Explain river water pollution in india

The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) in 2018 identified 351 polluted river stretches in India. The assessment of water quality for identification of polluted river stretches found that 31 states and Union territories (UT) had rivers and streams that did not meet the water quality criteria. These states / UTs have to submit their action plans for the same. Maharashtra has the highest number of polluted river stretches (53), followed by Assam (44), Madhya Pradesh (22), Kerala (21), Gujarat (20), Odisha (19), and West Bengal and Karnataka (17). The polluted rivers in Maharashtra are: • Godavari • Kalu • Kundalika • Mithi • Morna • Mula • Mutha • Nira • Vel • Bhima • Indrayani • Mula-Mutha • Pawana • Wainganga • Wardha • Ghod • Kanhan • Kolar (Mah) • Krishna • Mor • Patalganga • Pedhi • Penganga • Purna • Tapi • Urmodi • Venna • Waghur • Wena • Bindusar • Bori • Chandrabhaga • Darna • Girna • Hiwara • Koyna • Pehlar • Sina • Titur • Amba • Bhatsa • Gomai • Kan • Manjeera • Panchganga • Panzara • Rangavali • Savitri • Surya • Tansa • Ulhas • Vaitarna • Vashisti The next seven worst polluted river states are Assam (44 polluted rivers), Madhya Pradesh (22), Kerala (21) Gujarat (20), Karnatak (17), West Bengal (17), Uttar Pradesh (12) and Goa (10). The other less river polluted states are Delhi (1); Daman and Diu and Dadra and Nagar Haveli (1); Puducherry (2); Haryana (2); Rajasthan (2); Punjab (4); Sikkim (4); Chhattisgarh (5); Andhra Pradesh (5); Bihar (6); Nagaland (6); T...

Standing on a small concrete bridge, environmental activist Janak Daftary gestures toward the crowded banks of the Mithi River, which runs through the heart of Mumbai. On one side are garages with heaps of car parts that slope into the river, bleeding paint, metals, and oil into the Mithi, a mere 120 feet wide at this point. On the other side are shanties made of brick, tin, and plastic; metal scrap dealers; and a middle-class housing complex flanked by concrete walls that plunge into the water. Below the bridge, a dark slurry with floating bits of plastic, cloth, and rubber slowly passes downstream, toward the office buildings and construction cranes of Mumbai’s new financial district. “This is how you kill a river,” says Daftary, an engineer who works with Jal Biradari, a water conservation group. Along with India has seen a string of such judicial rulings involving urban rivers in recent years, as the country comes to grips with the widespread pollution that has fouled waterways and with runaway development that has destroyed or damaged wetlands and floodplains. Across major cities, environmentalists and citizens are engaged in prolonged, seemingly intractable battles to clean up local rivers - mainly through legal petitions intended to force authorities to take action or, in some cases, to stop them taking damaging measures, such as constructing concrete flood walls that hem in the river. Some of these battles have been triggered by recent floods and made more urgent b...

The planet keeps nudging us with increasingly extreme droughts, reminding us that water is life. It is an essential resource upon which all living beings depend and it is crucial to all social and economic development, as well as energy production and adaptation to climate change. Nevertheless, we are now facing a gigantic challenge. How do we stop contaminating our rivers, seas, oceans, canals, lakes and reservoirs? The waters of the River Ganges flow clear and clean through the Indian city of Rishikesh at the gateway to the Himalayas. In these mountains, nobody would guess that this water will be transformed into one of the most heavily polluted rivers in the world, with faecal bacteria levels up to 31 million per 100 millilitres. This is according to reports from Sankat Mochan Foundation, an organisation struggling to restore the Ganges to its former glory. These levels mean that the sacred river has become synonymous with water pollution, a worldwide problem affecting one in every three people on the planet, according to the United Nations (UN). WHAT IS WATER POLLUTION The World Health Organisation (WHO) says that polluted water is water whose composition has been changed to the extent that it is unusable. In other words, it is toxic water that cannot be drunk or used for essential purposes like agriculture, and which also causes diseases like diarrhoea, cholera, dysentery, typhoid and poliomyelitis that kill more than 500,000 people worldwide every year. The main wate...

Come summer, and water becomes a commodity as precious as gold in India. The country has 18 percent of the world’s population, but only 4 percent of its water resources, making it among the most water-stressed in the world. A large number of Indians face high to extreme water stress, according to a recent report by the government’s policy think tank, the NITI Aayog. India’s dependence on an increasingly erratic monsoon for its water requirements increases this challenge. Climate change is likely to exacerbate this pressure on water resources, even as the frequency and intensity on floods and droughts in the country increases. The World Bank is engaged in different aspects of water resource management and the supply of drinking water and sanitation services across the country. Here are some of the ways how. Stemming groundwater depletion Groundwater is one of the most important sources for irrigation as well as for rural and urban domestic water supply. However, overexploitation of this valuable resource has led to its depletion. The World Bank is helping the supporting the government’s national groundwater program, the Atal Bhujal Yojana ,to help improve groundwater management. Implemented in 8,220 gram panchayats across seven Indian states, this is the world’s largest community-led groundwater management program. Since groundwater conservation lies in the hands of hundreds of millions of individuals and communities, the program is helping villagers understand their water ...

According to a Niti Aayog report, A Composite Water Management Index, published in June 2018, more than 600 million people in India face high to extreme water crisis in the country. About three-fourth of the households in the country do not have drinking water on their premises. With nearly 70% of water being contaminated, India is placed 120th amongst 122 countries in the water quality index. On World Environment Day, we present a reality check on some of the mighty rivers of India, and the dire straits they are in. (Compiled by Naresh Singaravelu and Harshita Mishra) The Ganga river holds deep religious significance in India with thousands thronging the Ganga’s ghats (banks) every year to bathe and offer prayers. But the alarming levels of pollutants and sewage waste that are discharged into it every day by over 1100 industrial units and several towns situated on its banks, have made it one of the most polluted rivers in the world. A recent report by the Central Pollution Control Board declared that the Ganga water is unfit for bathing, let alone drinking directly. Recently the National Green Tribunal, the apex environmental monitoring body, also directed Jharkhand, West Bengal and Bihar to deposit Rs. 25 lakhs each for not taking adequate steps to curb pollution in the Ganga. Despite launching several clean-up programmes like the Ganga Action Plan I and II and the present government’s Namami Ganga project, little groundwork has been done to restore the river’s lost glor...