Rivers flows naturally and normally are freshwater ones, in the most cases flow towards the sea, oceans and submerge in them. They are the source of drinking water, irrigation, energy, provides food for humans and many other habitats, provides recreation, can be used for navigation. In India, they have mythological significance. But, the irony is that spite of profound respect, could not keep the rivers clean and pure. They are becoming toxic. And the pollution of rivers is the biggest problem India is facing right now and sewage is the largest source of pollution. Other sources of pollution are the agricultural runoff and unregulated small-scale industries. The situation is now so serious that there is no river in India which is not polluted.
The main cause of pollution is urbanisation. India is getting urbanised at an uncontrollable rate and in a much-unplanned way. Most of the urban waste/sewage is untreated and being released directly into the rivers. Also, due to improper control over the industrial waste and agricultural runoff. The untreated waste entering is 80% of the total water being used in the country. This leads to tremendous pollution of surface water. The polluted water seeps through the surface and poison the groundwater. It is estimated that approximately 61,948 million litres of urban Sewage is generated on daily basis in India (source CPCB report 2015). Ganga basin alone contributes to one-third of the total wastewater in India.
data credit: Times of India
Some of the reasons for Water Pollution are:
- Industrial Waste
- Agricultural Practices
- Reduction in water quantity in rivers in plains
- Oil leaks from ships
- Religious practices like dumping deceased bodies, immersion of idols etc.
- Inadequate Industrial waste treatment
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| Wastewater being pumoed to the River |
This water pollution will have some tremendously-adverse effect on the health of people and even other life forms living in the vicinity of the polluted water body. The rise in water pollution gives rise to the vector-borne diseases like cholera, jaundice, diarrhoea, tuberculosis, dysentery etc. Almost 80% stomach related ailments are due to consuming polluted water.
There are nearly 275 polluted rivers in the country recently. (See fig for Extent of pollution). Most of the polluted stretches are in Maharashtra, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Assam and West Bengal. Estimated polluted river line length is 12,363 km and about 5times the length of Ganga main stem.
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| The extent of Pollution in Rivers |
Though there are STPs in the country, they don’t accommodate the present urban growth. Even the treatment capacity of the existing Sewage treatment plants is around 66% of their installed capacity as per CPCB. In 2015 Central Pollution Control Board directed all the state pollution boards and metropolitan authorities to set up measures to treat the Sewage by setting up STPs in the respective states so that untreated Sewage doesn’t enter the rivers. Even present government has initiated to clean the water bodies in India and cleaning of Ganges in the name of program Namami Ganges with top priority as it was the most polluted river in the country. Several crores of rupees were pumped to clean the river under this program. Completed projects under this program add up to 223mld of sewage capacity. As per the Ministry of water Rejuvenation, STPs of 760MLD would be set up. Also, 13million toilets were constructed in rural areas near the Ganges to reduce the sewage inflow into the river. Even though there is an increase in efforts from the government to clean the rivers, the pollution levels remained the same and have not shown any considerable improvement. Adding to this there is no evidence of a proper plan in re-use of the treated sewage.
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| Pollution in Ganga |
Same with the case of Yamuna River. The water quality is as pathetic as it’s not even good for bathing. There were many crores invested on the Yamuna Action Plan, by the central government to clean the river in a phased manner. Central government even funded states linked to the Yamuna for this program. But no improvement was shown to date.
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| Man bathing in Polluted Yamuna |
Central government shall understand, apart from investing on the river cleaning, centralised STPs, it should encourage the urban bodies to re-use the treated sewage for irrigation, urban greenery etc. They should look at the various countries which are successfully implementing the water treatment techniques and shall adopt to most suitable methods.
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