Photo of the Day 3 October 2007


Flooded Alley, India, 2007
Photograph by John Stanmeyer
A man sloshes through a Kolkata (Calcutta) alley full of water turned purple from dying clothes. Standing water like this gives malarial mosquitoes the perfect place to breed. Pushed out of northern temperate zones by DDT spraying and the draining of wetlands half a century ago, malaria remains entrenched in the humid tropics of Asia. Monsoon rains and poor drainage enable the disease to thrive in many Indian cities.