case study on water pollution in india

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How river pollution is killing people in an Indian village

Dozens of villages near India’s capital are suffering after years of unchecked industrial pollution has contaminated their water.

Gangnauli, India – Vikas Rathi lies, barely alive, on a cot in the sparsely furnished living room of a small two-story house in Gangnauli village in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh. The 23-year-old’s gaunt cheeks highlight his pinched nose and sunken eyes even more.

Vikas has been diagnosed with stunted growth and bone deformity. He is one of the hundreds of young adults and adolescents across the region who are afflicted by a host of ailments: stunted growth, liver diseases, cancers, and critical deformities.

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In Gangnauli – home to about 5,000 people and located about 180km (110 miles) from India’s capital New Delhi – about a third of the youth are sick.

Villagers say the diseases are striking more and more people, affecting almost every household. The contaminated groundwater they have been drinking, they say, is destroying their health.

More than 71 people died of cancer in Gangnauli alone between 2013 and 2018, according to data released by the National Green Tribunal (NGT) in 2019, the only official figure available.

Satendar Rathi, Vikas’ father, says his eldest son Vikas, whose name means growth in the Hindi language, has been bedridden since 2010

He was born healthy, his father continues, but his bones started deforming soon after he started drinking and eating solid food.

“We took him for traditional as well as English [modern] medicine treatment. Doctors suggested vitamin D supplements. We continued his treatment for nine years but nothing worked,” Satendar, a 48-year-old constable in the Delhi police, says as he sinks into a chair in the living room on the banks of the Krishna River.

His modest salary of $490 a month can barely cover medical expenses for Vikas.

“Finally, the doctors in Delhi told us there is a problem with the water we were consuming,” Satendar told Al Jazeera, referring to the groundwater.

“We can’t leave him alone for even a minute. If there is no one around he urinates and passes stool in his pants,” says Satendar, sighing helplessly as Vikas looks hauntingly at us.

“Vikas is a living corpse,” he says.

Carcinogens in the water

The NGT – the country’s top environmental court – confirmed in 2017 that water was indeed the cause of the mass sickness in villages across five districts in western Uttar Pradesh after the crisis was brought to its attention by environmental campaigners and it tested the groundwater and river water.

In the villages that did not have a piped water supply, villagers were drinking polluted groundwater pulled up by hand pumps.

The NGT recommended a door-to-door medical survey across the 48 hardest-hit villages in the region. It also called for providing piped drinking water, the establishment of specialised hospitals, and curbs on industrial effluents, among other measures.

But the health department in the state – India’s most populous – has not followed through on most of the recommendations, Al Jazeera found.

Dr Dinesh Kumar, chief medical officer of Baghpat district, where Gangnauli is located, admitted that carcinogenic elements had been found in the water.

“It is true that heavy elements and carcinogenic elements are present in the water but we can’t say for sure that they are responsible for cancer in the area. I am saying this because further studies have not been done on the cases studies found here to explore the links between the two,” he told Al Jazeera.

He added that a survey had been conducted more recently as part of anti-COVID health measures, during which officials were directed to identify cancer patients and people with co-morbidities.

“We found cases of skin diseases. Cases of Hepatitis C are found higher than usual in these villages.”

Industrial pollution

The fertile soil of the upper Doab region – the river basin of the Ganges and Yamuna Rivers – was home to a substantial agricultural community. Water from the Kali, Krishna and Hindon Rivers – important tributaries of the Yamuna River to the west – used to be a source of life and livelihood in the region some 20 years ago.

But Doab’s proximity to the capital led to many of its cities, such as Meerut, Baghpat, Saharanpur, Gautam Buddh Nagar and Ghaziabad, becoming industrial centres.

Dharmendar Rathi, the former village head of Gangnauli, says the groundwater started becoming poisonous as industries and mills started proliferating in the area , operating without the waste-treatment facilities they are required to have.

The industrial waste from sugar mills, slaughterhouses, paper mills, dye-making industries and distilleries empties into the rivers, turning them into sewage canals. Eventually, the unchecked industrial waste dumping contaminated the groundwater.

Dharmendar says: “Most of us kept drinking it till the last few years, our cattle drank it, and we used it to irrigate our farm and vegetables.”

He tells Al Jazeera there isn’t a single household in the village without a critically ill family member and that more than 200 people in Gangnauli had to sell their land to pay for medical expenses.

Many families have gone bankrupt treating their sick members, running from one hospital to another due to a lack of adequate health facilities in the state of 204 million people, he says.

“Our estimate suggests that more than 150 in this village alone have died of cancer, there are numerous cases of hepatitis, skin allergies and deformities. Just imagine the number of victims in other affected villages in this region.

“The future of this region is gone, the next generation has been destroyed at birth,” he says, showing a long list of villagers who died of cancer in the last decade.

Appealing to the NGT

Chandraveer Singh, from the nearby village of Daha, says his sister-in-law Urmila died of liver cancer earlier this year.

According to the 65-year-old retired scientist, people in more than 100 villages on the banks of the Kali, Krishna and Hindon Rivers have been drinking polluted groundwater for the last decade.

After he retired in 2013, Chandraveer, who worked at the pollution control board in the neighbouring state of Haryana, started working on water pollution in western UP. He petitioned the NGT in 2014 to intervene on the issue.

In 2014, he sent water samples from the Krishna for testing at SIMA Labs. SIMA labs are recognised by the Federal Ministry of Environment and Forests, and the Uttar Pradesh Pollution Control Board (UPPCB).

The results were disturbing – they confirmed an extremely high content of heavy metals and chemical compounds like arsenic, mercury, lead, zinc, phosphate, sulfide, cadmium, iron, nickel and manganese. All heavy metals are linked with cancer, bone deformity, and stomach-related diseases.

The total suspended solids in the river water measured 7,500mg/litre, as against the permissible 200mg/litre. The presence of sulfide was 285mg/litre as against the permissible 2mg/litre.

Extremely high levels of mercury and lead were also found. Lead was 0.115 as against the permissible limits of 0.01 mg/litre. Mercury was 0.12 mg/litre against the permissible limits of 0.01 mg/litre.

“No aquatic life survives in the river water,” says Chandraveer.

State of health services

Dharmendar says the local community health centres lack resources.

“The public health centres in the vicinity are not equipped to deal with a problem of this magnitude. Only a nurse or the doctor’s assistant is generally present at the health centres,” he says.

The closest big hospital is in Meerut – the largest city in the region – about 56km (35 miles) east of Gangnauli.

“The government hospital in Meerut is overcrowded and patients do not get the care they deserve,” he says, adding that there are not enough doctors.

The state, currently being governed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), ranks at the bottom of the health index prepared by the NITI Aayog – the government policy think-tank.

But the health crisis has hardly made it to the political agenda in the state as successive governments ignored the health issues people face. “What is the meaning of democracy when my people are dying of unexplained sickness and death? For decades we drank toxic water,” Dharmendar says.

“How could we dream of becoming a vishwa guru [super power] when we can’t provide the basic facilities which are essential to our fundamental right to life?”

Local BJP legislator Krishan Pal Singh defended the government, blaming previous governments for doing nothing to address the issue.

“Whatever relief people have got on this subject, happened under the BJP government,” he told Al Jazeera. The BJP came back to power in UP in 2017 after a gap of 15 years.

“When we came to power, we were given a state which barely saw any development. So it might take some time to solve people’s problems,” he adds.

NGT recommendations

Four years since the country’s top environmental watchdog recommended measures, local authorities have only partially implemented them.

Most of the polluting industries, mainly sugar mills, distilleries, electroplating workshops and slaughterhouses, continue to dump effluent into the rivers with little or no facilities put in place to treat industrial waste.

The NGT formed a supervisory committee in 2018 to monitor the implementation of its recommendations. The committee in its four reports since 2019 said no meaningful action had been taken by authorities to clean up the Kali, Krishna and Hindon Rivers. It accused Uttar Pradesh officials of “apathy” and even “stonewalling” its action plan and monitoring.

In its last directive – released in February 2021 and seen by Al Jazeera – the NGT notes that officials “did not comply” with most of its recommendations. The state government has not cooperated and its attitude was “disappointing”, the NGT said.

Out of the total of 133 sewage drains that needed to be covered, only 20 were covered and the remaining 113 are “in the process of being tapped”, as the progress report submitted by the government mentions. The sewage drain tapping would help control the spread of diseases.

Some of the recommendations, such as the preparation of micro plans to prevent groundwater pollution by industrial effluents, and identify and deal with other sources of water pollution – covering the entire stretch of drains, and identifying causes of ailments like skin diseases, jaundice and cancer – were not complied with, according to the February 2021 NGT order.

The only work that has been done to some measure is providing piped drinking water to more than 50 percent of the residents in these 150-plus villages, the committee said.

Local health officials in Baghpat told Al Jazeera COVID-19 had prevented them from making any plans. Singh, the local BJP legislator, also blamed the pandemic for the delay in implementing the NGT recommendations.

The NGT had highlighted repeatedly how the UPPCB couldn’t finish work on its recommendations: bio/phytoremediation of drains (using plants and micro-organisms to clean industrial effluents), covering drains, installing sewage treatment plants in water-polluting industries.

A senior official from the UPPCB, who wished to remain anonymous, told Al Jazeera: “As we mentioned in our ‘action taken report’ submitted before the NGT, bioremediation work on several drains over a total stretch of 76km is being done. The bioremediation on drains in Shamli, Muzaffarnagar and Baghpat has been initiated.

“[W]ork on the installation of sewage treatment plants in Muzaffarnagar and Budhana will be done soon. Work on the one in Saharanpur will be started soon,” he said, adding, “it will take some time before the work is completed.”

“By law, the industries are supposed to have a sewage treatment plant (STP) installed before they operationalise the factory. But, courtesy of corruption, in most cases the industries bribe officials and start functioning without an STP which is supposed to treat the effluents. So the state government is penalising the industries now in a big way, and pushing them to have an STP in their factories,” he added.

He added that among the decisions the UPPCB has taken to mitigate pollution is the imposition of a fine of 11.32 crore rupees ($1.41m) as environmental compensation on 230 industries for polluting river water in the last four years.

Environmental campaigner Chandraveer isn’t hopeful.

“The institutional and bureaucratic dysfunction of the world’s largest democracy continues to deprive the remaining residents of safe and clean drinking water,” he tells Al Jazeera.

Water pollution in rivers: A long pathway to a better tomorrow

The Ganga, perhaps the most revered river globally, is also unfortunately one of the most polluted today

By Vijay Rana, Kishore Kumar Thakur

Published: monday 06 may 2024.

This article has been updated

Around 71 per cent of the Earth’s surface is covered by water, mostly in the form of oceans. More than 68 per cent of Earth’s freshwater is stored in ice caps and glaciers, with just over 30 per cent found in groundwater. Only about 0.3 per cent of our freshwater is found in the surface water of lakes, rivers and swamps. 

The rest of all the water on Earth, more than 99 per cent, is unusable by humans and many other living things. It’s remarkable that the water sustaining all terrestrial and aquatic life on our planet is actually quite scarce. This realisation emphasises the need to use this resource wisely. 

Educating ourselves and future generations is a crucial first step in achieving this goal. So, the lesson teaches us that rivers are not just sources of water, but rather the backbone of human civilisation. Rivers are vital to life because all life forms depend on them. Rivers provide us with freshwater, which is essential for farming, drinking, transportation, electricity generation and recreational activities.

According to a study conducted by UNICEF and WHO, approximately one in four individuals worldwide lacks access to safe drinking water. Similarly, the World Bank highlighted that the health costs attributed to water pollution in India constitute around 3 per cent of the nation’s GDP, totalling nearly $6.7-8.7 billion on an annual basis. 

The overall cost of environmental degradation in India is estimated to be approximately $80 billion. Furthermore, an estimated 37.7 million people in India suffer from waterborne illnesses annually, encompassing gastrointestinal diseases, cholera, dysentery, hepatitis A and typhoid. Beyond its economic impact, the inadequate provision of water, sanitation and hygiene contributes to the loss of millions of lives each year in India and globally.

In India, rivers are worshipped and since ancient times, River Ganga has been revered as the most sacred and spiritual river. It holds a distinct place culturally, spiritually and environmentally. It is often referred to as Mother Ganga out of profound reverence. The water of Ganga ( Gangajal ) is not solely intended for human use, irrigation and fishing but also for the purification of sins and devotion to God, according to Hindu beliefs. 

The Ganga, perhaps the most revered river globally, is also unfortunately one of the most polluted today. The river is being used to carry untreated waste, disposed idols as well as human and animal remains, sewage, chemical waste and wastewater and other garbage. This situation is not unique to the Ganges but extends to other rivers like the Sabarmati and Yamuna as well. 

Some factors primarily contribute to the condition of rivers, including unethical behaviour by individuals, uncontrolled industrial activities, discharge of untreated sewage effluents into rivers by municipalities and improper waste disposal in small cities and towns.

The central and state governments have indeed made efforts to conserve rivers. The Indian Government has launched several programmes and policies aimed at the conservation and rejuvenation of rivers across the country. Some notable initiatives include: Namami Gange (National Mission for Clean Ganga), National River Conservation Plan, National Mission for Clean Chambal, National Mission for Clean Narmada and National River Linking Project. 

Also, the Central Pollution Control Board, along with various state pollution control boards, undertake initiatives aimed at cleaning and conserving rivers in India. These initiatives typically involve monitoring and regulation, enforcement of environmental laws, capacity building and awareness, implementation of river rejuvenation projects, and research and development. But even after so many efforts by the central and state governments, this problem remains unresolved.

The main reason for these issues lies within ourselves, as the garbage thrown into the rivers is discarded by us. Therefore, it is imperative for us to take the initiative to keep rivers clean. Only then can we raise awareness among society and individuals and we must pledge that the river, which selflessly sacrifices everything for human civilisation, deserves to be kept clean in return. 

In this context, government organisations and society will need to play an active role in implementing measures such as banning plastic, ensuring proper waste disposal in cities, towns, and even small towns, wastewater treatment, promoting awareness, organising river cleanup campaigns, monitoring water quality regularly and collaborating with non-profits. Otherwise, every household may have access to tap and water, but no one will be healthy. Because you will reap what you sow. 

Rivers not only provide water, but also give life. In the Hindu religion, the final journey of human life culminates in the embrace of a river such as the Ganga. Therefore, it is not only significant to worship rivers but also imperative to keep them clean. Only then can the last voyage of life achieve salvation in pure water.

Vijay Rana and Kishore Kumar Thakur are assistant professors at Dr Yashwant Singh Parmar University of Horticulture & Forestry, Solan, Himachal Pradesh, India.  Views expressed are the authors’ own and don’t necessarily reflect those of Down To Earth

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The fluoride dynamics of the Dharmagarh Block of Kalahandi District, Odisha, India, and associated health risk assessment have been studied. Complex data matrices were evaluated using groundwater quality index, fluoride pollution index, and principal component analysis to understand the geological evolution and identify potential sources for fluoride pollution. The study region comprises granite, granitic gneiss, and khondalite of hard and compact rock of Precambrian Eon, which supplies mostly the fluoride-bearing minerals. Altogether thirty-four (34) groundwater samples across the entire study area were collected and subjected to various physico-chemical analyses. The majority of the groundwater in the proposed region is hard to very hard type with Mg-HCO 3 and Na-HCO 3 being the two dominant facies. Groundwater contains fluoride in concentrations ranging from 0.21 to 2.26 mg/L. The statistical analysis of the quality parameters reveals the moderate positive correlation of fluoride with sodium (0.392) and pH (0.313) and week positive correlation with EC, TDS, TH, TA, Mg 2+ , and HCO 3 − , which directly depicts the initiation of fluoride problem within the study area. Based on the water quality index, 23.53% samples are good, 73.53% are poor, and 2.94% are very poor in nature. With respect to fluoride pollution index, 5.88% samples show high pollution, 55.88% samples show medium pollution, and 38.24% of samples show low pollution index. Human health risk assessment has also been carried out using the hazard quotient of fluoride. Altogether 70.59% of samples show Total Hazard Index (THI) values < 1 suggesting low risk of cancer and within the permissible range, whereas 29.41% of samples show THI > 1 suggesting the non-carcinogenic risk of pollutants, which exceeds the allowable limit for all the classes of male, female and children.

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Acknowledgements

The first author is very much thankful to DST, Govt. of Odisha for providing financial support for carrying out the major research project No. 1427/ST, ST-SCST-MISC-0015-2019 dated 06.03.2020.

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Both the authors contributed to the study’s conception and design. Material preparation, data collection, and analysis were performed by Nandita Mahanta. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Nandita Mahanta and was reviewed by Shreerup Goswami. Both authors have read and approved the final manuscript.

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Mahanta, N., Goswami, S. Groundwater vulnerability to fluoride pollution and health risk assessment in the western part of Odisha, India. Environ Sci Pollut Res (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-024-33620-3

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Received : 27 October 2023

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Published : 14 May 2024

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-024-33620-3

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