Chapter 19
Health Impacts of Contaminated Water in
India: Coping Strategies for Sustainable
Development
J. V. Arun and A. Premkumar
Abstract Humans driven by insatiable consumeristic demands cause divergence in
our ecological balance. Rapid industrialization and urbanization create fissures in
environmental quality and human health. Degradation of the environment because of
incompetent management of water resources is the major urban environmental
problems confronting developing economies like India. Groundwater in India is
mainly contaminated with geogonic pollutants, Fluoride and Arsenic. Among the
states, river stretches in Maharashtra and Assam are the extremely polluted ones. The
study primarily intends to evaluate the impact of water pollution on human health.
Drinking water contamination accounts for a substantial increase in the rates of
Fluorosis, Acute Diarrhoeal Diseases, Typhoid, and Cholera which engulf the Indian
public health system. The assessment carried out reveals that diarrhoea is the major
waterborne disease in India. The main reasons for the cause of diarrhoeal cases were
estimated using regression models. Further, the study suggests ways and means
control of water contamination.
Keywords Water · Pollution · Health · Disease · Diarrhoea
1 Introduction
Rapid growth in population, urbanization, and industrialization has created differences in environmental quality and human health. Immediate consequences of
environmental degradation take the form of damage to human health and most
importantly, damage costs in developing nations are higher than those in developed
J. V. Arun (*)
Assistant Professor, Department of Economics, Government Arts College for Men
(Autonomous), Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India
A. Premkumar
Research Scholar, Department of Economics, Sacred Heart College (Autonomous), Tirupattur,
Tamil Nadu, India
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
J. Aravind et al. (eds.), Strategies and Tools for Pollutant Mitigation,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-63575-6_19
391
Health Impacts of Contaminated Water in
India: Coping Strategies for Sustainable
Development
J. V. Arun and A. Premkumar
Abstract Humans driven by insatiable consumeristic demands cause divergence in
our ecological balance. Rapid industrialization and urbanization create fissures in
environmental quality and human health. Degradation of the environment because of
incompetent management of water resources is the major urban environmental
problems confronting developing economies like India. Groundwater in India is
mainly contaminated with geogonic pollutants, Fluoride and Arsenic. Among the
states, river stretches in Maharashtra and Assam are the extremely polluted ones. The
study primarily intends to evaluate the impact of water pollution on human health.
Drinking water contamination accounts for a substantial increase in the rates of
Fluorosis, Acute Diarrhoeal Diseases, Typhoid, and Cholera which engulf the Indian
public health system. The assessment carried out reveals that diarrhoea is the major
waterborne disease in India. The main reasons for the cause of diarrhoeal cases were
estimated using regression models. Further, the study suggests ways and means
control of water contamination.
Keywords Water · Pollution · Health · Disease · Diarrhoea
1 Introduction
Rapid growth in population, urbanization, and industrialization has created differences in environmental quality and human health. Immediate consequences of
environmental degradation take the form of damage to human health and most
importantly, damage costs in developing nations are higher than those in developed
J. V. Arun (*)
Assistant Professor, Department of Economics, Government Arts College for Men
(Autonomous), Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India
A. Premkumar
Research Scholar, Department of Economics, Sacred Heart College (Autonomous), Tirupattur,
Tamil Nadu, India
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
J. Aravind et al. (eds.), Strategies and Tools for Pollutant Mitigation,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-63575-6_19
391