ASIA PACIFIC TODAY. Covid-19 Wastewater Surveillance Program & India's quest for power.

In this episode, we speak to Dr Paul Bertsch, Deputy Director of Science of the new Land and Water Business Unit at the CSIRO.

Wastewater-based epidemiology approaches, to detect Covid-19 in wastewater, are being implemented worldwide as an environmental surveillance approach, to inform health authority decision-making.

Dr Bertsch’s team are at the forefront of developing more accurate tests for Covid-19 in wastewater in Australia.

In India, we also dig deeper into a tragedy that occurred recently in northern India where a part of the Nanda Devi glacier broke off, triggering a massive flood, washing away parts of two hydropower plants and other infrastructure, leaving 50 lives lost and over 150 feared dead.

While some climate exerts rushed to declare this a climate change event from rising temperatures, rational observers point to other causes including the construction of back-to-back dams and rush for renewable energy projects that may have destabilised the fragile environment in the Himalayas.

We're joined by Sanjeev Ahluwalia, is an Advisor at Observer Research Foundation, New Delhi.

ASIA PACIFIC TODAY. February 23, 2021