(a) Districts of Uttar Pradesh
‘It’s acid and not water that is flowing in these rivers. It’s making us very, very
sick.’ Around 150 villages in four districts of UP are situated along the Hindon,
Krishna and Kali rivers. The water is so polluted that the people are suffering from
deadly diseases such as skin disease, crookedness of hands and feet and cancer.
These three rivers flow through the four districts: Muzaffarnagar, Meerut, Baghpat
and Shamli. These rivers are heavily polluted due to untreated effluents released
from factories and sewage. Factories include paper mills, slaughter houses and
sugar mills. Heavy metals are also found in high quantity in these river waters.
According to the villagers, their taps are near the rivers and so the contamination
seeps into their supply. The area stinks because of the pollutants. Children are born
with physical deformities. With the government in denial, remedial action seems
difficult.
23
(b) West Bengal
A study has revealed high level of toxins in drinking water in the Bengal basin. The
paper, Wide exposure of persistent organic chemicals (PoPs) in natural waters and
sediments of the densely populated Western Bengal Basin, India, by S Duttagupta,
A Mukherjee and others from IIT Kharagpur, was published in Science for Total
Environment in February 2020. This pollution is in addition to the arsenic found in
several districts across West Bengal.
Hundreds of samples were tested and taken from groundwater and river water,
which is used for drinking water supply, from the Farakka Barrage to the
Sunderbans. The scale of the pollution found by the study is alarming. Highlights of
the study included the following
24 :
Table 4 Locations having more than four parameters beyond permissible limits in 2015
No.
State
District
1
Andhra Pradesh
Prakasham and Kurnool
2
Haryana
Kaithal
3
Rajasthan
Ajmer, Hanumangarh, Jaipur
These four parameters are EC, fluoride, nitrate, iron and chloride
Source CGWB, 2018. Ground water quality in shallow aquifers in India. Table compiled by
authors
23
https://en.gaonconnection.com/its-acid-and-not-water-that-is-flowing-in-these-rivers-its-makingus-very-very-sick-2/. Last accessed on March 5, 2020.
24
Science of the Total Environment, Volume 717 taken from https://www.sciencedirect.com/
science/article/pii/S0048969720306975?via%3Dihub.
86
I. Khurana and R. Sen
‘It’s acid and not water that is flowing in these rivers. It’s making us very, very
sick.’ Around 150 villages in four districts of UP are situated along the Hindon,
Krishna and Kali rivers. The water is so polluted that the people are suffering from
deadly diseases such as skin disease, crookedness of hands and feet and cancer.
These three rivers flow through the four districts: Muzaffarnagar, Meerut, Baghpat
and Shamli. These rivers are heavily polluted due to untreated effluents released
from factories and sewage. Factories include paper mills, slaughter houses and
sugar mills. Heavy metals are also found in high quantity in these river waters.
According to the villagers, their taps are near the rivers and so the contamination
seeps into their supply. The area stinks because of the pollutants. Children are born
with physical deformities. With the government in denial, remedial action seems
difficult.
23
(b) West Bengal
A study has revealed high level of toxins in drinking water in the Bengal basin. The
paper, Wide exposure of persistent organic chemicals (PoPs) in natural waters and
sediments of the densely populated Western Bengal Basin, India, by S Duttagupta,
A Mukherjee and others from IIT Kharagpur, was published in Science for Total
Environment in February 2020. This pollution is in addition to the arsenic found in
several districts across West Bengal.
Hundreds of samples were tested and taken from groundwater and river water,
which is used for drinking water supply, from the Farakka Barrage to the
Sunderbans. The scale of the pollution found by the study is alarming. Highlights of
the study included the following
24 :
Table 4 Locations having more than four parameters beyond permissible limits in 2015
No.
State
District
1
Andhra Pradesh
Prakasham and Kurnool
2
Haryana
Kaithal
3
Rajasthan
Ajmer, Hanumangarh, Jaipur
These four parameters are EC, fluoride, nitrate, iron and chloride
Source CGWB, 2018. Ground water quality in shallow aquifers in India. Table compiled by
authors
23
https://en.gaonconnection.com/its-acid-and-not-water-that-is-flowing-in-these-rivers-its-makingus-very-very-sick-2/. Last accessed on March 5, 2020.
24
Science of the Total Environment, Volume 717 taken from https://www.sciencedirect.com/
science/article/pii/S0048969720306975?via%3Dihub.
86
I. Khurana and R. Sen