ON A pleasant morning when fifty-four-year-old Australian marine diver David Hannan was gearing to plunge into the deep sea, a bunch of American scientists were ready to set sail for the Arctic Ocean. In another corner of the world at Dona Paula in Goa oceanographers were contemplating plans to measure …
How much water should flow in Indian rivers? Hydrologists have been discussing minimum river flows for over four decades now. The churning has resulted in the concept of environmental flow, or e-flow. This implies strategically releasing water downstream of dams and reservoirs to protect the services a river provides. Two …
ELEMENTS like nitrogen and phosphorous are required in small quantities by both plants and animals. With increasing agriculture the levels of these fertilisers being released into water bodies has increased. This has led to pollution and depletion of oxygen in water bodies due to excessive growth of some plants. This …
IN THE first week of April, the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) oversaw an experiment to monitor, minute to minute, the water quality of the river Yamuna. The two-week trial at the water intake point of the Wazirabad water treatment plant in north-east Delhi was conducted by a private firm …
DRUG-resistant NDM-1 gene has been debated ever since India was identified a source of the gene in patients in the UK. The debate intensified on April 7, 2011, when the journal Lancet Infectious Disease published a paper which stated that the gene (New Delhi Metallo-betalactamase- 1) was found in tap …
IN 2004, residents of West Virginia, US, accused a chemical manufacturing company of contaminating drinking water supply in the region with a fluorinated organic compound. Perfluorocarbons (PFCs) are man-made chemicals used to produce teflon, found in countless household products like non-stick cookware, pizza and popcorn boxes. The accumulation of PFC …
OVER A century ago in 1896, British physician E Hanbury Hankin reported in the French journal Annales de l’Institut Pasteur that cholera microbes died within three hours in the Ganga water, but continued to thrive in distilled water even after 48 hours. He had collected samples from below the bodies …
Manoj Lodhiwal is the head salesperson at a household appliance store in south Delhi. Every morning as the storeowner performs puja, he examines how and where to display products. “The facade must remain stacked with home water purifiers; they are the hottest items,” Lodhiwal said. His store is in Mohan …
GAUGING a river’s health need not be complex. Taxonomists can make the job very simple. These biologists, who have specialised in the classification of organisms, can determine a river’s health with the unaided eye by simply studying the organisms present. There is little need, therefore, for bottling samples and rushing …
MARSH India, an insurance brokerage firm, has announced policy cover for water utilities against water contamination like the one witnessed in Doda district of Jammu and Kashmir in August. Over 1,000 persons suffered from gastroenteritis after drinking contaminated water; heavy rains and flash floods had damaged the supply network. The …
On the bottled water revolution Bottled water consumption in the US, and worldwide, has been growing rapidly for two decades. It really began when bottlers started using plastic bottles. In my book, Bottled and Sold: The Story Behind Our Obsession with Bottled Water, I argue there are four major reasons …
The population growth, economic development with the consequent anthropogenic activities at the Nile Delta of Egypt addresses the present-day hydro-environmental status and quality deterioration trends of surface Nile River water. The hydrochemical fingerprints of surface waters revealed the effects of points and non-points sources of pollution. The relative low Cl- …
An assessment of the water quality of Mahanadi and its distributary rivers and streams, Atharabanki river and Taldanda Canal adjoining Paradip was studied in three different seasons namely summer, premonsoon and winter. Four parameters namely pH, Dissolved Oxygen, Biochemical Oxygen Demand and Fecal Coliform were considered to compute Water Quality …
Devi estuary is one of the major tributaries of the Mahanadi riverine system in Orissa. Modernization and industrialization in its neighbourhood in the north in the recent past have greatly influenced many tributaries of the Mahanadi and the adjacent coastal environments. To trace the influence of this modernization activity further …
Heavy metal (Pb, Cd, Cr, Ni ) concentration in water sediments and fish was analysed from Madivala lake in the month of June 2008. There was an appreciable increase in metal concentrations in going from the water to the sediment samples.The Heavy metal concentration, in water was in the order …
The Prime Minister has unveiled the National Action Plan for Climate Change on 30-06-2008 wherein eight missions including National Water Mission were launched. This Report is formed for the Sub-committee on Policy and Institutional Framework as established by the High Level Steering Committee of the National Water Mission headed by …
Secondary salinisation is the most harmful and extended phenomenon of the unfavourable effects of irrigation on the soil and environment. An attempt was made to study the impact of poor quality ground water on soils in terms of secondary salinisation and availability of soil nutrients in Faridkot district of Punjab …
The present study aims to select the most appropriate aggregation function for estimation of the Ganga River pollution index (GRPI). Following the Delphi technique based on expert opinion, 16 water pollutant variables are selected; the weights of each pollutant variable based on their relative significance are determined, and the average …
Tests have so far detected the presence of excess fluoride and arsenic in 449 blocks in five districts and in 614 blocks in 18 districts of the State respectively. While samples of 33,000 water sources have so far been tested, tests on another 25,000 sources are on. Replying to a …
