contamination as it is located more than about 50 ft below

the land surface and the surface water gets filtered or screened
by the underlying layers of soil, sand and stone pieces. But
even then it gets contaminated due to leaching of minerals
below the earths surface.
An important case is that of Arsenic (As) contamination
of groundwater. This arises from excessive pumping of
groundwater by shallow tube wells for irrigation in some
West Bengal districts along the Hooghly river course and also
in Bangladesh along the Padma river course. In this process,
air (oxygen) is injected into groundwater bed which leaches
the overlying mineral, iron pyrites (iron, arsenic, sulphide),
oxidises it and releases arsenic into groundwater.
More than one million people in six districts of West Bengal
drink arsenic-contaminated groundwater from tube wells in
the region. Among them, 20 lakh people suffer from various
diseases related to arsenic poisoning like loss of hair, brittle
nails, bronchitis, gangrene, etc. Several hundred deaths have
also been reported. Similar calamity has threatened the lives
of Bangladesh in the districts along the Padma river course.
3.1.3 Case Study of Ganga Pollution
The most typical example of river pollution is the Ganga
Pollution.
Environmental Pollution 69
The Ganga originates from the Himalayan glacier and
flows along a stretch of some 2525 km before joining the Bay
of Bengal. The Ganga basin is fertile and home of about 40 per
cent of population (400 million people) of the country. The
river has been hailed as the Holy Ganga and regarded as
the lifeline of the country. But in recent years it is ranked as
the most-polluted river of India and a killer in the highlypolluted
areas.
The Ganga basin carries water from 25 per cent of land.
It is responsible for agricultural prosperity of UP, MP,
Haryana, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Bihar and West
Bengal. Ganga is the source of drinking water in the region
and irrigation water for agricultureshe also supplies fish
to the local markets and water to industries on both sides of
the river. The Ganga basin provides maximum population
densitymany class I (population 100,000 and above),
class II (pop. between 50,000 and 100,000) and class III (pop.
20,000 to less than 50,000) cities have grown in this region.
Both domestic and industrial sewages join the Ganga river
without any treatment and thus causes terrible pollution.
Hooghly river (in West Bengal) near Kolkata presents
the worst polluted zone. There are more than 150 industries
on both sides of the 125 km stretch river beltthere are
about 270 outlets of untreated sewage to the river Hooghly.
The entire 140 sq. km metropolitan area covering both banks
of the Hooghly river is exposed to ecological disaster. Besides
huge quantities of soil from soil erosion due to extensive
deforestation are washed by rain water into the river causing
siltation. This reduces the flow of water in the BhagirathiHooghly river with the result that ultimately the river will
be choked and dead. In 1919, the flow of water in the Ganga
was 1,10,000 cusecs (1 cusec = 1 cubic foot of water flowing
per second) whereas in 1971 it was 40,000 cusecs only which