Contamination, Pollution and Quality

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Featured Articles
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)
July 26, 2023 While pit lakes are formed as discards of open pit mining operations, they store huge amounts of water and support the drinking and daily water needs of communities living around them. Sustainable plans to improve water quality and biodiversity in the pit lakes are crucial.
Pit lakes can provide a great source of water. Image for representation only (Image Source: Aniket Rajendra Ingole via Wikimedia Commons)
Ecosan calculations & urine as a fertilizer!
Advantages of using plant nutrient rich urine as fertilizer Posted on 08 Dec, 2008 12:33 PM

Vishwanath calls on all to set aside the "yuck" factor and take a rational view of the use of urine as a fertilizer. From a open discussion he goes on to list out the advantages of using plant nutrient rich urine as fertilizer and provides the maths behind his validation!! Write in with your take in the comments!

Guava leaves, open wells, appropriate technology and all that
Guava leaves, open wells, appropriate technology and all that Posted on 04 Dec, 2008 12:50 PM

S.

National Urban Sanitation Policy
National Urban Sanitation Policy Posted on 01 Dec, 2008 01:16 PM

The Government of India, Ministry of Urban Development recently released the National Urban Sanitation Policy. We attach the document below, as well as key excerpts. We request you to add your comments below regarding the provisions of the Sanitation Policy. Click here to view the National Urban Sanitation Policy The document is quite comprehensive and detailed. It lays out a vision for urban sanitation in India. It instructs states to come up with their own detailed state-level urban sanitation strategies and City Sanitation Plans. It moots the idea of totally sanitised and open-defecation cities as a target and the setting up of a multi-stakeholder City Sanitation Task Force to achieve this. Environmental considerations, public health implications and reaching the unserved and urban poor are given significant emphasis in the policy. Funding options are laid out including direct central and state support including through existing schemes, public-private partnerships, and external funding agencies. It directs that atleast 20% of the funds should be earmarked towards servicing the urban poor. The Center also plans to institute awards to the best performing cities, reminiscent of the Nirmal Gram Puraskar awards for villages. Important Excerpts from the Policy: 

MINARS -- Comprehensive Water Quality Report, 2007
MINARS -- Comprehensive Water Quality Report, 2007 Posted on 27 Nov, 2008 11:38 AM

This is a report from the Central Pollution Control Board  https://www.indiawaterportal.org/tt/wq/res/NWMP-2007.pdf (approx. 6 MB). Since the report extensively covers all parts of the country, we are soliciting comments and discussion about the results therein.

Source South Asia 2008, Issue 11 (11 Nov 08)
Source South Asia 2008, Issue 11 (11 Nov 08) Posted on 16 Nov, 2008 03:51 AM

Since its foundation in 1968, the IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre (IRC) has facilitated the sharing, promotion and use of knowledge so that governments, professionals and organisations can better suppor

Bottled water for Rs. 12/ : Can the environment afford it ?
Bottled water for Rs. 12/ : Can the environment afford it ? Posted on 15 Nov, 2008 10:09 AM

An average trekker leaves behind approximately 100,000 kgs of water bottles per year. During average trekking of a week , trekker drinks up to 50 litres of water. Each trekker leaves behind 50 PET bottles along the track. PET bottles can take 1,000 years to biodegrade. Nine out of 10 water bottles end up as garbage or litter, and that means millions per day. PET bottles require massive amounts of fossil fuels to manufacture and transport, leaving behind carbon foot prints. Billions of bottles show up at landfills every year. The entire energy costs of the lifecycle of a bottle of water are equivalent, on average, to filling up 250 ml of each bottle with oil. "Making bottles to meet Americans' demand for bottled water requires more than 1.5 million barrels of oil annually, enough to fuel some 100,000 US cars for a year," according to the study. "Worldwide, some 2.7 million tons of plastic are used to bottle water each year."

Blog action day -- Water and poverty
Blog action day -- Water and poverty
Posted on 15 Oct, 2008 10:24 PM

Today is Blog Action Day 2008, where blogs all over the world are writing about poverty. We thought we would use this opportunity to talk about water and poverty.

Source South Asia Water & Sanitation News:Issue 8 (30 Sep 08)
Source South Asia Water & Sanitation News:Issue 8 (30 Sep 08) Posted on 13 Oct, 2008 09:26 PM

Since its foundation in 1968, the IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre (IRC) has facilitated the sharing, promotion and use of knowledge so that governments, professionals and organisations can better suppo

Source South Asia Water & Sanitation News:Issue 7, September 2008
Source South Asia Water & Sanitation News:Issue 7, September 2008 Posted on 22 Sep, 2008 01:36 PM

Since its foundation in 1968, the IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre (IRC) has facilitated the sharing, promotion and use of knowledge so that governments, professionals and organisations can better suppo

Discussion forum news !
Why are all the laundry powder and dish washing products still allowed to pollute unchecked all waterways with millions of tons of said salts.
Posted on 11 Sep, 2008 10:27 PM

A very interesting thread has been initiated on the Discussion Forum on the Portal by Bob Eibl.