Contamination, Pollution and Quality

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Featured Articles
June 12, 2024 Leveraging research to optimise water programs for improved health outcomes in India
Closing the tap on disease (Image: Marlon Felippe; CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons)
June 4, 2024 Azolla pinnata, a floating water fern provides a unique environmentally friendly approach to mitigate the negative impacts of oil spills and promote cleaner water bodies.
Azolla pinnata, water fern that drinks oils (Image Source: Yercaud-elango via Wikimedia Commons)
May 6, 2024 In our quest to spotlight dedicated entrepreneurs in the water sector, we bring you the inspiring story of Priyanshu Kamath, an IIT Bombay alumnus, who pivoted from a lucrative corporate career to tackle one of India's most intricate water quality challenges, that of pollution of its urban water bodies.
Innovative solutions to clean urban water bodies, Floating islands (Photo Credit: Priyanshu Kamath)
April 1, 2024 Decoding the problems and solutions related to stubble burning
Burning of rice residues after harvest, to quickly prepare the land for wheat planting, around Sangrur, Punjab (Image: 2011CIAT/NeilPalmer; CC BY-SA 2.0 DEED)
February 20, 2024 This study predicts that sewage will become the dominant source of nitrogen pollution in rivers due to urbanisation and insufficient wastewater treatment technologies and infrastructure in worse case scenario projections in countries such as India.
The polluted river Yamuna at Agra (Image Source: India Water Portal)
January 30, 2024 The workshop provided inputs into the newly formed committee for “Standard Operation Procedure for Quality Testing of Drinking Water Samples at Sources and Delivery Points”
Sector partners come together to supplement the efforts of the government on water quality and surveillance (Image: Barefoot Photographers of Tilonia)
Government of Rajasthan prepares a working draft of a rural sanitation and hygiene strategy (2012 2022)
The Government of Rajasthan (GoR) has recently come up with a strategy for rural sanitation based on its experience of implementing Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC) in the state. In Rajasthan, TSC was initially launched in four districts in 1999 and scaled up in all the thirty two districts in 2004-05.
Posted on 04 Apr, 2012 09:46 PM

Although significant progress has been made in terms of individual household toilet coverage in the state, usage by the population is still low at 12.9 per cent (DLHS 2007-08). Access to toilets for schools and angawandies has seen a marked increased but rural solid and liquid waste management has seen little or no attention.

Impending water crisis in India and comparing clean water standards among developing and developed nations - A overview of the issues surounding India's water scarcity
The paper begins with listing the importance of water to communities. It then goes on the describe the water crises in South Asia which are exacerbated by high demand, variable supply, and political volatility. The importance of water in all three pillars of sustainable development economic, social and environmental is noted. Posted on 03 Apr, 2012 03:09 PM

The two concepts required for analysis of water as regards human consumption are availability and access. Availability refers to the physical presence of adequate water supplies and is influenced by physical and environmental factors.

People of Nuapada district in Odisha build a stop dam themselves - Roundup of audio updates from CGNet Swara (Sep 2011 to Feb 2012)
Article courtesy: CGNet Swara Posted on 03 Apr, 2012 02:57 PM

People get together to build a stop dam themselves

The people of Khariar road town in Odisha have long requested a check dam across the river Jonk. Khuturam Sunani describes how they have now begun constructing it through shramadaan.

Thousands of students across India test groundwater for fluoride on March 22, 2012
Schools Water Portal, an initiative of Arghyam, is a collaborative web-based platform, that shares learning resources on water with teachers, students, parents and schools. The Portal is a voluntary initiative coordinated by Arghyam, a non-profit organisation started by Rohini Nilekani that works in water in India. Posted on 21 Mar, 2012 09:17 AM

school water portal 

Draft National Water Policy (2012) fails to take into account the multiple, complex problems and issues relating to water in India says M S Vani
The Draft National Water Policy 2012 seems to be an improvement over earlier versions due to a fundamental shift from the ‘project oriented’ approach espoused so far by the bureaucracy and political establishment to a ‘resource’ oriented approach. Water, considered state property due to eminent domain principle, was hitherto seen only in terms of projects- irrigation or multipurpose. Now at least it is defined as a ‘natural resource’.
But what does it really mean, to call water as a ‘natural resource’? What is the relationship we as humans are seeking to establish with this part of nature? What are the relative roles of citizen and state in India towards this resource?
Posted on 18 Mar, 2012 05:49 PM

Guest post by: M S Vani

Perusing the draft, one comes across all the ‘right’ concepts, words liberally sprinkled throughout the document, describing the resource:-

  • Natural resource
  • Hydrological cycle
  • Ecological needs of rivers
  • Climate change
  • Sources pollution

and our intended response to it :-

Status of water supply in in class-I cities and class-II towns of Uttar Pradesh (UP)
Status of water supply in in class-I cities and class-II towns of Uttar Pradesh (UP) Posted on 17 Mar, 2012 10:15 PM

Source: Central Pollution Control Board’s 2009-10 Report

Class of cities/towns

Integrated water management for rural/urban India: Common effluent treatment plant can conserve fresh water in industrial estates
Contamination of surface and groundwater resources is rampant in rural/urban India with wastewater entering fresh water bodies or seeping into groundwater. An integrated approach is needed to manage the water and wastewater treatment so that water supply is kept clean and wastewater is recycled for beneficial use in agriculture and industry. This paper will present a study that was completed for the Hammond Sanitary District in Indiana where 38 million gallons per day (MGD) will be recycled after secondary treatment for beneficial use by land owners in Northwest Indiana. Posted on 17 Mar, 2012 11:02 AM

Authors : Vasudevan Rajaram and John R. Sheaffer

Lessons for rural water supply - Assessing progress towards sustainable service delivery - India - IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre, The Hague
This report by the IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre describes the findings of a study that was conducted in India as a part of a 13 country study that aimed at reviewing and better understanding the trends within rural water supply and identifying factors that appeared to contribute to or constrain the delivery of sustainable services at scale. The study also aimed at identifying organisational incentives and barriers that shaped the way in which sector institutions approached rural water services. Posted on 10 Mar, 2012 04:24 PM

The study looked beyond a simple description of the situation towards broader processes of decentralisation and political leadership, in an attempt to unpack what has gone right or, as in many cases, what has gone wrong, within the rural water sub-sector.

National Environmental Engineering Research Institute seeks opinion from the public on the concept of groundwater recharge with treated municipal wastewater
The Ministry of Water Resources, Government of India, New Delhi, has entrusted National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) to undertake a feasibility study on "Artificial groundwater recharge using treated municipal wastewater". Artificial groundwater recharge is a process of augmenting the natural purification processes occurring within the soil aquifer in the vadose zone. This treatment technique is known as Soil aquifer treatment (SAT). Posted on 09 Mar, 2012 02:24 PM

Guest post by: Anisha Nijhawan

Drafting a new National water policy, 2012 without consulting the farmers would be meaningless
The efforts of Union Ministry of Water Resources and Central Water Commission to initiate a new National Water Policy is welcome.
After going through the draft of National Water Policy 2012 (draft NWP 2012) and summary record of various consultations related to it, the following comments / suggestions, particularly related to participatory irrigation management aspects, are offered for consideration:
Posted on 04 Mar, 2012 11:02 PM

Author : Phanish Sinha

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