardstick -- change in the proportion of people below the poverty line. If there is grossly unequal distribution of income along with low average levels of income then it will show up in mother and child indices. In infant mortality, India ranked seventh in 2005, after losing two ranks during the reform period.

India's performance in infant mortality is repeated in child malnutrition. It remains virtually at the bottom of the ladder. In adult literacy, India, Bangladesh and China have all improved their ranks by one during the period. The human development index includes the element of income along with other indicators. Since India has clearly made good progress on the income front. The future must continue to pursue high growth while distributing its benefits better."

"The world's poorer countries are divided over proposals for a new global trade deal. Developing countries such as India, PRC and Indonesia have argued for measures at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to protect their millions of subsistence farmers from the impact of trade liberalization. But developing-country food exporters like Thailand believe increased sales of farm produce to other poor countries are a key source of growth and development.

A delicately balanced compromise revised proposals on special products and the special safeguard mechanism to strike a balance between importers and exporters. Under the proposals developing countries can declare products 'special' to shield them from full tariff cuts in the interests of food or livelihood security or rural development."

"Access for low-income families to proper health care is a complicated problem in Indonesia. Under a new program, some 18.1 million low-income families, or some 76.4 million people, are included in a free health care program that has a budget of Rp 4.6 trillion ($50 million). But there is a need to encourage the government to eradicate various weaknesses at the implementation level; the unreadiness or reluctance of hospitals supporting the program; fairness in deciding which families deserve the benefit; and provisions for poor families not included in the program.

Many local administrations have reportedly complained there are still many low-income families who do not hold the necessary insurance card -- the only document which can be used to gain access to free health care. The mission to establish health care for all by 2010 is, indeed, a noble effort in helping low-income families gain full access to improved health care. The government's commitment to allocate funds for the program is an initial step, however a more important step is now required to ensure all the funds reach the needy patients."

"The prices of housing and construction materials rose 24.9 percent in July from a year earlier. The steel price on Monday averaged VND21 million to VND 22 million ($1,253-$1,313) a ton, compared to VND17 million per ton in April. Other construction materials have also risen, adding to the worries of prospective homeowners.

A major brick manufacturer has increased the price of its products by 30 percent since early this month. Other brick makers and paint suppliers said they too had increased prices by up to 30 percent. Economic experts linked the price rises to the increasing price of imported steel billet used in manufacturing and in imported finished steel. More than 60 percent of the country's steel producers depend on imports, mostly from China."

"China, which runs a trade deficit with its neighbors in Southeast Asia, moved closer to running a trade surplus with them in the first five months of this year, with the gap declining more than 28% compared with the same period in 2007.

China's overall trade surplus with the world fell 20.6% in June compared with a year earlier, the third successive monthly decline, to $21.4 billion as world trade slowed and the yuan continued to strengthen against the US dollar. The Chinese currency has gained about 7.1% this year."

"The domestic price of Thai white rice typically consumed by low- and middle-income consumers increased 85.6 percent from December 2007 to June 2008. Although the prices of key produce has almost doubled, food sellers say they cannot pass on more than 30 percent of the increase to their diners or they lose them. The food price hikes have forced most Thai people to cut their spending on food by about 30 percent.

The government has announced a package of six initiatives to help poor and middle-income people. Over the next six months, the program will cut excise charges for petrol and diesel, suspend price adjustments for household gas, and provide exemptions from water and electricity charges for households with low consumption rates."

"Up to 100,000 people have been deprived of access to basic health services in different parts of Afghanistan over the past four months, due largely to worsening insecurity, with attacks on health workers and health centers. The new figure is in addition to the over 300,000 people who last year lost access to primary health facilities, mostly in the volatile south and southeast.

Every hour at least two Afghan women die from obstetric complications and lack of health services. At least 125 infants die in every 1,000 live births, and one in every five children die from mostly preventable diseases before their fifth birthday. These figures may not look good, but they still reflect marked progress in a country where until 2002 only 9% of the population had access to health services and 165 infants were dying in every 1,000 live births."

"Four in every 10 children in India are malnourished despite the country's economy growing at an average rate of 9% a year, a leading economist has warned. The child malnourishment rate in India is higher than in Ethiopia and well above the African average of 28%. When it comes to economic growth, India is a long way ahead of Bangladesh but when it come to child survival rates, it lags behind. Bangladesh has been cutting child deaths at a rate some 50% higher than in India.

Part of the problem is that the benefits of growth have been 'highly skewed.' While wealth has been flooding into urban areas and middle-class suburbs, it has been trickling down in small doses to rural areas, poor states in the north of the country, rural laborers and low-caste groups."

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