When ammonia increases in water, the demand for chlorine goes up. It is used as a disinfectant to kill pathogenic organisms in drinking water. But ammonia consumes a large quantity of chlorine to oxidize to form chloramines and disinfection becomes ineffective.

Higher doses of chlorine in water with organic matter leads to the formation of disinfection byproducts like chloroform, bromoform etc. These are carcinogenic and cause problems related to liver, kidney and the nervous system. There are no standards for disinfection byproducts in India.