Pollutions :introduction

An undesirable change in the physical ,chemical and biological characteristics of air water and soil which affects human life . Pollution may be result of human activities or natural examples of natural pollution are volcano eruption, floods etc .

Sources of pollution
Solid waste as source of pollution 1. Industrial waste 2. Domestic waste 3. Sewage 4. Agricultural waste Liquid waste as a source of pollution Gaseous waste as a source of pollution Energy waste as a source of pollution Noise as a source of pollution

Cost of pollution
Medical care of health to meet the challenges of pollution diseases such as tuberculosis,typhoid,lung cancer,diarrhoea etc Involvement of monetary funds and man power for disposal and control of pollutants Damage to agricultural resources Damage to biodiversity Damage to monuments

Nature of pollutants
1. Decomposable or biodegradable:these are naturally occurring organic compounds which are degraded by biological or microbial agents such pollutants include domestic waste ,dead remains of plants and animals ,food residuals etc. 2. Non-decomposable or non biodegradable: These are not decomposed or destroyed over a long period of time these are simple waste such as iron,glass,plastic,polythene heavy metals etc

Management of environmental pollution

Few possible measures to manage environmental pollution: 1. Environmental education must be made compulsory 2. Regular information about environmental problem should be imparted through mass communication media. 3. Specific standards for each of pollution should be set. 4. Protection of environment must be enforced by mass awareness and by imposing constitution. 5. Industries ,factories air ports and other such establishment should be far away from the city to minimize pollution.

6. Enterprises must be given legal and financial incentives to adopt antipollution measures 7. Adulteration of food products, drugs and general commodities should be made punishable offence. 8. Nuclear testing resulting in the production of radioactive waste should be made punishable offence. 9. Wildlife board and environmental cell should be establish in all important cities to popularize antipollution research. 10.Legal advices, scientific assistance and alternative procedures to reduce the use and release of pollutants should be made known.

Water resources of India

Surface water Surface water is water in a river, lake or fresh water wetland. Surface water is naturally replenished by precipitation and naturally lost through discharge to the evaporation. Ground water Sub-surface water, or groundwater, is fresh water located in the pore space of soil and rocks. It is also water that is flowing below the water table. (sometimes called "fossil water").

 Frozen water Several schemes have been proposed to make use of icebergs as a water source, Glacier runoff is considered to be surface water. The Himalayas, which are often called "The Roof of the World", contain some of the most extensive and rough high altitude areas on Earth as well as the greatest area of glaciers and permafrost outside of the poles. Ten of Asias largest rivers flow from there, and more than a billion peoples livelihoods depend on them.

Uses of fresh water

Agricultural Industrial Household Recreation

Hydrological cycle

 The water cycle, also known as the hydrologic cycle or H2O cycle, describes the continuous movement of water on, above and below the surface of the earth. Water can change states among liquid, vapour, and solid at various places in the water cycle. Although the balance of water on Earth remains fairly constant over time, individual water molecules can come and go, in and out of the atmosphere. The water moves from one reservoir to another, such as from river to ocean, or from the ocean to the atmosphere, by the physical processes of evaporation, condensation, precipitation, runoff, and subsurface flow.

 Precipitation is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapour that falls under gravity. The main forms of precipitation include drizzle,rain,snow and hail. It occurs when a local portion of the atmosphere becomes saturated with water vapour and the water condenses. Sublimation is the process of transition of a substance from the solid phase to the gas phase without passing through an intermediate liquid phase

Water conservation can be defined as:

Any beneficial deduction in water loss, use or waste. A reduction in water use accomplished by implementation of water conservation or water efficiency measures. Water conservation is what that can reduce the scarcity of water. It aims to improve the efficiency of use of water, and reduce losses and waste.

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Goals
Sustainability. To ensure availability for future generations, the withdrawal of fresh water from an ecosystem should not exceed its natural replacement rate. Energy conservation. Water pumping, delivery, and wastewater treatment facilities consume a significant amount of energy. In some regions of the world over 15% of total electricity consumption is devoted to water management Habitat conservation. Minimizing human water use helps to preserve fresh water habitats for local wildlife and migrating waterfowl, as well as reducing the need to build new dams and other water diversion infrastructure.

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Technical methods to conserve water

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WATER REUSE
Water reuse is the use of wastewater (sometimes called gray water) from one application for another application. Some potential applications include other industrial uses in cooling water at power plants and oil refineries or industrial process water for such facilities as paper mills and carpet dyers, toilet flushing, construction activities, concrete mixing, and artificial lakes. Reused water can also be used in landscape irrigation, agricultural irrigation, aesthetic uses such as fountains, and fire protection.

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RAIN WATER HARVESTING

Rain Water Harvesting is capturing and storing rainfall to irrigate plants or to supply people and animals. A well-designed system will also decrease our landscape maintenance needs. All we need for a water harvesting system is rain, and a place to put it. A "catchment" is any large surface that can capture and/or carry water to where it can be used immediately or stored. We can store water in a variety of ways: 55-gallon steel drums, barrels or underground storage tanks.

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The Next Business Opportunity - Water Conservation

In the last five years, a growing number of progressive private-sector companies have been increasingly making their presence felt in the area of water conservation. As they develop new technologies for waterrelated processes, they have also started to influence the process of water regulation to ensure positive support for developing sustainable technology in the field. One group of companies, led by Nestle, are showing that they have a role to play in developing a sustainable model for water utilization and in helping formulate policy for the same. A second group is focusing on technology to get more output per drop of water. With the green revolution pushing up agricultural productivity, the incremental increases in productivity of agriculture are vital, considering that agriculture accounts for 80% of water requirements.

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WHERE THE OPPORTUNITIES ARE

The broadest range of opportunities for new products and services falls into three areas: improving the productivity of water treatment and distribution, of water-intensive industrial and power processes, or of water usage in agriculture. Global industrial players, such as ABB, GE, and Siemens, already have large water businesses and continue to develop new products in this area for large industrial users and water utilities. IBM provides technologies to measure and track water efficiency efforts and to improve water treatment and irrigation. In 2009, PepsiCo conserved more than 12 billion liters of water through efficiency improvements.
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Water conservation
Following strategies can be adopted for conservation of water 1. Decreasing run off losses through contour cultivation, water spreading through channeling or lagoon-levelling Chemical wetting agent (surfactants),surface crop residue, chemical conditioner like gypsum. 2. Reducing evaporation losses 3. Storing water in soil 4. Reducing irrigation losses 5. Reuse of water 6. Preventing wastage of water

Water pollution
Can be defined as a change in the quality or composition of water directly or indirectly as a result of mans activities ,so that it becomes unsuitable for drinking ,domestic ,recreational and agricultural purpose.

Sources of water pollution.

Uncontrolled dumping of solid degradable and non degradable waste Indiscriminate flow of effluents from various industries Deterioration of the self purification process of water. Domestic waste : a common and widespread source of water pollution is the discharge of domestic waste directly into the river could be biodegradale or non biodegradable.

 Sewage :fluid consisting of human faecal matter ,material and organic nutrient in a dissolved state in a solid condition is called sewage. Industrial wastes: industries such as sugar, textile petrochemical, chemical industries etc. conveniently discharge their effluents into water bodies without any consideration of consequences. some of these effluents contain toxic chemical . About 180 million liters of toxic effluents are discharged every day into Periyar river in Cochin area.

 Fertilizers and Detergents: a fairly large amount of fertilizers added to increase soil fertility is washed off through the irrigation, rainfall and drainage and ultimately reaches the rivers. These pollute the water and make it toxic. Pesticides :the use of pesticides has a common now a days popularly used pesticides are DDT, Malathion etc. These are non bio degradable in nature. Radioactive waste: radioactive waste enter into the water bodies in various ways eg processing of uranium ore, wastes from radio isotopes using research laboratories, or waste generated during nuclear weapon testing

 Thermal pollution: pollution arising from sudden increase in the temperature of water is known as thermal pollution. Several industries utilize water for cooling purpose and release it to the river at higher temperature such releases lethally affect the aquatic biotic communities. Oil: pollution arising from oil spillage from tankers in sea.

 Eutrophication: is the enrichment of the water bodies resulting from addition of organic and inorganic nutrients.it leads to the increased growth of algal blooms, which on their death become a medium for bacterial growth and for decomposition process.it in turn leads to oxygen depletion and associated form of water pollution .this result in the death and decay of aquatic organism and consequently the water become foul smelling and unfit for life activities

Effects of water pollution

1. Domestic sewage : a number of epidemic diseases such as cholera,thypoid,dysentery ,diorrhoea,infectious hepatitis and jaundice are caused by water pollution. 2. Industrial effluents: contains large amount of toxic chemicals ,heavy metals and non biodegradable waste. The toxic chemical are detrimental to aquatic life to terrestrial life ,directly or indirectly and disturb the whole ecosystem.eg heavy metal contamination of water causes severe ailments of human being mercury poisoning causes minamata disease detected in Japanese soldiers consuming mercury contaminated fish of minamata bay of japan.

 Methyl mercury causes numbness of limbs, lips and tongue of human ,deafness, blurring of vision . Heavy metal causes cancer of liver and lungs. 3. Ground water pollution: seepage of industrial and municipal waste has contaminated the ground water. Accumulation of nitrates in water from fertilizers when consumed by man and animals are reduced to toxic form in body and causes disease known as methaemoglobinemia which is damaging of respiratory system resulting to suffocation.

 Excess fluoride in drinking water causes teeth deformity and skeletal fluorosis in which bones become stiff, hardened and joint painful .disease knock knee syndrome out ward bending of knee ,in w.bengal the presence of excess of arsenic in ground water causes black foot disease .chronic lead poisoning symptoms include fatigue, weakness etc. Copper causes hypertension and uremia and zinc causes vomiting and renal damage.

4. Eutrophication: in nutrient rich water reservoirs, algae grow abundantly and develop water blooms or algal blooms which, causes loss of species diversity. Many blooming blue green algae secrete toxin in water and induce oxygen deficiency, as a result aquatic animal die. 5. Bio magnification :is a phenomenon through which certain pollutants are accumulated in tissues in increasing concentration along food chain e.g. DDT an insecticide used to kill mosquitoes .in an island of USA the regular use of DDT has been found to reduce the population of fish eating birds.

6. Thermal pollution: release of hot water form thermal power stations and various industries directly to the water bodies often kills both aquatic plants and animals.

Water borne diseases

Waterborne diseases are caused by pathogenic microorganisms that most commonly are transmitted in contaminated fresh water. Infection commonly results during bathing, washing, drinking, in the preparation of food, or the consumption of food thus infected. Various forms of waterborne diarrheal disease probably are the most prominent examples, and affect mainly children in developing countries; according to the WHO. Deaths due to water related diseases in India are in the range of nearly 80 percent.

Water Related Diseases in India

Diarrhoea Diarrhoea remains the most prevalent water related disease in India. It mostly affects children under the age of 5 and often leads to death. Diarrhoeal infection is spread through food and drinking water that has been contaminated. A diarrhoeal attack can last up to 2 weeks and leave the person completely dehydrated. Symptoms of diarrhoea include, severe dizziness, loss of consciousness, dehydration and pale skin, little or no urination and in some case bloody stool. Diarrhoea can spread through multiple viruses that is found in contaminated water. The poorer sections of the society come in daily contact with this water and that is the why the rate of diarrhoea is highest amongst them.

 II. Cholera Thousands of people fall prey to cholera every year in India. Cholera is a water related disease, and is diarrhoeal in nature. It can kill in hours if left unattended. Cholera strikes when one ingests water that is infested with the Vibrio Cholerae bacterium. Symptoms of cholera include watery bowels and fever in certain cases. Cholera can happen to both children and adults. In India cholera related deaths are most common in places with shortage of good quality water. In 2010, nearly 140 people died of cholera in Odisha (formerly known as Orissa).

 III. Malaria Malaria or Malarial fever is spread by the Plasmodium parasite mosquito that breeds in water bodies like lakes. Stagnant water is another favourite breeding ground for these parasites. Malaria mostly kills children in India, as adults slowly form some sort of immunity against the parasite, over the years. Malarial fever symptoms include fevers, chills, headaches and vomiting. Sometimes these symptoms are also coupled with anaemia. A malarial infection shows only after a week has passed. Therefore, treating it immediately is a necessity.

 IV Filariasis Filariasis is a parasitic disease and affects people who live near unsanitary water bodies or sewages. Filariasis is spread by mosquitoes that breeds in fresh and stagnant water bodies and is the host of the filarial nematode worm. This worm affects humans and leads to elephantitis. Filariasis can lead to blindness, and rapid skin pigmentation and the filarial worms can affects various parts of the body. Filariasis is a concern for the rural population in India whose major occupation is agriculture. Although Filariasis can be treated and prevented with oral medicines.

 River Action Plans

The water quality data generated through National Water Monitoring Programme and River Basin Studies carried out since, 1980 indicated deterioration of water quality in riverine segments and other water bodies. The water bodies not meeting the desired water quality criteria are identified as polluted river stretches/water bodies. The deviation of water quality from the desired water quality criteria in the data generated for the river Ganga formed the basis for launching Ganga Action Plan (GAP). Subsequently, the river stretches not meeting the desired criteria are identified in all the major river basins. The identified polluted river stretches were intensively surveyed by State Pollution Control Boards (SPCBs) and Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) to identify the sources of pollution such as Urban Centres and Industrial Units.

 National River Conservation Directorate (NRCD) is implementing the River Action Plans for restoration of water quality based on the findings of survey reports submitted by CPCB/SPCBs. The thrust of NRCD is towards providing funds to state agencies for interception, diversion and treatment of sewage discharged to the water bodies from identified Urban Centers. At present NRCD is implementing the Action Plans in 157 cities and towns located along 30 rivers. The name of the rivers are Adyar, Cooum, Betwa, Bhadra, Brahmani, Cauvery, Chambal, Damodar, Ganga, Godavari, Gomti, Khan, Krishna, Kshipra, Mahanadi, Mandovi, Narmada, Pennar, Sabarmati, Satluj, Subarnarekha, Tapti, Tunga, Tungbhadra, Tambiraparni, Vennar, Vaigai, Walnganga, Yamuna and Musi.

 The schemes taken up by NRCD are related to Municipal Wastewater Treatment and are progressing in various stages. The component of Industrial Effluents contribution to polluted stretches is required to be addressed by SPCBs through consent management and surveillance. The SPCBs may compile information on Industrial Effluents being discharged in the polluted stretches in their respective states and come out with a time targeted plan to restore the water quality in the rivers. The SPCBs may also carry out performance study of functional Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) to evaluate the efficacy of treatment systems. This exercise shall be helpful in enforcement of treatment standards imposed by SPCBs and NRCD.

 The Ganga Action Plan (GAP) originated from the personal intervention and interest of our late Prime Minister Mrs Indira Gandhi who had directed the Central Board for the Prevention and Control of Water Pollution, now Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) to do a comprehensive survey of the situation in 1979. CPCB published two comprehensive reports which formed the base for GAP in Oct 1984 but was not presented to the nation formally due to assassination of Smt Indira Gandhi. In Feb 1985, the Central Ganga Authority (CGA) with the PM as Chairman was formed, with an initial budget of Rs 350 crore to administer the cleaning of the Ganga and to restore it to pristine condition by our late PM Sh Rajiv Gandhi. In June 1985, the Ganga Project Directorate (GPD) was established as a wing of the Department of Environment. GAP was launched on June 14, 1986 by Sh Rajiv Gandhi at Varanasi.

 Failure of the GAP The Ganga Action Plan launched in 1986 by the Government of India has not achieved any success despite expenditure of approximately 2,000 crore rupees. Even though the government claims that the schemes under the Ganga Action Plan have been successful, ground realities tell a different story. The failure of the GAP is evident but corrective action is lacking. The GAP I was extended as GAP II from 1993 onwards covering 4 major tributaries of Ganga, namely, Yamuna, Gomti, Damodar and Mahananda. The program was further broad-based in 1995 with the inclusion of other rivers and renamed as National River Conservation Plan (NRCP). Ganga could not be cleaned but 34 other rivers have been taken up for cleaning with the same failed model of GAP.

 Objective of GAP The objectives of the GAP were broad: to abate pollution and improve water quality, to conserve biodiversity and develop an integrated river basin management approach, to conduct comprehensive research to further these objectives, and to gain experience for implementing similar river clean up programs in other polluted rivers in India.

 The functions of the NRCA are as follows: To lay down, promote and approve appropriate policies and programs (long and short term) to achieve the objectives. To examine and approve the priorities of the NRCP. To mobilize necessary financial resources. To review the progress of implementation of approved programs and give necessary directions to the Steering Committee, and To take all such measures as may be necessary to achieve the objectives.

Steps taken by Delhi Government: water pollution

Major sources: Domestic sewage and Industrial effluent. The Govt. of Delhi has ensured that more than 1200 industrial units have installed effluent treatment plants to treat their industrial wastewater. 11 Common Effluent Treatment Plants (CETPs) which treat wastewater generated from 15 industrial areas, are being monitored every month 23 Sewage Treatment Plants of 512 MGD(million gallon per day) capacity, which have been installed to treat the sewage, are been monitored every month

 Water Pollution..contd. Interceptor sewer concept is being implemented by DJB on 3 major drains (Najafgarh, Supplementary and Shahadra drains) to keep Yamuna river clean. DPCC conducts monthly Water Quality Monitoring of River Yamuna and Drains and informs the concerned agencies to take corrective action