Status of water quality in India

Latest News from Down To Earth

All you need is an eye

Gauging a river’s health need not be complex. Taxonomists can make the job very simple. These biologists, who have specialised in the classification of organisms, can determine a river’s health with the unaided eye by simply studying the organisms present.

Kali Nadi is poisoned

A Committee of Parliament visited the slaughterhouse in Meerut on June 10 to enquire if it was polluting the Kali Nadi river that flows through the city. A seasonal river that once provided irrigation and drinking water to 44 villages in Meerut district of Uttar Pradesh, Kali Nadi has turned poisonous. The slaughterhouse waste is only a part of the problem.

Government Policies and Action Plans

The Orissa Ground Water (Regulation, Development and Management) Bill, 2011

A bill to regulate the development and management of ground water and matters connected therewith or incidental thereto. This Act may be called the Orissa Ground Water (Regulation, Development and Management) Act, 2011.

Model bill for the Protection, Conservation, Management and Regulation of Groundwater, 2011

Mandatory permits and a cess on groundwater use to irrigate cash crops, run industry or for mining are among the measures proposed by the Government in a draft Bill that aims at conserving groundwater. The Model Bill for the Protection, Conservation, Management and Regulation of Groundwater — which was discussed at a consultative meeting by the Planning Commission with experts and civil society members — proposes to strengthen the regulatory powers of gram sabhas, panchayats and municipal bodies, set up groundwater sanctuaries and impose stiff penalties for misuse.

River Pollution

Polluted river stretches in India: criteria and status

CPCB is monitoring the water quality in India under National Water Quality Monitoring Programme. The present monitoring network comprises of 1429 stations in 27 States and 6 Union Territories spread over the country.

Water quality hot-spots in rivers of India

This new CWC report provides the water quality scenario of our rivers viz-a-viz BIS and other Standards. It is based on the average values obsercec during 2001-2011 at 371 monitoring stations of CWC on almost all major, medium and minor rivers in India.

Groundwater Pollution

Ground water quality in shallow aquifers of India

In this latest report CGWB summarizes various aspects of ground water quality in shallow aquifers in the country with special reference to six parameters viz. salinity, chloride, arsenic, fluoride, iron and nitrate.

Supreme Court judgment on river Noyyal polltution by Industries

Supreme Court judgement dated 06/10/2009 on river Noyyal pollution. The Court was of the opinion that there has been unabated pollution by the members of Tirupur Dyeing Factory Owners. They cannot escape the responsibility to meet out the expenses of reversing the ecology. They are bound to meet the expenses of removing the sludge of the river.

Lake Pollution

Comprehensive management action plan for conservation of Ousteri lake, Puducherry

This is Comprehensive Management Action Plan (CMAP) for Conservation of the Ousteri lake prepared by Sálim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History (SACON) details various conservation and management interventions to be taken up for long-term sustainability of this lake.

Enviornment Education

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People in Indore and the adjoining Pithampur industrial area in Madhya Pradesh are protesting the incineration of Bhopal’s toxic waste near their homes. The waste disposal facility in Pithampur in Dhar district was completed recently. On March 18, the Madhya Pradesh state pollution control board allowed Ramky Enviro, the private company operating the facility, to start trial runs.

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