Contamination, Pollution and Quality

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Featured Articles
June 12, 2024
The ripple effect of safe drinking water on health under Jal Jeevan Mission
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, a floating fern that drinks oil
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
Floating forward: An entrepreneur's tryst for 'clean-water' bodies
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
FAQ - Stubble burning in India: Causes, effects, and solutions
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
Sewage will overtake agriculture as the biggest polluter of river sub basins in India
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
Sustaining water quality in water supply initiatives
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)
Unsafe drinking water burdens urban poor
While urban poor in Delhi are forced to access water from informal sources, this water is highly contaminated posing multiple risks to health.
Kushagra Goenka
Posted on 17 Jan, 2021 07:25 PM

Water in India continues to be extremely polluted and unsafe.
Safe drinking water, a valuable resource (Image Source: IWP Flickr photos)
Delhi smog can’t be blamed on crop fires
There is more to Delhi's air pollution than stubble burning in Punjab and Haryana.
Gurinder Kaur
Posted on 01 Jan, 2021 01:46 PM

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The small window of a fortnight between rice harvesting and wheat sowing compels farmers to burn the crop residue (Image: Neil Palmer, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY SA-4.0 Generic)
Air pollution: Filling the gaps
Controlling air pollution needs long-term holistic solutions such as a reduction in the usage of biomass, coal and lignite, and agricultural residues.
Simi Mehta
Amita Bhaduri
Posted on 22 Dec, 2020 12:34 PM

Air pollution killed 16.7 lakh Indians and led to an economic loss of Rs. 
All Indian cities like Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Bengaluru and Hyderabad surpass the air quality standards by a significant margin (Image: United Nations; CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
Lost to fluorosis
Fluoride contamination is leaving villagers in Barhet block of Jharkhand crippled, while authorities struggle to find solutions.
Rab Nawaz Alam
Posted on 21 Dec, 2020 12:33 PM

“What should I do? I have been bedridden for two years now. My hands and feet do not work.
The state needs to play a key role in identifying fluorosis as well as in developing and executing an action plan to control it. (Image: Rab Nawaz Alam)
Study using geo-tagged bottles unravels plastic pollution
News this week
Swati Bansal
Posted on 09 Dec, 2020 04:53 PM

Plastic pollution can travel thousands of kilometres in just a few months, finds new study using geo-tagged bottles
Plastic pollution by a river (Source: IWP Flickr photos)
New packaged drinking water rules to apply from January 1, 2021
Policy matters this week
Swati Bansal
Posted on 09 Dec, 2020 12:43 PM

Revised standards for packaged drinking water to apply from January 1st, 2021
Filtration plants in a packaging water units (Image source: Tushar Trivedi)
Overexploitation of groundwater highest in Punjab: Government
News this week
Swati Bansal
Posted on 23 Sep, 2020 01:23 PM

Punjab no.1 in overexploitation of groundwater 
Overexploitation of groundwater highest in Punjab (Source: IWP Flickr Photos)
Sanitation empowered her
Community response to the slum sanitation improvement project hinges on grassroots leadership in a slum settlement in Dhenkanal.
Scaling City Institution for India (SCI-FI)
Centre for Policy Research
Posted on 14 Sep, 2020 03:58 PM

In a corner of the Kathagada locality in the Parhatiya Sahi slum of Dhenkanal stands a small neat house. Surrounded by a well-tended garden that is planted with fruit trees, flowers and grass, this is Reena Rani Singh’s home. She is a multi-purpose local leader and is a member of the local Self Help Group (SHG), Mahila Arogya Samiti and Slum Sanitation Committee (SSC).
As a part of Project Nirmal, community structures including Slum Sanitation Committees (SSCs) and Ward Sanitation Committees (WSCs) were constituted at the slum and ward level (Image: SCI-FI, CPR)
Ganga's riverine communities in troubled waters
The fishing community is the most vulnerable as its members come into direct contact with the river water and thus, suffer the maximum impact of pollution.
National Council of Applied Economic Research
Tata Centre for Development at UChicago
Water to Cloud
Posted on 01 Sep, 2020 03:04 PM

A large section of the population living in the Ganga river basin still depends on the river for daily use activities and livelihood. Hence, the cleaning of the Ganga river’s water and making it safe for use remains a major goal for policymakers.
There is a need to formalise the traditional occupation of riverine fishing by providing proper licensing facilities to allow for targeted policies for the community in order to mitigate the livelihood challenges being faced by it. (Image: Pikrepo)
Holy waters, unholy outcomes!
A study found that mass bathing events in the Kshipra river not only led to high pollution, but also to the presence of multidrug resistant pathogenic bacteria in its waters, posing a risk to health.
Manju Purohit
Vishal Diwan
Vivek Parashar
Ashok J. Tamhankar
Cecilia Stålsby Lundborg
Posted on 28 Aug, 2020 05:52 PM

Rivers are revered and considered holy since times immemorial in India and mass bathing in some rivers is an age-old ritual. A holy dip and a holy sip of the river waters are considered to be a highly purifying. But is the dip really cleansing at all when almost all the rivers in India are known to be highly polluted?
A priest offers water to the sun at Ramghat on the Kshipra river at Simhastha (Image Source: Makarand Purohit)
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