Читать книгу Pollutants and Water Management - Группа авторов - Страница 71

The Himalaya, often called as “The water tower of India,” is situated at the Indian north subcontinent and is the main source for the largest rivers. These are the Indus, the Ganges, and the Brahmaputra (Panigrahi and Pattnaik 2017). The water quality of these rivers and other major rivers of India are discussed in detail in the following section.

The Ganga: The river covers (26.3%) of the total geographical area of the country. It is considered as the sacred and holy river in India and covers the states of Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Delhi, some portions of Haryana and Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Bihar, and West Bengal (Agarwal 2015). The Gamukh, the ice cave of Gangotri, is considered as the origin of the River Ganga. Water quality of the Ganga with respect to levels of coliform bacteria was found to be in excess (greater than two lakh). Approximately 260 million liters per day of industrial wastewater is directly discharged into the river (Srivastava et al. 2016). Season‐wise, COD ranges between 12.5 and 65 mg/l, chloride concentration ranges from 14 to 25 mg/l, and sulfate concentration ranges from 25 to 38 mg/l (Srivastava et al. 2016). Total hardness lies in the range of 114–184 mg/l (Srivastava et al. 2016). Kanpur, a city in Uttar Pradesh, is the hub of tanneries and textile units where the Ganga is found to be highly polluted due to industrial discharge. High levels of coliform of up to 100 000 000 per 100 ml and an average BOD of 40 mg/l in Varanasi were reported in a study by Agarwal (2015).

The Brahmaputra: By discharge, the Brahmaputra is considered as the largest river in the world (Panigrahi and Pattnaik 2019). Guwahati city is situated on the banks of the river. According to a study by Kotoky and Sarma (2017), the physicochemical characteristics of the river are mean a pH of 9.37 and mean a DO of 10.76 mg/l. The main cause of river pollution is the discharge of crude oil along with agriculture and municipal run‐off (Kotoky and Sarma 2017).

Yamuna River: The origin of the Yamuna River is the Yamnotri glacier and the different states of India covered by the river are Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Delhi, Haryana, and Madhya Pradesh (Panigrahi and Pattnaik 2019). There are different industries situated on the banks of the Yamuna River, including electroplating industries, thereby directly increasing the Cr concentration of the river, causing a threat to human health when entering the body through the food chain (Malik et al. 2014). There are almost 359 factories that discharge their effluent directly or indirectly at the Yamuna, further intensifying pollution loads in the Ganga (Maheshwari 2016).

Kali River: The origin of the Kali River is from the village of Antwada, in the Muzaffarnagar district in western Uttar Pradesh. Before meeting the Ganga, it covers the districts of Meerut, Ghaziabad, Bulandshahr, Aligarh, Etah, Farrukhabad, and Kannauj. Different types of effluent are discharged from sugar, distillery, and textile industries. Slaughterhouses and chemical units have made the Kali River almost dead. The water has been deprived of oxygen and has turned into a black color. The concentration of heavy metal is currently exceeding the permissible limit. For example, the Cr level in Muzaffarnagar is 30 times higher than the permissible value, while in Meerut, the Pb concentration is almost 100 times higher than the standard value (Mishra et al. 2015).

Son River: Son River, a tributary of the River Ganga, originates from the Amarkantak plateau. Metal industries are the main cause of Son River pollution (Ahirwar et al. 2015). As per the study analysis carried out by Ahirwar et al. (2015), the TDS (898.5 mg/l) and hardness of the Son River was found to be more than the permissible limit and the other mean values of parameters were a pH of 7.19, Fe of 0.2484 mg/l, Cr of 0.0026, Mg of 14.5 mg/l, and Na of 76.24 mg/l were also higher (Ahirwar et al. 2015).

Gomti River: This river mainly carries the industrial waste pollution from eastern Uttar Pradesh. The water samples of the Gomti River were found to be rich in heavy metals like Cr (2.22–19.13 mg/l), Fe (1606–3412 mg/l), Mn (82.6–263.9 mg/l), Pb (6.3–75.3 mg/l), and Ni and Zn (3.1–101.7 mg/l) (Panigrahi and Pattnaik 2019).

Brahmani River: The characteristics of the Brahmani River area are as follows: a pH of 7.6; mean fluorine of 0.49 mg/l; nitrate of 4.18 mg/l; and mean alkalinity of 48.48 mg/l (Nath et al. 2018). Nitrate concentration is more than the permissible limit of this river which adversely affects fish diversity (Das et al. 2016).

Mahanadi River: The river originates from the Chhattisgarh basin. Cuttack city is located on the banks of the Mahanadi delta. Rourkela steel plant effluents and biomedical waste (Panigrahi and Patra 2013) are the main causes of Mahanadi River pollution. The water of the Mahanadi River is turning toward a condition of eutrophication (Panigrahi and Pattnaik 2019).

Cauvery River: The river originates from Brahmagiri hill. The pH value of the river varies from 6.5 to 9.4. In Salem district, the high‐level discharge of industrial effluents badly affects the planktonic population (Panigrahi and Pattnaik 2019). Different heavy metals have been found in the Cauvery River in excess amounts, such as Cr, Co, Cu, Mn, Ni, Zn, and Pb, which contaminate the water body.

Bandi River: The discharge effluents of textile dyeing units are the main cause of pollution in Bandi River, which is situated at Pali. Water quality deterioration of the Bandi River has an adverse effect on human beings and aquatic ecosystems. Textile dyeing industries have production capacities ranging between 725 and 3625 kg of cloth/day, while abstracting water that comes from this river is in the range of 30–275 m³/day and daily discharging wastewater has a high BOD and COD ranging from 41–76 l/kg.

Narmada River: The importance of this river can be identified by the fact that pilgrims performed a holy pilgrimage called Narmada Parikrama there. Along with industrial discharge, the other reasons for the deterioration of water quality of the Narmada River are human activities like the disposal of dead bodies and municipal wastewater. People in the adjacent area of the Narmada River suffer from health problems like gastric ulcers, skin problems, respiratory problems, diarrhea, and stomach problems (Katakwar 2016). The other major rivers of Gujarat, namely Sabarmati, Tapi, Mahisagar, and Damanganga, have been found to have a COD level in an extremely critical state (Pimparkar et al. 2016).

Damodar River: This river is the most polluted river after the Ganga. The level of coliform is higher due to wastewater discharged from cement plants, coal washing plants, and other industries. This leads to an increase in COD value, dissolved and suspended solids, and hardness. The other characteristics of water are pH in the range of 7.4–8.9, hardness ranges between 133 and 327 mg/l, Cr concentration between 30 and 160 μg/l, Cu concentration was found in the range of 10–56 μg/l, and Pb was between 38 and 146 μg/l (Panigrahi and Pattnaik 2019).

The status of other rivers and their tributaries contaminated from different types of industrial effluent in different states is explained in Table 3.2.

Impacts on rivers due to industrialization (Edokpayi et al. 2010; Gagan et al. 2016; Mali et al. 2015; Taskeena et al. 2017):

 Industries are dumping toxic waste into water bodies, as a result of which, the DO of surface waters is falling at an incredible rate, endangering aquatic plants and animals.

 Apart from the DO, the chemical composition of water is often modified, which deteriorates the water quality making it hazardous.

 This has resulted in significant ecological degradation, such as a decline in water quality and availability, extreme floods, habitat loss, and changes in the distribution and structure of aquatic biota rendering surface watercourses unsustainable in the provision of goods and services.

 Using poor‐quality water in agriculture can affect the crop yield and also causes food insecurity.

 Toxic substances in water bodies may lead to a high population growth of pathogens in the water and the use of this contaminated water for domestic and other purposes is dangerous for human health and society at large.

 This also affects wildlife groups that use surface water for drinking or as habitat.

 Degradation of water quality, water supply degradation, and the destruction of marine biodiversity are influential environmental ecosystem characteristics that need immediate action at both global and regional levels.

Table 3.2 Impact of different types of industries on water bodies.

Source: Rajaram and Das (2008).

Type of industry	Effects
Chemicals (dyes, paints, fertilizers, etc.)/Ankleshwar, Gujarat state	Amla khadi (a rivulet flowing through the industrial estate) in Ankleshwar carries extremely toxic, often acidic, dark brown or black effluent throughout the year
Foundry/Howrah, West Bengal state	Air heavily polluted by particulate matter, water contaminated by heavy metals viz. lead, cadmium, chromium, iron, manganese, and lead. Pollution potentially affecting about 1 million people in Howrah city and 4 million in Howrah district.
Chemicals (organic and inorganic, dyes, and pharmaceuticals)/Nandesari, Gujarat state	The Mahi River is contaminated by industrial effluents. Due to soil and groundwater contamination, both crop quantity and quality have declined tremendously, contributing to poverty in the region and forcing the local population to rely more heavily on industry for economic subsistence. This is harmful to humans because the polluted water leads to skin allergies, breathing and circulatory disorders, kidney problems, gastrointestinal disease, chronic stomach problems, and diarrhea, which have all been noted in communities.
Chemicals/Panipat, Haryana state	The concentration of mercury in the sample taken from a tube well near an industrial area in Panipat was 0.2683 mg/l, more than 268 times the permissible limit of 0.001 mg/l set by the World Health Organization for drinking water, according to the nongovernmental organization, the Centre for Science and Environment.
Mainly tanneries and textile dyeing/Palar River Basin, Tamil Nadu, India	According to a study sponsored by the Asian Development Bank, pollution loads in the Palar river are extremely high: total suspended solids, 29 938 kg/day; total dissolved solids, 400 302 kg/day; chloride, 101 434 kg/day; sulfide, 3818 kg/day; BOD, 23 496 kg/day; COD, 70 990 kg/day; total chromium, 474 kg/day; and cyanide: 22 kg/day
Chemicals/Vapi, Gujarat, India	Sediment and effluent in a channel bypassing the common effluent treatment plant and flowing into the river are heavily contaminated with cadmium, chromium, copper, lead, mercury, nickel, and zinc. Greenpeace declared Vapi a Global Toxic Hotspot in 1999.