short case study on water pollution in india

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Ganga Pollution Case: A Case Study

This article is written by Abhinav Anand , a student pursuing B.A.LL.B(Hons.) from DSNLU, Visakhapatnam. The article deals with the Ganga pollution case and the peruses into reasons behind the pollution. It also discusses some of the schemes of the government to purify the river and critically analyses its impact. It further suggests changes that should be done to make the effective implementation.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Water Pollution has become a global crisis. The perennial threat of the water crisis is exacerbating because of uncontrolled and unbalanced development of the allied sectors such as industries and agriculture. According to the reports of NITI Aayog, 21 major Indian cities, including Delhi will completely run out of groundwater. This article deals with reasons behind the pollution of the river Ganga and it examines the effective measures taken by the government. It also suggests changes to expedite the cleaning process of the river.

Reasons behind the Pollution of Ganga

There are 4600 industries in Uttarakhand out of which 298 are seriously polluting industries. There are many industries which have not taken permission from the Uttarakhand pollution control board for their operations and they started their operation based on the advisory of the government in which the government exempted certain classes of industries from taking permission. The sewage treatment and advanced technology for the treatment of the wastes are not used despite government strict regulations.

Sewage is an important source of pollution and contributes 75% to the pollution caused by all sources of pollution. Urban development of different sizes contributes to sewage pollution in the river. The considerable efforts by the Ganga Action Plan are not able to improve the situation.

The report says that despite the failure of the Ganga Action Plan there is no disapproval on the part of the citizens as well as their representative living in urban areas on the banks of the river. The failure is on the part of the government agencies responsible for the effective implementation of the plan. 

The urban citizens residing near the river show a lack of interest in the cleanliness of the river. The representatives of the urban areas are not receiving enough complaints from the citizens and as a result, they refrain from raising this issue to the higher authorities. Based on the analysis done by the independent authorities, the political parties show reluctance to increase the taxes because they may lose the support of their voters. The taxes will help the authorities to have financial validity. The Kanpur Nagar Nigam has to pay operation and management taxes to the Uttar Pradesh Jal Nigam for the operation and maintenance of the services in the Ganga Action Plan. 

However, the Kanpur Nagar Nigam is unable to collect taxes from the users of the services of Ganga Action Plan to pay to the Uttar Pradesh Jal Nigam. So, the government directly transfers the money to the Uttar Pradesh Jal Nigam by cutting the share of the Kanpur Nagar Nigam. 

It has been contended that the decentralisation of funds and functionaries will help in improving the condition of the governance at Urban Level. But, it is evident that the urban local bodies are neither motivated nor passionate to do the assigned duty. 

Municipal Corporation

These are the following factors contributing to the waste in the river:

The use of plastic by people at large and its improper disposal ultimately reach in the river. Plastic pollution has been considered as one of the significant reasons for the pollution in the river. The government has failed in the implementation of Management and Sewage Waste Rules to curb the menace of plastic pollution.

The state should declare a complete ban on the use of plastic. The authorities pay no attention to the rampant use of plastics and the improper treatment of wastes before releasing them in the river. The pollution level of water has exponentially risen because of plastic wastes. The Tribunal while dealing with the matter of pollution on the ghats has banned the use of plastic in the vicinity of ghats.

However, the ban imposed by the tribunal has no effect on the ground level and the plastics are used rampantly. The plastic bags can be replaced by the jute bags which are nature friendly.

The Ghats are also one of the major sources of pollution in the river. Ganga is one of the important parts of our Indian culture due to which different kinds of pujas and other religious tasks are performed on the ghats, and the materials used are disposed of in the river. The materials are non-decomposable, highly toxic and hence pollute the river. 

Agriculture Waste

Agricultural water pollution includes the sediments, fertilizers and animal wastes. The unbalanced use of inorganic fertilizers and other fertilizers have immensely contributed to water pollution. The fertilizers rich in nitrates create toxic composition after reaching several other entities. Large quantities of fertilizers, when washed through the irrigation, rain or drainage to the river, and pollutes the river. The fertilizers rich in nitrate content are used to get more productivity from the land. This led to pollution in the entire food chain wherever the by-product of the produce is consumed. When these fertilisers wash away due to rain or other factors and pollute the river.

Effective Measures by Government to stop the Pollution

Ganga Action Plan

The Ganga Action Plan was started in 1986 for control of water pollution in the river Ganga. The main function of this plan was to make Ganga River free from the pollution from the disposal of waste from the cities settled on the banks of the river. The plan was to make Ganga pollution free from Rishikesh to Kolkata. The central pollution control board had prepared a plan of 5 years in 1984 to make Ganga pollution-free. The central Ganga authority was formed in 1985 and a Ganga action plan was launched in 1986 to make the Ganga pollution free. 

The first phase of the Ganga action plan was inaugurated by late Rajiv Gandhi at Rajendra prasad ghat of Banaras. The National Protection Agency was constituted for its implementation. During the first phase of Ganga Action Plan 256 schemes of 462 crores were undertaken in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal. Special stations have been created to check the quality of water.

The experts from Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited and National Environment Engineering Research Institute were appointed to check the quality of the water. Despite so much effort, the Ganga action plan failed miserably and crores of money were spent on the Ganga action plans. The failure of such a big plan has led to economic pollution.

The government launched the second phase of the Ganga Action Plan in 2001 wherein the central pollution board, central public works department and public works department are the bodies to carry out the plan. 

Namami Ganga Programme

A flagship Namami Ganga Programme was launched under separate union Water Ministry created under river rejuvenation programme. The project aims to integrate Ganga conservation mission and it is in effect to clean and protect the river and gain socio-economic benefits by job creation, improved livelihoods and health benefits to the population that is dependent on the river.

The key achievement of the Namami Ganga projects are:

• Creating sewage treatment capacity- 63 sewerage management project under implementation in the states of Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal. 12 sewerage management projects launched in these projects.
• Creating riverfront development: 28 riverfront development projects and 33 entry-level projects for construction, management and renovation of 182 ghats and 118 crematoria has been initiated.
• River surface cleaning: The river surface cleaning is the collection of solid floating waste on the ghats and rivers.after collection, these wastes are pumped into the treatment stations.
• Public Awareness: Various activities such as seminars, workshops and conferences and numerous activities are organised to aware the public and increase the community transmission.
• Industrial Effluent Monitoring: The Grossly Polluting Industries monitored on a regular basis. Industries are following the set standard of the environmental compliances are checked. The reports are sent directly to the central pollution control board without any involvement of intermediaries.

Suggestions

These are the following suggestion for making the existing machinery robust to expedite cleanliness process of the Ganga:

Development of a comprehensive and basic plan

We need to develop a plan by which we can reach the problem in a holistic way. The already devised plans involve many intermediaries wherein the transparency factor is cornered and only paper works are shown to the people at large. 

The strategy should be formulated for different areas according to their demand. The people having apt knowledge of that area should be involved to know the actual problem of pollution in the river. A thorough check should be done and a customer-friendly platform should be formed wherein the views of every individual should be considered.

Measurement of the quality

The apt instruments are required to measure the quality of the water. We have many schemes for the cleanliness of the Ganga but the officials assigned the duty of measuring the quality of water either have authoritarian pressure or lack of knowledge to assess the quality of water. The quality of water should be measured by a recognised testing agency. Further, the research should be made to evolve better machinery for precision in quality measurement.

Getting the institutions right

The main task is to get the involved institution on the right path. The river cleaning task demands leadership, autonomy and proper management. The cities need to be amended. Ultimately they will be the custodians of the networks developed for the cleanliness process. Many cities have weak financial powers and their revenue generation is also weak so they should be given extra incentives. An awareness campaign should be launched in small cities where people have no idea about the pollution of the river and how it affects the environment. 

Engaging and mobilising all the stakeholders

The inhabitants of the river Ganga are people, elected representatives, and the religious leaders who consider the river as a pious and clean river. The mass awareness campaign can launch only when these people will be under sound financial conditions. So, if a portion is invested in these people, then it will help to develop their thinking on a large scale. 

A similar situation has arisen in Australia where the government has invested 20% of the funds in creating mass awareness among the people for the cleanliness of the Murray river basin. It has shown a great impact on the productivity of the programmes implemented in Australia. So, when we promote all the stakeholders in one or the other way we can see a holistic development in the situation.

Rejuvenation requires equal attention to quality and quantity

The rejuvenation of rivers requires quality and quantity at the same time. The old adage of “ solution to pollution is dilution” should be kept in mind while making any kind of plan. 

The improvement of water quality in Ganga during the Kumbh Mela is the result of the release of water barrage of the water upstream. The water in the upper stream is used in the agriculture process by the respective states. So, if the water is released on a regular basis it will also help to improve the quality of the water and reduce the pollution level in the water. 

Ganga is considered a pious river in the religious scriptures. The current situation demands holistic accountability from the authorities and people to make it clean. The global image is projected by the cleanliness of our rivers. The river Ganga is a part of our culture and it is our duty to maintain its sanctity. The government should formulate a more stringent policy to develop the quality of the water in the river. The environmental laws should be strictly followed and the violators should be punished. 

•   https://www.theigc.org/blog/ganga-pollution-cases-impact-on-infant-mortality/

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Water pollution is killing millions of Indians. Here's how technology and reliable data can change that

It's estimated that around 70% of surface water in India is unfit for consumption Image:  REUTERS/Babu

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Humans have wrestled with water quality for thousands of years, as far back as the 4th and 5th centuries BC when Hippocrates, the father of modern medicine, linked impure water to disease and invented one of the earliest water filters. Today, the challenge is sizeable, creating existential threats to biodiversity and multiple human communities, as well as threatening economic progress and sustainability of human lives.

As India grows and urbanizes, its water bodies are getting toxic. It's estimated that around 70% of surface water in India is unfit for consumption . Every day, almost 40 million litres of wastewater enters rivers and other water bodies with only a tiny fraction adequately treated. A recent World Bank report suggests that such a release of pollution upstream lowers economic growth in downstream areas, reducing GDP growth in these regions by up to a third. To make it worse, in middle-income countries like India where water pollution is a bigger problem, the impact increases to a loss of almost half of GDP growth. Another study estimates that being downstream of polluted stretches in India is associated with a 9% reduction in agricultural revenues and a 16% drop in downstream agricultural yields.

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The cost of environmental degradation in India is estimated to be INR 3.75 trillion ($80 billion) a year. The health costs relating to water pollution are alone estimated at about INR 470-610 billion ($6.7-8.7 billion per year) – most associated with diarrheal mortality and morbidity of children under five and other population morbidities. Apart from the economic cost, lack of water, sanitation and hygiene results in the loss of 400,000 lives per year in India . Globally, 1.5 million children under five die and 200 million days of work are lost each year as a result of water-related diseases.

To set up effective interventions to clean rivers, decision-makers must be provided with reliable, representative and comprehensive data collected at high frequency in a disaggregated manner. The traditional approach to water quality monitoring is slow, tedious, expensive and prone to human error; it only allows for the testing of a limited number of samples owing to a lack of infrastructure and resources. Data is often only available in tabular formats with little or no metadata to support it. As such, data quality and integrity are low.

Using automated, geotagged, time-stamped, real-time sensors to gather data in a non-stationary manner, researchers in our team at the Tata Centre for Development at UChicago have been able to pinpoint pollution hotspots in rivers and identify the spread of pollution locally. Such high-resolution mapping of river water quality over space and time is gaining traction as a tool to support regulatory compliance decision-making, as an early warning indicator for ecological degradation, and as a reliable system to assess the efficacy of sanitation interventions. Creating data visualizations to ease understanding and making data available through an open-access digital platform has built trust among all stakeholders.

Beyond collecting and representing data in easy formats, there is a possibility to use machine learning models on such high-resolution data to predict water quality. There are no real-time sensors available for certain crucial parameters estimating the organic content in the water, such as biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), and it can take up to five days to get results for these in a laboratory. These parameters can potentially be predicted in real-time from others whose values are available instantaneously. Once fully developed and validated, such machine learning models could predict values for intermediary values in time and space.

Furthermore, adding other layers of data, such as the rainfall pattern, local temperatures, industries situated nearby and agricultural land details, could enrich the statistical analysis of the dataset. The new, imaginary geopixel, as Professor Supratik Guha from the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering calls it, has vertical layers of information for each GPS (global positioning system) location. Together they can provide a holistic picture of water quality in that location and changing trends.

In broad terms, machine learning can help policy-makers with estimation and prediction problems. Traditionally, water pollution measurement has always been about estimation – through sample collection and lab tests. With our technology, we are increasing the scope and frequency of such estimation enormously – but we are also going further. With our machine learning models, we are trying to build predictive models that would completely change the scenario of water pollution data. Moreover, our expanded estimation and prediction machine learning tools will not just deliver new data and methods but may allow us to focus on new questions and policy problems. At a macro level, we aim to go beyond this project and hope to bring a culture of machine learning into Indian Public Policy.

Under the theme, Innovating for India: Strengthening South Asia, Impacting the World , the World Economic Forum's India Economic Summit 2019 will convene key leaders from government, the private sector, academia and civil society on 3-4 October to accelerate the adoption of Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies and boost the region’s dynamism.

Hosted in collaboration with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), the aim of the Summit is to enhance global growth by promoting collaboration among South Asian countries and the ASEAN economic bloc.

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Access to information has been an important part of the environmental debate since the beginning of the climate change movement. The notion that “information increases the effectiveness of participation” has been widely accepted in economics and other social science literature. While the availability of reliable data is the most important step towards efficient regulation, making the process transparent and disclosing data to the public brings many additional advantages. Such disclosure creates competition among industries on environmental performance. It can also lead to public pressure from civil society groups, as well as the general public, investors and peer industrial plants, and nudge polluters towards better behaviour.

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A woman and her son cross the Mithi River in Mumbai. SEBASTIAN D'SOUZA/AFP/Getty Images

Dying Waters: India Struggles to Clean Up Its Polluted Urban Rivers

India’s booming population and rapidly expanding urban areas have exacted a huge toll on its rivers, which are badly polluted and choked by development. But in cities across India, activists are heading to court to force municipalities and states to take action.

By Vaishnavi Chandrashekhar • February 15, 2018

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 Vanashakti , a Mumbai-based environmental organization, Daftary’s NGO prevailed in a case in India’s Supreme Court last August involving the restoration of the Mithi. The top court reprimanded the local authorities for their neglect and directed independent experts to assess measures taken to date and recommend additional remedies to reverse the degradation of the Mithi.

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 by projections of increased extreme rain events and other climate risks.

The sacred Ganges has been at the center of a legal battle focused on the failure of a government plan to clean up the river.

In the technology hub of Hyderabad, activists went to the National Green Tribunal , a quasi-judicial authority, in 2015 to prevent illegal construction near the city’s Musi River. In Chennai, in South India, citizens have petitioned the tribunal to stop pollution of the Cooum River, as well as to ensure proper dredging of a large canal to remove silt and improve flow. In New Delhi, activists have been fighting one legal case after another over the years to keep the floodplain and river bed of the Yamuna, a major tributary of the Ganges, free of myriad developments, including a subway depot and road.  And the sacred Ganges, which runs through five Indian states, has been at the center of a legal battle by environmentalists and citizens frustrated by the failure of a government plan to clean up the badly contaminated river. 

Rivers and streams have borne the brunt of the recent urban explosion in India, a nation whose population has nearly doubled in the last 40 years to 1.35 billion. Unplanned growth has led to the use of water bodies as dumping grounds for sewage and industrial effluent. According to India’s Central Pollution Control Board, 63 percent of the urban sewage flowing into rivers (some 62 billion liters a day) is untreated. In addition, riverbanks, wetlands, and floodplains have been claimed over time by infrastructure, slums, offices, and housing developments - all of which has narrowed natural river channels and distorted flow, greatly reducing the ability of India’s rivers to buffer flooding. It also has taken a toll on biodiversity. 

The cost of this abuse has mounted over the years. A study last year linked increasing cases of typhoid, hepatitis, and diarrhea in New Delhi to severe pollution in the Yamuna River, which provides much of the city’s drinking water. Large stretches of the Yamuna, as well as Chennai’s Cooum and Mumbai’s Mithi and Ulhas rivers, are considered dead zones, with oxygen levels too low to support most fish life.

Men search for coins and recyclable items along the banks of New Delhi's Yamuna River. PRAKASH SINGH/AFP/Getty Images

Environmentalists blame the failure of past cleanup efforts on a host of problems: The political clout of industries, contractor-driven boondoggles, weak enforcement by pollution-control agencies, and clashing government departments. The $3 billion initiative to clean up the Ganges, a flagship project of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, must navigate the politics of five states, numerous cities, and multiple central government agencies. Renowned hydrologist Madhav Chitale resigned from the main Ganges cleanup initiative last year partly because, he said, “some people [in the mission] are focused on religious and cultural issues rather than on the technical remedies.”

He and others point to the Sabarmati River in Gujarat, Modi’s home state, as an example of sound urban river restoration. For decades, the Sabarmati - which runs through the state capital of Ahmedabad - was just another dirty, seasonally dry river. Then architects gave it a makeover, clearing out the slums along its banks and creating a channel of clear water bordered by a long concrete waterfront. The creation of attractive riverfronts is seen by many as key to mobilizing public support for conservation.  But some have criticized the Sabarmati project for focusing on beautification rather than ecological restoration. Water was brought from another river to keep the channel full, and pollution has simply been pushed downstream, said Himanshu Thakkar, coordinator of the South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers & People , a conservation group. “We don’t have a success story yet,” he said.  

The cost of the damage to India’s rivers was made painfully clear in December 2015, when Chennai experienced severe rainfall that overwhelmed its river and canal network. The region’s small rivers had been extensively manipulated over the years and had lost their floodplains to urban development, says Jayshree Vencatesan, managing trustee of Care Earth Trust . “Unless their flow is managed as a grid, they cannot perform their ecosystem services,” said Vencatesan.

For much of its run, Mumbai’s Mithi River is a glorified sewer serving small workshops, slums, housing developments, and a business center.

The Chennai floods took nearly 300 lives, damaged thousands of homes and businesses, and paralyzed the airport, which is partly built over the Adyar River, all leading to an estimated $3 billion in losses to the city’s economy. The flood brought attention to the assault on the region’s natural systems, with marshland shrinking by 45 square miles from 1980 to 2010, according to a study by Care Earth Trust. The disaster provided new impetus to long-pending cleanup plans for the Cooum River, which had languished for decades. Last year the official Chennai Rivers Restoration Trust obtained environmental clearances for a major restoration project.

A similar disaster unfolded in Mumbai on July 26, 2005 when an unprecedented monsoon deluge drowned the financial capital, killing more than 900 people, damaging a quarter-million homes, and causing an estimated $2 billion in economic losses. This inundation made Mumbai residents suddenly aware of the presence of the Mithi River in their midst. A modest channel that begins in suburban hills, the Mithi winds 11 miles down to the Arabian Sea. For much of its run, the river is a glorified sewer serving small workshops, slums, housing, the airport, and a business center. All were inundated on that fateful day when the conjunction of high tide and extreme rain caused the river to overflow its banks and flood the city.

A restored wetland park on Chennai's Adyar River. VAISHNAVI CHANDRASHEKHAR/Yale e360

Since then, multiple studies have decried the systematic destruction of the Mithi, pointing to a host of assaults: The airport’s runway had been built over the river, narrowing the channel and forcing it into a 90-degree bend, and a new office district had been built on wetlands. One satellite study found that from 1966 to 2005 the width of the Mithi was reduced by almost 50 percent, while mudflats had shrunk by 70 percent. The experts proposed solutions: close polluting businesses and industries, collect garbage, install sewage plants, restore the banks, dredge the river, create a buffer zone, and nurture the mangroves to absorb future floods. 

Last August, intense rainfall came perilously close to causing another major flood in Mumbai. That same month, the Indian Supreme Court condemned the lack of progress in restoring the Mithi following the 2005 floods. Despite much expenditure, the river is still filthy and continualy encroached upon, most recently by the dumping of debris from construction of a new subway. Municipal authorities have been slow to set up sewage treatment plants, and the few treatment projects underway don’t hew to expert recommendations. The National Environment Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) and the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay had called for setting up as many as 37 small sewage plants along the river, rather than a few large ones - a recommendation the city has so far ignored.

“The model from developed countries in which all sewage is taken and treated in one place appears to be impossible here because planning is always far behind population growth,” said NEERI director Rakesh Kumar. In this context, he said, a decentralized approach might work better.

Mumbai has taken some steps in recent years, mainly for flood prevention. Municipal authorities have spent S100 million dredging and widening the river at its narrowest points, and the regional planning agency, which controls the last 3.7 miles of the river, has spent millions more removing silt, demolishing encroaching structures, and resettling hundreds of slum dwellers. 

The Mithi’s crowded banks point to the social challenges of these cleanup efforts, especially in a city where half the population lives in slums.

But the Mithi’s crowded banks point to the social challenges of these cleanup efforts, especially in a city where half the population lives in slums. Relocating slum dwellers and industries takes time - land must be found, consent obtained, people and businesses shifted. Often people are forced out and homes demolished willy-nilly, as has happened on Chennai’s riverbanks. Rehabilitation sites are usually far away, disrupting community and employment networks. In the neighborhood of Kalina, along the Mithi, residents are furious about having to possibly move to a resettlement complex near polluting oil refineries. Such action seems especially unjust since entities such as the airport and the financial complex have expanded into the river’s flood plain, and they are not being told to leave.

“If everyone is to blame, why target the slums?” asked Fayzah Khan, a local resident.  

One morning, Daftary and I visited a newly walled stretch of the river along the Bandra-Kurla office district. His group has challenged the construction of such walls. He pointed out how the thick concrete flood barrier was separating the river from its traditional floodplain. Deprived of water, the mangroves that have long flourished on the banks were dying. 

Once the trees are gone, Daftary fears, these patches will be labeled wastelands and built over - not an uncommon occurrence in this city of soaring real estate values and powerful builders. In the meantime, he says, the walls are destroying the synergy between land and water. 

“The river bank,” he says, “is exactly that - a bank, a repository of wealth, a source of livelihood, water, and biodiversity.”

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The great indian thirst: the story of india's water crisis, solutions to tackle it, the country is staring at a grave water crisis unless we get our act together, and fast..

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Ominously for India, history seems to be repeating itself. A NITI Aayog report in 2018 stated bluntly that 600 million people, or nearly half of India’s population, face extreme water stress. That three-fourths of India’s rural households do not have piped, potable water and rely on sources that pose a serious health risk. That India has become the world’s largest extractor of groundwater, accounting for 25 per cent of the total. That 70 per cent of our sources are contaminated and our major rivers are dying because of pollution. Its conclusion: ‘India is suffering from its worst water crisis in its history.’

Gangnauli, India – Vikas Rathi lies, barely alive, on a cot in the sparsely furnished living room of a small two-story house in Gangnauli village in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh. The 23-year-old’s gaunt cheeks highlight his pinched nose and sunken eyes even more.

Vikas has been diagnosed with stunted growth and bone deformity. He is one of the hundreds of young adults and adolescents across the region who are afflicted by a host of ailments: stunted growth, liver diseases, cancers, and critical deformities.

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In Gangnauli – home to about 5,000 people and located about 180km (110 miles) from India’s capital New Delhi – about a third of the youth are sick.

Villagers say the diseases are striking more and more people, affecting almost every household. The contaminated groundwater they have been drinking, they say, is destroying their health.

More than 71 people died of cancer in Gangnauli alone between 2013 and 2018, according to data released by the National Green Tribunal (NGT) in 2019, the only official figure available.

Satendar Rathi, Vikas’ father, says his eldest son Vikas, whose name means growth in the Hindi language, has been bedridden since 2010

He was born healthy, his father continues, but his bones started deforming soon after he started drinking and eating solid food.

“We took him for traditional as well as English [modern] medicine treatment. Doctors suggested vitamin D supplements. We continued his treatment for nine years but nothing worked,” Satendar, a 48-year-old constable in the Delhi police, says as he sinks into a chair in the living room on the banks of the Krishna River.

His modest salary of $490 a month can barely cover medical expenses for Vikas.

“Finally, the doctors in Delhi told us there is a problem with the water we were consuming,” Satendar told Al Jazeera, referring to the groundwater.

“We can’t leave him alone for even a minute. If there is no one around he urinates and passes stool in his pants,” says Satendar, sighing helplessly as Vikas looks hauntingly at us.

“Vikas is a living corpse,” he says.

Carcinogens in the water

The NGT – the country’s top environmental court – confirmed in 2017 that water was indeed the cause of the mass sickness in villages across five districts in western Uttar Pradesh after the crisis was brought to its attention by environmental campaigners and it tested the groundwater and river water.

In the villages that did not have a piped water supply, villagers were drinking polluted groundwater pulled up by hand pumps.

The NGT recommended a door-to-door medical survey across the 48 hardest-hit villages in the region. It also called for providing piped drinking water, the establishment of specialised hospitals, and curbs on industrial effluents, among other measures.

But the health department in the state – India’s most populous – has not followed through on most of the recommendations, Al Jazeera found.

Dr Dinesh Kumar, chief medical officer of Baghpat district, where Gangnauli is located, admitted that carcinogenic elements had been found in the water.

“It is true that heavy elements and carcinogenic elements are present in the water but we can’t say for sure that they are responsible for cancer in the area. I am saying this because further studies have not been done on the cases studies found here to explore the links between the two,” he told Al Jazeera.

He added that a survey had been conducted more recently as part of anti-COVID health measures, during which officials were directed to identify cancer patients and people with co-morbidities.

“We found cases of skin diseases. Cases of Hepatitis C are found higher than usual in these villages.”

Industrial pollution

The fertile soil of the upper Doab region – the river basin of the Ganges and Yamuna Rivers – was home to a substantial agricultural community. Water from the Kali, Krishna and Hindon Rivers – important tributaries of the Yamuna River to the west – used to be a source of life and livelihood in the region some 20 years ago.

But Doab’s proximity to the capital led to many of its cities, such as Meerut, Baghpat, Saharanpur, Gautam Buddh Nagar and Ghaziabad, becoming industrial centres.

Dharmendar Rathi, the former village head of Gangnauli, says the groundwater started becoming poisonous as industries and mills started proliferating in the area , operating without the waste-treatment facilities they are required to have.

The industrial waste from sugar mills, slaughterhouses, paper mills, dye-making industries and distilleries empties into the rivers, turning them into sewage canals. Eventually, the unchecked industrial waste dumping contaminated the groundwater.

Dharmendar says: “Most of us kept drinking it till the last few years, our cattle drank it, and we used it to irrigate our farm and vegetables.”

He tells Al Jazeera there isn’t a single household in the village without a critically ill family member and that more than 200 people in Gangnauli had to sell their land to pay for medical expenses.

Many families have gone bankrupt treating their sick members, running from one hospital to another due to a lack of adequate health facilities in the state of 204 million people, he says.

“Our estimate suggests that more than 150 in this village alone have died of cancer, there are numerous cases of hepatitis, skin allergies and deformities. Just imagine the number of victims in other affected villages in this region.

“The future of this region is gone, the next generation has been destroyed at birth,” he says, showing a long list of villagers who died of cancer in the last decade.

Appealing to the NGT

Chandraveer Singh, from the nearby village of Daha, says his sister-in-law Urmila died of liver cancer earlier this year.

According to the 65-year-old retired scientist, people in more than 100 villages on the banks of the Kali, Krishna and Hindon Rivers have been drinking polluted groundwater for the last decade.

After he retired in 2013, Chandraveer, who worked at the pollution control board in the neighbouring state of Haryana, started working on water pollution in western UP. He petitioned the NGT in 2014 to intervene on the issue.

In 2014, he sent water samples from the Krishna for testing at SIMA Labs. SIMA labs are recognised by the Federal Ministry of Environment and Forests, and the Uttar Pradesh Pollution Control Board (UPPCB).

The results were disturbing – they confirmed an extremely high content of heavy metals and chemical compounds like arsenic, mercury, lead, zinc, phosphate, sulfide, cadmium, iron, nickel and manganese. All heavy metals are linked with cancer, bone deformity, and stomach-related diseases.

The total suspended solids in the river water measured 7,500mg/litre, as against the permissible 200mg/litre. The presence of sulfide was 285mg/litre as against the permissible 2mg/litre.

Extremely high levels of mercury and lead were also found. Lead was 0.115 as against the permissible limits of 0.01 mg/litre. Mercury was 0.12 mg/litre against the permissible limits of 0.01 mg/litre.

“No aquatic life survives in the river water,” says Chandraveer.

State of health services

Dharmendar says the local community health centres lack resources.

“The public health centres in the vicinity are not equipped to deal with a problem of this magnitude. Only a nurse or the doctor’s assistant is generally present at the health centres,” he says.

The closest big hospital is in Meerut – the largest city in the region – about 56km (35 miles) east of Gangnauli.

“The government hospital in Meerut is overcrowded and patients do not get the care they deserve,” he says, adding that there are not enough doctors.

The state, currently being governed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), ranks at the bottom of the health index prepared by the NITI Aayog – the government policy think-tank.

But the health crisis has hardly made it to the political agenda in the state as successive governments ignored the health issues people face. “What is the meaning of democracy when my people are dying of unexplained sickness and death? For decades we drank toxic water,” Dharmendar says.

“How could we dream of becoming a vishwa guru [super power] when we can’t provide the basic facilities which are essential to our fundamental right to life?”

Local BJP legislator Krishan Pal Singh defended the government, blaming previous governments for doing nothing to address the issue.

“Whatever relief people have got on this subject, happened under the BJP government,” he told Al Jazeera. The BJP came back to power in UP in 2017 after a gap of 15 years.

“When we came to power, we were given a state which barely saw any development. So it might take some time to solve people’s problems,” he adds.

NGT recommendations

Four years since the country’s top environmental watchdog recommended measures, local authorities have only partially implemented them.

Most of the polluting industries, mainly sugar mills, distilleries, electroplating workshops and slaughterhouses, continue to dump effluent into the rivers with little or no facilities put in place to treat industrial waste.

The NGT formed a supervisory committee in 2018 to monitor the implementation of its recommendations. The committee in its four reports since 2019 said no meaningful action had been taken by authorities to clean up the Kali, Krishna and Hindon Rivers. It accused Uttar Pradesh officials of “apathy” and even “stonewalling” its action plan and monitoring.

In its last directive – released in February 2021 and seen by Al Jazeera – the NGT notes that officials “did not comply” with most of its recommendations. The state government has not cooperated and its attitude was “disappointing”, the NGT said.

Out of the total of 133 sewage drains that needed to be covered, only 20 were covered and the remaining 113 are “in the process of being tapped”, as the progress report submitted by the government mentions. The sewage drain tapping would help control the spread of diseases.

Some of the recommendations, such as the preparation of micro plans to prevent groundwater pollution by industrial effluents, and identify and deal with other sources of water pollution – covering the entire stretch of drains, and identifying causes of ailments like skin diseases, jaundice and cancer – were not complied with, according to the February 2021 NGT order.

The only work that has been done to some measure is providing piped drinking water to more than 50 percent of the residents in these 150-plus villages, the committee said.

Local health officials in Baghpat told Al Jazeera COVID-19 had prevented them from making any plans. Singh, the local BJP legislator, also blamed the pandemic for the delay in implementing the NGT recommendations.

The NGT had highlighted repeatedly how the UPPCB couldn’t finish work on its recommendations: bio/phytoremediation of drains (using plants and micro-organisms to clean industrial effluents), covering drains, installing sewage treatment plants in water-polluting industries.

A senior official from the UPPCB, who wished to remain anonymous, told Al Jazeera: “As we mentioned in our ‘action taken report’ submitted before the NGT, bioremediation work on several drains over a total stretch of 76km is being done. The bioremediation on drains in Shamli, Muzaffarnagar and Baghpat has been initiated.

“[W]ork on the installation of sewage treatment plants in Muzaffarnagar and Budhana will be done soon. Work on the one in Saharanpur will be started soon,” he said, adding, “it will take some time before the work is completed.”

“By law, the industries are supposed to have a sewage treatment plant (STP) installed before they operationalise the factory. But, courtesy of corruption, in most cases the industries bribe officials and start functioning without an STP which is supposed to treat the effluents. So the state government is penalising the industries now in a big way, and pushing them to have an STP in their factories,” he added.

He added that among the decisions the UPPCB has taken to mitigate pollution is the imposition of a fine of 11.32 crore rupees ($1.41m) as environmental compensation on 230 industries for polluting river water in the last four years.

Environmental campaigner Chandraveer isn’t hopeful.

“The institutional and bureaucratic dysfunction of the world’s largest democracy continues to deprive the remaining residents of safe and clean drinking water,” he tells Al Jazeera.

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Ganga River: A Paradox of Purity and Pollution in India due to Unethical Practice

D C Jhariya 1 and Anoop Kumar Tiwari 2

Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science , Volume 597 , National Conference on Challenges in Groundwater Development and Management 6-7 March 2020, NIT Raipur, India Citation D C Jhariya and Anoop Kumar Tiwari 2020 IOP Conf. Ser.: Earth Environ. Sci. 597 012023 DOI 10.1088/1755-1315/597/1/012023

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1 Assistant Professor, Department of Applied Geology, National Institute of Technology Raipur, Chhattisgarh-492010, India

2 Assistant Professor, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, National Institute of Technology Raipur, Chhattisgarh-492010, India

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In India, the river Ganga is believed as a goddess, and people worship it. Despite all the respect for the river, the river's condition is worsening, and we Indians are unable to maintain the purity of the river. The Ganga is a river of faith, devotion, and worship. Indians accept its water as "holy," which is known for its "curative" properties. The river is not limited to these beliefs but is also a significant water source, working as the life-supporting system for Indians since ancient times. The Ganga river and its tributaries come from cold, Himalayan-glacier-fed springs, which are pure and unpolluted. But when the river flows downgradient, it meets the highly populated cities before merging into the Bay of Bengal. From its origin to its fall, its water changes from crystal clear to trash-and sewage-infested sludge. Thousands of years passed since the river Ganga, and its tributaries provide substantial, divine, and cultural nourishment to millions of people living in the basin. Nowadays, with the increasing urbanization, the Ganges basin sustains more than 40 percent of the population. Due to the significant contribution of the growing population and rapid industrialization along its banks, river Ganga has reached an alarming pollution level.

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Helping India Overcome Its Water Woes

Urban Water supply in Belgaum District, Karnataka

Dipankar Ghoshal/World Bank

What are the challenges that India faces with water management, especially given that we often have too little or too much water?

India is home to 18 percent of the global population but has only 4 percent of the global water resources. Its per capita water availability is around 1,100 cubic meter (m3), well below the internationally recognized threshold of water stress of 1,700 m3 per person, and dangerously close to the threshold for water scarcity of 1,000 m3 per person.

Population growth and economic development put further pressure on water resources. Climate change is expected to increase variability and to bring more extreme weather events.

Paradoxically, India is also the largest net exporter of virtual water (the amount of water required to produce the products that India exports) and has one of the most water-intense economies. Despite looming water scarcity, India is one of the largest water users per unit of gross domestic product (GDP). This suggests that the way in which India manages its scarce water resources accounts for much of its water woes.

Government capacities are lacking as far as improving water management is concerned, while policies and incentives often favor inefficient and unproductive use of water. This is coupled with weak or absent institutions (e.g. for water regulation) and poor data collection and assessment.

What important lessons in water management can India learn from other countries?

We don’t have to go overseas to see good examples of water resources management. The Maharashtra Water Resources Regulatory Authority , established under a World Bank project, is putting in place policies, regulations, institutions and incentives that promote more efficient and more productive use of water, e.g., by ensuring the equitable distribution of water among users, and by establishing water tariffs.

Efforts to establish effective authorities are also underway in other states, and Maharashtra is disseminating the lessons learned from its experience.

In India, experience with improving water service delivery has been mixed as, only in rare cases, have efforts been embedded in a favorable policy and regulatory environment. When it comes to improving water service delivery, India can learn from Brazil, Colombia, Mozambique and New South Wales (Australia), among others.

Poor or absent water management policies also exacerbate the effects of climate change on water. On the other hand, sound water management can neutralize many of the water-related impacts of climate change. Vietnam, for instance, has implemented a comprehensive program to manage water-related risks and build resilience. Nigeria has helped prevent erosion, reclaim valuable land and focused on sustainable livelihoods to reduce the vulnerability of people, infrastructure, assets, natural capital, and livelihoods to land degradation. And the Philippines is implementing comprehensive urban drainage works to improve water management.

How is the World Bank supporting this issue?

The World Bank’s Country Partnership Framework for India recognizes the importance of the efficient use of natural resources, including water, in support of the country’s ambitious growth targets. Several World Bank projects support India’s efforts in the water sector:

Through the National Mission for Clean Ganga , the World Bank is helping the Government of India build institutional capacity for the management and clean-up of the Ganga and investing to reduce pollution. The $1-billion operation has financed investments in wastewater and effluent treatment, solid waste management and river front development.

Another World Bank project, the Dam Rehabilitation and Improvement Project , has improved the safety and performance of 223 dams in the country through rehabilitation, capacity-strengthening and measures to enhance legal and institutional frameworks.

The National Hydrology Project is providing significant support to strengthen capacities, improve data monitoring and analysis, and laying the foundations for benchmarking and performance-based water management.

The Shimla Water Supply and Sewerage Service Delivery Reform Development Policy Loan supports the Government of Himachal Pradesh in its policy and institutional development program for improving water supply and sewerage services that are financially sustainable and managed by an accountable institution responsive to its customers.

The West Bengal Accelerated Development of Minor Irrigation supports farmer-led irrigation by improving service delivery to farming communities and linking these to agricultural markets.

Innovative instruments are being deployed to finance these operations, such as the development policy loan in Shimla, the program-for-results financing in the Swachh Bharat Mission Support Operation and the National Groundwater Management and Improvement Project , and the use of disbursement-linked indicators in Dam Rehabilitation and Improvement Project-II.

Analytical work at the World Bank focuses, among others, on irrigation and water and sanitation service delivery. The results will be incorporated into future lending operations.

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Hydropolitics News and Intelligence

Water Security: Issues and challenges for India

By neeraj singh manhas, director of research in the indo-pacific consortium at raisina house, new delhi.

22 Feb 2023 by The Water Diplomat

Water security in India refers to the availability of adequate and clean water resources to meet the country's growing water demand, while ensuring the sustainability of the water ecosystems. This is in line with the definition of water security provided by UN Water, which is a United Nations inter-agency coordination mechanism on all freshwater-related issues. It involves ensuring access to safe drinking water, managing water resources effectively, and reducing the risk of water-borne diseases. In India, water security is a major challenge due to over-extraction of groundwater, water pollution, and unequal distribution of water resources. Addressing water security is critical for the country's economic and social development, as well as the health and well-being of its citizens.

Concept of Traditional and Non-Traditional Threat

Water security has been recognized as a critical issue within government policy circles and among various stakeholders such as civil society organizations, academics, and researchers. The growing recognition of water as a finite and valuable resource, coupled with the increasing risks and impacts of water-related issues, has led to water security being perceived as a threat to India's development and sustainability. Therefore, various measures have been taken to address the challenges related to water security in India, including the implementation of policies, programs, and initiatives aimed at improving water management, conservation, and governance.

Traditionally, water security was seen as a technical issue of water supply and management, with a focus on meeting water demand through infrastructure development. However, it has now expanded to encompass a broader range of social, economic, and environmental factors, including water quality, water allocation, and water governance.

In India, water security has been recognized as a non-traditional threat due to the interlinkages between water and other critical sectors such as agriculture, energy, health, and the environment. The country faces a range of water-related challenges, including water scarcity, water pollution, floods, and droughts, which have significant impacts on various aspects of society and the economy.

The concept of non-traditional threat recognises water security as a complex and interconnected issue that requires a holistic and integrated approach, involving multiple stakeholders and a range of policies and practices. This approach recognises the need for better water governance, enhanced water management practices, and increased investment in water infrastructure and technology.

Source: Next IAS

Issues and Challenges

Water security in India faces several issues and challenges that threaten the sustainability and development of the country. These include over-extraction of groundwater, water pollution, inadequate distribution, lack of proper water management, climate change, and conflicts over water. India relies heavily on groundwater, which is being depleted at an alarming rate due to over-extraction for irrigation, industrial, and domestic use. The increasing industrialization and urbanization has led to widespread water pollution, contaminating rivers and groundwater, and making it unsafe for consumption. There is unequal distribution of water resources across the country, with some regions facing severe water scarcity while others have surplus water. India lacks proper water management systems, with inefficient irrigation systems, leaky water supply networks, and insufficient wastewater treatment facilities. Climate change has resulted in irregular monsoon patterns and increased frequency of natural disasters, causing further strain on India's water resources. With increasing water scarcity, there are growing conflicts between different states, communities, and sectors over the distribution and use of water. Addressing these challenges is crucial for ensuring water security in India and sustainable development of the country.

Way Forward

Improving India's water security will require a combination of policy, technology, and behavioral solutions. One essential strategy is to enhance water governance systems, with clear policies, laws, and institutions to manage and allocate water resources effectively and equitably. Efficient water management practices like rainwater harvesting, conservation, and recharge should be adopted to reduce water waste and increase availability.

The country needs to invest in water infrastructure such as dams, reservoirs, and canals, to improve water storage capacity, distribution, and mitigate the impacts of water-related disasters. Promoting the adoption of water-saving technologies like drip irrigation, micro-irrigation, and water-efficient appliances can significantly reduce water consumption and improve productivity. Additionally, the government should implement and enforce regulations to prevent water pollution and ensure access to safe drinking water, especially in rural and urban areas. Changing behavior is also critical, such as reducing water usage, avoiding water waste, and improving water hygiene practices. Collaboration and active engagement of various stakeholders including the government, civil society, private sector, and communities are essential to addressing these challenges.

Addressing these challenges requires a collaborative and multi-stakeholder approach, with the active engagement of government, civil society, private sector, and communities. Investing in water security will not only improve water availability and quality, but will also contribute to the overall economic and social development of India.

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Story of the Ganga River: Its Pollution and Rejuvenation

• First Online: 08 February 2022

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• Monika Simon 2 &
• Himanshu Joshi 2  

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Water is indispensable for the basic subsistence of human beings. No wonder, most of the civilisations have come upon the banks of rivers or in the river valleys as elsewhere in the world (Chaturvedi, 2019). India is a blessed country in terms of having numerous rivers in this regard (Hudda, 2011). Unfortunately, in 2017, the Ganga River, the National Legacy, and the life support of millions of people was classified as the world’s highly polluted river (Mariya et al., 2019). Ganga, with over 2,525 km long main-stem along with her tributaries has constantly provided material, spiritual and cultural sustenance to millions of people living in and around its basin. The riverine water resources provide irrigation, drinking water, economical transportation, electricity, recreation and religious fulfilment, support to the aquatic ecosystem as well as livelihoods for many stakeholders. The myths and anecdotes about the river and its connection with the people and nature date back to ancient times (Kaushal et al., 2019).

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Introduction

The pristine nature of river Ganges: its qualitative deterioration and suggestive restoration strategies

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Simon, M., Joshi, H. (2022). Story of the Ganga River: Its Pollution and Rejuvenation. In: Mukherjee, A. (eds) Riverine Systems. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-87067-6_2

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ICESMART - 2015 (Volume 3 - Issue 19)

River water pollution:a case study on tunga river at shimoga-karnataka.

• Article Download / Views: 3,293
• Total Downloads : 16
• Authors : Dr. H. S. Govardhana Swamy
• Paper ID : IJERTCONV3IS19035
• Volume & Issue : ICESMART – 2015 (Volume 3 – Issue 19)
• Published (First Online): 24-04-2018
• ISSN (Online) : 2278-0181
• Publisher Name : IJERT

Dr. H. S. Govardhana Swamy

Professor & Head, Department of Civil Engineering RajaRajeswari College of Engineering,

Bengaluru, India

Abstract Tunga River has been one of the most prominent and important river of Karnataka in Shimoga District. Unfortunately, certain stretches of River Tunga are much polluted. Various urban centers are located on the banks of Tunga River, draw fresh river water for various activities. In almost the entire wastewater generated by these centers is disposed off into the river. The objective of the monitoring studies undertaken for water body is to assess variation in water quality with time. Four sampling stations were selected along the river for sampling purpose from August 2013 to August 2014.Water samples were analyzed in terms of physico-chemical water quality parameters.

Keywords Thunga River, water quality, point pollution, Physico-chemical parameters

INTRODUCTION

In nature, water is the essential fluid from which all life begins. All living things need water to maintain their life too. In domesticity, it is very useful, such as for washing and cleaning. In industry, it is the common solvent for Paper and water, textile and electroplating. Besides, the generation of electricity also requires water. It has many uses. However, it can be easily polluted. Pollutants deteriorate the quality of the water and render it unfit for its intended uses [1]. The pollution of rivers and streams with chemical contaminants has become one of the most critical environmental problems of the century. It is estimated that each year 10 million people die from drinking contaminated water. Water is one of the most common and precious resources on the earth without there would be no life on earth [2]. Pollution is a serious problem as almost 70% of Indias surface water resources and a growing number of its groundwater reserves have been contaminated The quality of water is described by its physical, chemical and microbiological characteristics. Therefore a regular monitoring of river water quality not only prevents outbreak of diseases and checks water from further deterioration, but also provides a scope to assess the current investments for pollution prevention and control. In this study, seasonal variations of physico-chemical and bacteriological characteristics of water quality in Tunga river was assessed in Shimoga town in Karnataka.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Shimoga is town, situated between the North and South branches of river Tunga. It is located on the Bangalore Honnavar highway.Though it is a town of medium population, the temples and historically significant monuments of this town attracts a large number of tourist people resulting in a very high floating population. Because of this reason the river Tunga along Shimoga town stretch is prone to anthropogenic activities such as bathing, washing and disposal of wastes. The ground level in the town slopes towards river so that most of the storm and sewerage drains discharge into river Tunga. There are two stream monitoring stations and 15 drains located in this town stretch

Monitoring Stations

Station – S1

Station S1 is located on the north side of the river, near the Shimoga Thirthahalli new bridge. It is an upstream station and near this station water is being drawn for supply to the town.

Station – S2

This station is about 300 m downstream of station S1.The station S2 is located on a drain that enters the river from the industrial town areas. The flow in the drain is mainly comprised of industrial waste.

Station – S3

The station S3 is an most affected station and is positioned near the Vinayaka temple(Ramanna shetty park). It is downstream of the sewage disposal point from the station S3. A bathing ghat exists near this Station.

Station S4 is located on the south side of the river, near the Shimoga Bhadravathi new bridge. Two number of sewage drains dispose city sewage water in to the river directly.

Data Preparation

The data sets of 4 water quality monitoring stations which comprised of 10 water quality parameters monitored monthly over 2 years (2013-2014) are used for this study. The data is obtained from the water Quality Monitoring work of Tunga River Basin in Shimoga District,

Karnataka State Although there are more water quality parameters in these stations, only 10 most important parameters are chosen because of their continuity in measurement through the 12 years. The 10 selected water quality parameters include Dissolved Oxygen (DO), Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD), Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD), Chlorides (Cl), Total Dissolved Solids (TDS), Conductivity, Temperature and pH.

Analysis of samples

The water samples were collected from each of the five selected stat ions according to the standard sampling methods (IS: 2488, 1966 APHA, 1998).Samples for estimating dissolved oxygen (DO) and biochemical oxy gen demand (BOD) were collected separately in BOD(glass) bottles. Water temperature was recorded on the spot using thermometers.

RESULT AND DISCUSSION

Temperature was found to be ranged between 14 0C (minimum) to 280C (maximum) with average value of 210+9.90C from all the sites. Impinging solar radiation and the atmospheric temperature brings interesting spatial and temporal changes in natural waters. The rise in temperature of water accelerates chemical reactions, reduces solubility of gases, amplifies taste and odour and elevates metabolic activity of organisms (Usharani et al., 2010).

pH of the aquatic system is an important indicator of the water quality and the extent pollution in the watershed areas. pH was recorded to be varying from 6.43 (minimum) to 9.13 (maximum) with an average value of 7.78+1.91 from all the sites (Jonnalagadda et al.,2001). It has been mentioned that the increasing pH appear to be associated with increasing use of alkaline detergents in residential areas and alkaline material from wastewater in industrial areas (Chang, H., 2008)

Conductivity is a good and rapid method to measure the total dissolved ions and is directly related to total solids. Higher the value of dissolved solids, greater the amount of ions in water (Bhatt.,1999). The range of Electrical conductivity from all the sites was recorded as 340.00

µmhos (minimum) to 734.00 µmhos (maximum) with an average value of 537.00+278.60 µmhos

The value of Dissolved Oxygen is remarkable in determining the water quality criteria of an aquatic system. In the system where the rates of respiration and organic decomposition are high, the DO values usually remain lower than those of the system, where the rate of photosynthesis is high (Mishra et al., 2009). During the study period DO was found to be ranging between 4.90 mg/l (minimum) to 8.50 mg/l (maximum) from all the sites with an average value of 6.70+2.55 mg/l.

Biochemical Oxygen Demand is a measure of the oxygen in the water that is required by the aerobic organisms. The biodegradation of organic materials exerts oxygen tension in the water and increases the biochemical oxygen demand (Abida, 2008).BOD has been a fair measure of cleanliness

of any water on the basis that values less than 1-2 mg/l are considered clean, 3 mg/l fairly clean, 5 mg/l doubtful and 10 mg/l definitely. During the study period BOD varied from 3.00 mg/l (minimum) to 8.00 mg/l (maximum) with an average value of 5.50+3.54 mg/l at all the sites.

Chemical Oxygen Deand is a measure of the oxidation of reduced chemicals in water. It is commonly used to indirectly measure the amount of organic compounds in water. The measure of COD determines the quantities of organic matter

found in water. This makes COD useful as an indicator of organic pollution in surface water (King et al., 2003).COD pointing to a deterioration of the water quality likely caused by the discharge of municipal waste water (Mamais et al., 1993). In the present study COD was found to be ranging from 11 mg/l (minimum) to 24 mg/l (maximum) with average value of 17.50+9.19 at all the sites.

Alkalinity of water is a measure of weak acid present. Total alkalinity of water is due to presence of mineral salt present in it. Alkalinity was ranged between 123.00 mg/l (minimum) to 240.00 (maximum) mg/l with average value of 181.50+82.73 mg/l from all the sites.

Total hardness is the parameter of water quality used to describe the effect of dissolved minerals (mostly Ca and Mg), determining suitability of water for domestic, industrial and drinking purpose attributed to presence of bicarbonates, sulphates, chloride and nitrates of calcium and magnesium (Taylor, 1949). The variation in Total hardness during study period at all the sites was recorded as

mg/l to 475.00 mg/l with average value of 352.50+173.24 mg/l

Chlorides occur naturally in all types of water. High concentration of chloride is considered to be the indicators of pollution due to organic wastes of animal or industrial origin. Chlorides are troublesome in irrigation water and also harmful to aquatic life (Rajkumar, 2004). The levels of chloride in the present study were ranging from 18.00 mg/l (minimum) to 32.00 mg/l (maximum) with an average value of 25.00±9.90 mg/l at all the sites.

Fluoride concentration is an important aspect of hydrogeochmistry, because of its impact on human health. The recommended concentration of Fluoride in drinking water is 1.50 mg/l. The values recorded in this study was ranged between 0.40 mg/l (minimum) to 1.20 (maximum) mg/l with an average value of 0.80±0.57 mg/l from all the sites.

Table 1: Physico-chemical qualities of river water

Where D.O.= Dissolved Oxygen, BOD= Biochemical Oxygen Demand, COD= Chemical Oxygen Demand, TH= Total Hardness.

The present study concluded that river water of study area was moderately polluted in respect to analyzed parameters. pH, total hardness, chloride and fluoride were found within permissible limit but the higher values of BOD and COD in present study attributed river water was not fit for drinking purpose. It needs to aware local villagers to safeguard the precious river and its surrounding

APHA. Standard methods for the examination of water and wastewater.18thEdition, Washingoton, D.C 1992

Abida, B. and Harikrishna Study on the Quality of Water in Some Streams of Cauvery River, E- Journal of Chemistry, 5, (2): 377-384. 2008.

Eletta O. A.A Llnd Adekola F.A.. Studies Of The Physical and

Chemical Properties Of Asa River Water, Kwara State, Nigeria. Science Focus Vol, 10 (l), 2005 pp 72 76.

Jonnalagadda, S.B., and Mhere,G. Water quality of the odzi river in the eastern highlands of zimbabwe.Water Research, 35(10): 2371- 2376. 2001

Meitei, N.S., Bhargava and Patil, P.M. Water quality of Purna river in Purna Town, Maharashtra state. J. Aqua. Biol., 19- 77, 2005

Manjappa,S.,Suresh,B., Arvinda, H.B., Puttaiah, E.T., Thirumala,S. Studies on environmental status of Tungabhadra river near Harihar, Karnataka (India),J. Aquqa. Biol, vol 23(2): 67-72,2004

Mishra, A., Mukherjee, A. and Tripathi, B.D. Seasonal and Temporal Variation in Physico- Chemical and Bacteriological Characteristics of River Ganga in Varansi. Int. J.Environ. Res., 3(3): 395-402.2009

Rajkumar, S., Velmurugan, P., Shanthi, K., Ayyasamy, P.M. and Lakshmanaperumalasamy, P.(2004). Water Quality of Kodaikanal lake, Tamilnadu in Relation to PhysicoChemical and Bacteriological Characteristics, Capital Publishing Company, Lake 2004, pp.339- 346

Trivedi, R.K. and Goel, P.K. Chemical and biological methods

for water pollution studies. Environ. Publication, Karad. Maharashtra, India ,1994.

Usharani, K., Umarani,K., Ayyasamy, P.M., Shanthi, K.Physico- Chemical and Bacteriological Characteristics of Noyyal River and Ground Water Quality of Perur, India. J. Appl. Sci. Environ. Manage. Vol.14(2) 29-35,2009

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to thank principal of RajaRajeswari College of Engineering and Management of RajaRajeswari Group of Institutions for extending encouragement and support to present the paper in the International Conference at T.John College of Engineering, Bangaluru

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Water crisis: a case study of Jabalpur

Jabalpur's shrinking lakes needs sincere planning and community participation

By P K Shrivastava

Published: thursday 31 may 2001.

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Water Pollution In India: Critical Analysis

• 30 November, 2021
• 25 min read
• Download PDF
• Water crisis
• Environmental Pollution
• Biodiversity & Environment

What is Water pollution?

Water Pollution Definition:  Water Pollution is the  addition/presence of undesirable substances to/in water such as organic, inorganic, biological, radiological, heat, which degrades the quality of water  so that it becomes unfit for use.

What are the Sources of Water Pollution?

Sources of Water Pollution in India: Natural sources of water pollution are soil erosion, leaching of minerals from rocks  (due to natural solubility and solubility triggered by acid rain), and  decaying of organic matter.

What are the Causes of Water Pollution?

Sewage water - sewage water includes  discharges from houses and other establishments. the sewage contains  human and animal excreta ,  food residues, cleaning agents, detergents,  etc. domestic and hospital sewage  contain many  undesirable pathogenic microorganisms., dissolved oxygen (do ).

• The Presence of  organic and inorganic wastes in water decreases the dissolved oxygen content  of the water.
• Water  having DO content below 8.0 mg/L  may be considered  contaminated .
• Water having  DO content below. 4.0 mg/L  is considered to be  highly polluted.
• DO content of water is  important for the survival of aquatic organisms .
• A number of factors like s urface turbulence, photosynthetic activity, O2 consumption by organisms, and decomposition of organic matter  are the factors that determine the amount of DO present in water.
• The  higher amounts of waste increase the rates of decomposition and O2 consumption thereby decreases the DO content  of water.

Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD)

• Water  pollution by organic wastes  is measured in terms of Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD).
• BOD is the  amount of dissolved oxygen needed by bacteria in decomposing the organic wastes present in water . It is expressed in  milligrams of oxygen per liter of water .
• The  higher value of BOD indicates a low DO content  of water.
• Since BOD is limited to biodegradable materials, it is not a reliable method of measuring water pollution.

Chemical oxygen demand (COD )

• Chemical oxygen demand (COD) is a  slightly better mode  used to measure pollution load in the water.
• COD measures the  amount of oxygen in parts per million required to oxidize organic (biodegradable and non-biodegradable) and oxidizable inorganic compounds in the water sample.

Industrial Wastes

• Discharge of  wastewater from industries like petroleum, paper manufacturing, metal extraction and processing, chemical manufacturing, etc., that often contain toxic substances, notably, heavy metals  (defined as elements  with density > 5 g/cm3 such as mercury, cadmium, copper, lead, arsenic ) and a variety of organic compounds.

Agricultural sources

• Agricultural runoff  contains  dissolved salts such as nitrates, phosphates, ammonia,  and other nutrients,  and toxic metal ions, and organic compounds .
• Fertilizers contain major  plant nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium.
• Excess fertilisers may reach the groundwater by leaching or may be mixed with surface water.
• Pesticides include insecticides, fungicides, herbicides, etc.  They contain a wide range of chemicals such as  chlorinated hydrocarbons (CHCs. E.g. DDT, Endosulfan, etc.), organophosphates, metallic salts, carbonates, etc.
• Many of the  pesticides are non-degradable,  and their residues have a long life.
• Wastes from  poultry farms, piggeries, and slaughterhouses,  etc. reach the water through runoff.
• Not only is the agricultural sector the  biggest consumer  of global freshwater resources, with farming and livestock production using  about 70 percent of the earth’s surface water supplies , but it’s also a serious water polluter.
• The River pollution in India, Agricultural pollution is the  top source of contamination  and streams, the  second-biggest source in wetlands, and the third main source in lakes . Nutrient pollution, caused by excess nitrogen and phosphorus in water or air, is the number-one threat to water quality worldwide and can cause algal blooms.

Thermal Pollution

• Power plants, thermal and nuclear, chemical, and other industries use a lot of water for cooling  purposes, and then used hot water is discharged into rivers(that causes river water pollution in India), streams, or oceans.
• Discharge of hot water  may increase the temperature of the receiving  water by 10 to 15 °C above the ambient water temperature . This is thermal pollution.
• An increase in  water temperature decreases dissolved oxygen  in the water.
• Unlike terrestrial organisms, aquatic organisms are adapted to a uniform steady temperature of the environment. A sudden rise in temperature kills fishes and other aquatic animals.
• One of the best methods of reducing thermal pollution is to store the hot water in  cooling ponds , allow the water to cool before releasing into any receiving water body

Radiation Pollution

• Nuclear accidents  near water bodies or during natural calamities like tsunami and earthquakes pose the  risk of radiation leakage  (radiation exposure) into water bodies. E.g.  Fukushima Daiichi  nuclear disaster.
• Radiation exposure  causes mutations in the DNA of marine organisms . If those mutations are not repaired, the cell may turn  cancerous .
• Radioactive iodine tends to be absorbed by the thyroid gland and can cause thyroid cancer.

Marine pollution

• Oceans are the  ultimate sink of all-natural and manmade pollutants .
• The  sewerage and garbage of coastal cities  are also dumped into the sea.
• The other sources of oceanic pollution are  navigational discharge of oil, grease, detergents, sewage, garbage, and radioactive wastes, offshore oil mining, oil spills.
• The most common cause of oil spills is  leakage during marine transport and leakage from underground storage tanks .
• An oil spill could occur during  offshore oil production as well .

Impact of oil spill on marine life

• Oil being lighter than water covers the water surface as a  thin film cutting off oxygen to floating plants  and other producers.
• Within hours of an oil spill, the fishes, shellfish, plankton die due to suffocation and metabolic disorders .
• Birds and sea mammals that consume dead fishes  and plankton  die due to poisoning.

Invasive species

• Plants  of water hyacinth  are the world’s most problematic aquatic weed, also called  ‘Terror of Bengal’.
• They grow  abundantly in eutrophic water  bodies and lead to an imbalance in the ecosystem.
• They cause havoc by their excessive growth  leading to stagnation  of polluted water.

Underground water pollution

• In India at many places, the groundwater is  threatened with contamination due to seepage from industrial and municipal wastes and effluents, sewage channels, and agricultural runoff.
• Pollutants like  fluorides, uranium, heavy metals, and nutrients like nitrates and phosphates are common in many parts of India.
• Excess nitrate in drinking water  reacts with hemoglobin  to form non-functional  methemoglobin  and impairs oxygen transport. This condition is called  methemoglobinemia  or blue baby syndrome.
• High levels of nitrates may form  carcinogens  and can accelerate  eutrophication  in surface waters.

Trace metals

• Include a  lead, mercury, cadmium, copper, chromium, and nickel .
• These metals can  be toxic and carcinogenic .
• Seepage of  industrial and mine discharges, fly ash ponds of thermal power  plants can lead to arsenic in groundwater.
• In  India and Bangladesh (Ganges Delta),  millions of people are exposed to groundwater contaminated with high levels  of arsenic, a highly toxic and dangerous pollutant.
• Chronic exposure to arsenic  causes black foot disease . It also causes  diarrhoea  and also  lung and skin cancer.
• Excess fluoride in drinking water causes  neuromuscular disorders ,  gastrointestinal problems, teeth deformity, hardening of bones, and stiff and painful joints (skeletal fluorosis ).
• Pain in bones and joints  and  outward bending of legs  from the knees is called  Knock-Knee syndrome .
• Fluorosis  is a common problem in several states of the country due to the intake of high fluoride content water.

Effects of Water Pollution in India

Effects of water pollution  on human health.

• Domestic and hospital sewage  contain many undesirable  pathogenic microorganisms,  and its disposal into the water without proper treatment may cause an outbreak of serious diseases caused by water pollution, such as  typhoid, cholera , etc
• Metals like lead,  zinc, arsenic, copper, mercury, and cadmium in industrial wastewaters adversely affect humans and other animals
• Consumption of such  arsenic  polluted water leads to  accumulation  of arsenic in the  body parts like blood, nails, and hairs causing skin lesions, rough skin, dry and thickening of the skin, and ultimately skin cancer
• Mercury compounds in wastewater are converted by bacterial action into extremely toxic methyl mercury , which can cause numbness of limbs, lips, and  tongue, deafness, blurring of vision, and mental derangement
• Pollution of water bodies by  mercury causes Minamata  (neurological syndrome) disease in humans.
• Lead causes  lead poisoning  (Lead interferes with a variety of body processes and is toxic to many organs and tissues).
• The compounds of lead cause  anemia, headache, loss of muscle power, and bluish line around the gum .
• Water contaminated with  cadmium can cause itai itai disease  also called ouch-ouch disease (a painful disease of bones and joints) and cancer of the lungs and liver.

Effects of Water Pollution  on the Environment

• Micro-organisms involved in the biodegradation of organic matter in sewage waste consume a lot of oxygen and make water oxygen-deficient killing fish and other aquatic creatures.
• Presence of large amounts of nutrients in water results in algal bloom (excessive growth of planktonic algae. This leads to ageing of lakes.
• A few toxic substances, often present in  industrial wastewaters , can undergo biological magnification ( Biomagnification)  in the aquatic food chain. Eg.,  mercury and DDT.
• High concentrations of  DDT  disturb calcium metabolism in birds, which  causes thinning of eggshells  and their premature breaking, eventually causing a  decline in bird populations .

Effects of Water Pollution  on Aquatic Ecosystem

• Polluted water  reduces Dissolved Oxygen (DO)  content, thereby,  eliminates sensitive organisms like plankton, molluscs, and fish,  etc.
• However, a few  tolerant species  like  Tubifex  (annelid worm) and  some insect larvae  may survive in highly polluted water with low DO content. Such species are recognized as  indicator species for polluted water.
• Biocides, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and heavy metals  directly  eliminate sensitive aquatic  organisms.

Eutrophication

• The  nutrient-enrichment of the lakes promotes the growth of algae, aquatic plants, and various fauna . This process is known as  natural eutrophication.
• Similar nutrient enrichment of lakes at an  accelerated rate is caused by human activities  and the consequent ageing phenomenon is known as  cultural eutrophication .
• On the basis of their nutrient content, lakes are categorized as  Oligotrophic  (very low nutrients),  Mesotrophic  (moderate nutrients), and  Eutrophic  (highly nutrient-rich).
• A vast  majority of lakes in India are either eutrophic or mesotrophi c because of the nutrients derived from their surroundings or organic wastes entering them.

Algal Bloom

• Phytoplankton (algae and blue-green bacteria) thrive on the   excess nutrients  and their population explosion  covers almost the entire surface layer . This condition is known as an algal bloom.
• Phytoplankton is  photosynthetic during the daytime adding oxygen  to the aquatic ecosystem. But  during nights, they consume far more oxygen as they respire  aggressively. i.e.  Algal blooms   accentuate the rate of oxygen depletion  as the population of phytoplankton is very high.
• The primary consumers  like small fish are killed due to oxygen deprivation caused by algal blooms.
• The death of primary consumers  adversely  affects the food chain.
• Further, more oxygen is taken up by microorganisms during the decomposition process of dead algae, plants, and fishes.
• The new  anaerobic conditions  (absence of oxygen) were created to promote the growth of bacteria such as  Clostridium botulinum  which produces toxins deadly to aquatic organisms, birds, and mammals.
• Water temperature has also been related to the occurrence of algal blooms , with unusually warm water being conducive to blooms.
• Algal blooms can be any color , but the most common ones are  red or brown.  These blooms are commonly referred to as  red or brown tides .
• Loss of coral reefs : Occurs due to a  decrease in water transparency  (increased  turbidity ).

Harmful Algal Blooms

Most algal blooms are not harmful, but some produce  toxins . These are known as Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs). E.g.  Shellfish poisoning .

Significantly impact on  local economies and the livelihood  of coastal residents.

Dead zones (biological deserts)

• Dead zones are areas in the ocean with  very low oxygen concentration (hypoxic conditions).
• Eg., the Gulf of Mexico every spring (farmers fertilize their crops and rain washes fertilizer off the land and into streams and rivers).
• Gulf of Oman and it’s growing.

Marine pollution -

Refers to the  emptying of chemicals into the ocean  and its harmful effects.

World efforts to control Marine Pollution:

Convention on the dumping of wastes at sea/london convention.

• The Protocol states that “the polluter should, in principle, bear the cost of pollution”.
• The International Maritime Organization (IMO) is responsible for the Secretariat

The United Nations Convention on Law of the Sea

• UNCLOS establishes general obligations for safeguarding the marine environment and protecting freedom of scientific research on the high seas.
• It also creates an innovative legal regime for controlling mineral resource exploitation in deep seabed areas beyond national jurisdiction, through an International Seabed Authority.
• UNCLOS can hold states liable for damage caused by violation of their international obligations to combat pollution of the seas.

Marpol Convention/   International Convention for the Prevention of Water Pollution from Ships

• Adopted in response to the number of tanker accidents in 1976-1977.
• The Convention includes regulations aimed at preventing and minimizing water pollution from ships - both accidental pollution and that from routine operations.

Case Studies of  Indigenous technologies by Indians to purify water  which won Innovation Awards.

• Using  artificial intelligence and robotics , Asim Bhalerao and Nidhi Jain have been instrumental  in diverting 600 MLD (Million Liters a Day) of raw sewage from entering water bodies  and prevented over 5,600 hours of manual scavenging.
• Nikhilesh Das  from Assam came up with an indigenous way to use  human hair to clean oil spills  in water.
• Anjan Mukherjee, a former marine chief engineer, has developed the  Taraltec Disinfection Reactor.
• Using Floating Wetlands  to Make Water Bodies Pollutant-Free . Tarun Sebastian Nanda , an ecological engineer, is using a natural way to clean water bodies in Delhi through his ‘ Adopt an Island’  initiative.

Water Pollution Control Measures

• Realizing the importance of maintaining the cleanliness of the water bodies, the Government of India has passed the  Water Prevention and Control of Pollution Act, 1974  to safeguard our water resources. 
• An ambitious plan to save the river called the  Ganga Action Plan  was launched in 1985.
• In India, the  Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB),  an  apex body in the field of water quality management,  has developed a concept of “ designated best use”.

Accordingly, the water body is designated  as A, B, C, D, E  on the basis of

• dissolved oxygen, mg/l
• BOD, (200C) mg/l
• total coliform (MPN/100ml)
• free ammonia mg/l,
• electrical conductivity etc.

The CPCB, in collaboration with the concerned State Pollution Control Boards, has  classified all the water bodies  including coastal waters in the country  according to their “designated best uses”.

• Treatment of sewage water and the industrial effluents  before releasing it into water bodies.  Hot water should be cooled  before release from the power plants.
• Excessive use of fertilizers and pesticides should be avoided .  Organic farming and the efficient use of animal residues  as fertilizers can replace chemical fertilizers.
• Water hyacinth  (an aquatic weed, invasive species) can purify water by taking some toxic materials and a number of heavy metals from water.
• Oil spills in water can be cleaned with the help of  bregoli  — a by-product of the paper industry resembling  sawdust, oil zapper, microorganisms .
• It has been suggested that we should plant  eucalyptus trees all along sewage pond s. These trees absorb all surplus wastewater rapidly and release pure water vapor into the atmosphere.
• Bioremediation
• Microorganisms can be specifically designed for bioremediation using  genetic engineering techniques.
• TERI  has developed a mixture of bacteria called ‘ Oilzapper and Oilivorous-S’  which degrades the pollutants  of oil-contaminated sites , leaving behind no harmful residues.
• Coagulation / Flocculation -  Aluminium sulphate (alum ) is the most common coagulant used for water purification.
• Chlorine  is used because it is a very effective disinfectant, and residual concentrations can be maintained to guard against possible biological contamination
• Fluoridation - Water fluoridation is the treatment of community water supplies for the purpose of adjusting the concentration of the free fluoride ion to the optimum level sufficient to reduce dental caries.
• pH Correction - Lime is added to the filtered water to adjust the pH and stabilise the naturally soft water in order to minimise corrosion
• National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI ) is in Nagpur.
• EcoSan  toilets-,Ecological sanitation is a sustainable system for handling human excreta, using dry composting toilets.
• Bio-Toilets- D esigned by Railways along with DRDO.

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