Contamination, Pollution and Quality

This season in the region is commonly referred to as – Barh (flood). For centuries local people have treated it as ‘a way of life’, and found ways to deal with it. Post independence, this ‘way of life’ gradually transformed into an assured annual devastation. The once self-sufficient communities in the flood plains have been relegated to being highly dependent on sources external to the village for their survival during floods.

The river, along with its estuarine reach, provides the much-needed green lungs to the city in the form of mangroves. Neglect of this river was the main cause of the catastrophic floods in Mumbai on 26 July, 2005, which claimed nearly 1,000 lives. In what could be a monumental urban transformation initiative to be undertaken anywhere in India yet, ORF has proposed a grand vision for the reclamation of Mithi River. The study report and a documentary film ’Making the sewer a river again - Why Mumbai must reclaim its Mithi’ on the dreadful conditions of the river, was released in May, 2011 in Mumbai.

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 The study attempted to understand the phenomenon of water contamination in the village by using GIS as a tool to locate and map water supply and sewage distribution systems in the village, in relation to human and animal dwellings, their wastes, sanitary practices and their connections with drinking water quality for a clearer understanding of the connections between these factors and possible

• India will have water crises by 2030
   According to International Water Management Institute (IWMI), India will face a water scarcity due to global warming and population explosion.

Overview

It is surprising that fluoride was found even in surface water bodies like ponds, because fluoride is generally found in deep aquifers. Fluoride is a naturally occurring mineral in the deeper layers of rock beneath the earth's surface, so it was unusual to find it at such high levels even in surface water sources, leading to the conclusion that intensive agriculture in the area has spread the fluoride to the surface.

Newsletter of South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People (SANDRP) for April - May 2011 (Volume 9 Issue 3-4), focuses on the following topics.

• Analysis of TAC guidelines and decisions in recent meetings
  The Advisory Committee in the Union Ministry of Water Resources for consideration of techno-economic viability of Irrigation, Flood Control and Multi Purpose Project Proposals (TAC in short) is supposed to discuss the techno-economic viability of the irrigation, flood control and multi-purpose project proposals as per the Resolution published in the Union of India Gazette Notification No. 12/5/86-P-II dated Nov 27, 1987.

The Central Pollution Control Board has invited submission of book in Hindi on the subject of Pollution Control and Environmental Policies. The idea is to encourage original writing in Hindi. The following themes have been suggested for bringing forth the writings – Water and Air Pollution, Environmental Planning and Management, Noise Pollution, Solid waste Management, Environmental Monitoring (Auditing), Environmental Law, Environmental Impact Assessment,  Biotechnology, Climate Change and Global Warming. Awards will be given for selected entries.

How exactly do contaminants spread underground? How much urban stress can an aquifer withstand?

With the need for clean fresh water growing daily, finding answers to those questions is a top priority for researchers at G360, the new Centre for Applied Groundwater Research at the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada.

Bioremediation is emerging as an effective innovative technology for treatment of a wide variety of contaminants and is an invaluable tool box for wider application in the realm of environmental protection.

Bioremediation approach is currently applied to contain contaminants in soil, groundwater, surface water, and sediments including air. These technologies have become attractive alternatives to conventional clean-up technologies due to relatively low capital costs and their inherently aesthetic nature. 

It includes phytoremediation (plants) and rhizoremediation (plant and microbe interaction). Rhizoremediation, which is the most evolved process of bioremediation, involves the removal of specific contaminants from contaminated sites by mutual interaction of plant roots and suitable microbial flora. 

The report documents the existing knowledge for the benefit of regulators, who evaluate the quality of environment and for practitioners, who have to implement and evaluate remediation alternatives at a given contaminated site. It is expected to provide basic understanding of the bioremediation mechanisms to the reader. The technical descriptions provided in this document concentrate on the functioning mechanisms: phytosequestration, rhizodegradation, phytohydraulics, phytoextraction, phytodegradation, and phytovolatilization.