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* Air pollution in India causes 5,27,700 deaths every year (WHO) * 21% of communicable diseases in India are related to polluted water. In India, diarrhoea alone causes more than 1,600 deaths daily (WHO) * Only 22% of the wastewater generated in urban India is treated, severely polluting rivers. The total wastewater from Delhi and nearby areas flowing into the 19 drains that connect to the Yamuna is around 3,296 million litres a day, of which 630 MLD is untreated.

Nitrates enter human body through drinking water, food and air. Ingested nitrates converted to nitrite by microflora lead to methaemoglobinemia, increased free oxide radicals that predispose cells to irreversible damage and effects like cancer, increased infant mortality, abortions, birth defects, recurrent diarrhoea, recurrent stomatitis, histopathological changes in cardiac muscles, alveoli of lungs and adrenal glands, deterioration of immune system of the body.

The South Asian rivers show a discharge weighted average NO3-N of 2 mg/l and average sediment-bound N, that is mostly organic, of 0.2%. The reported global average for the uncontaminated river system is of the order of about 0.028 mg/l (NO3-N). Hence, our freshwater aquatic systems can no longer be considered natural, at least with respect to nitrogen transport.

Cities in the developing countries have multiple modes of human and animal waste treatment and disposal that finally decide the overall impact on the urban ecosystem, and these have been studied for the city of Bangalore. Four modes are found, namely underground sewage systems, decentralized soak pits and septic tanks, open defecation and a miniscule effort at composting. The extent of N released per unit area is high, ranging between 0.44 and 1.4 t ha

People, administration are equally culpable

As the World Environment Day would be celebrated on Thursday, the Yamuna river would project a grim picture about increasing pollution level and dip in the water quality. "The Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD) load, an important indicator of pollution level has increased by 13 per cent over last year," Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) has said in its latest 2007 report.

With World Environment Day being celebrated on Thursday, the Yamuna river today projects a grim picture of increasing pollution levels. "The Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD) load, an important indicator of pollution levels, has increased by 13 per cent over last year,' Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) has said in its latest report. This rise might be because of increase in generation of BOD load in the city or decrease in treatment efficiency of sewage treatment plants (STPs).

Environmentalist and Mhadei Bachao Abhiyan Vice President Nandkumar Kamat is at a loss of words to explain the Government's inefficiency to check whether water supplied in people's homes was actually safe for drinking. Addressing a press conference on the eve of World Environment Day that falls tomorrow (June 5), Kamat lamented, "What we are drinking is actually poison water. There are no quality checks and the Government has not bothered to address the problem in spite of reminders and individual representations.'

Sir

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