Status of water quality in India - 2011
Status of water quality in India - 2011
The water quality management is one of the many important environmental issues in India. Increasing demand of water for human consumption, irrigation and industrial activities has impacted the water quality of rivers due to declining flows in rivers and depleting water levels of subsurface resources. Water quality data from 2500 water quality monitoring stations, located on all important rivers, lakes and groundwater during the year 2011 is presented in this treatise for wider circulation and preparation of improvement plans. The data collected indicates that organic and bacterial pollution, assessed in terms of Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD) and Coliform counts, continue to be the major water quality issues. This is mainly due to discharge of untreated domestic wastewater from the urban centres. The municipal corporations at large are not able to treat increasing load of municipal sewage flowing into water bodies, while at the same time the receiving water bodies do not have adequate water for dilution, Therefore, the oxygen demand and bacterial pollution is increasing day by day.