Hindon

Content courtesy: Janhit Foundation

A detailed survey of the river Hindon was carried out to understand the nature of waste effluents and their impact on water quality.  As per the study, the river water is subject to varying degrees of pollution, caused by numerous untreated waste outfalls of municipal and industrial effluents.

The main sources, which create pollution in the river, include municipal wastes of Saharanpur, Muzaffarnagar and Ghaziabad districts received through tributaries as well as direct outfalls. In the non-monsoon months, the river is completely dry, right from its origin upto Saharanpur town. The effluents of Nagdev nala and Star Paper Mill at Saharanpur generate the flow of water in the river.

The study attempts to find out the pollution potential in the Hindon river, a polluted river in western Uttar Pradesh. Qualitative and quantitative estimation of pesticides was done using gas chromatography. Among various organic, inorganic and biological water pollutants, pesticides are very dangerous and harmful because of their carcinogenic properties. Pesticides are bio-accumulative and relatively stable and therefore require close monitoring.

The study attempts to do a field and laboratory determination of soil moisture characteristics such as particle size distribution, hydraulic conductivity and soil moisture retention curve in a part of the Hindon river catchment and studies the variation of these along the river in its upstream reach.

"Gasping for Breath" is a study by Janhit Foundation on water pollution in the Hindon river of Western Uttar Pradesh. This substantial scientific report details the gross contamination of the Hindon River with heavy metals and pesticides, and the subsequent contamination of the underlying groundwater water aquifer that his has caused. Consumption of this contaminated groundwater as a drinking water source is shown to be having a devastating effect on the health of the local population.