Date | Sept 12, 2016:
Groundwater in the Indo-Gangetic plain is lethal. A study by an international team of scientists, including several from leading Indian institutions, which was published in a recent issue of Nature Geoscience, has found that 60% of groundwater in the Indo-Gangetic plain cannot be used for drinking or irrigation purposes as it is highly saline and contains arsenic above permissible limits. This is alarming as around 750 million people, who live in the Indo-Gangetic plain and use this toxic water, are at risk. Other studies of India’s groundwater have drawn attention to this problem nationwide; a Central Groundwater Board report released early this year observed that over half of India’s groundwater is contaminated. While around 276 districts have high levels of fluoride, 387 districts reported nitrates above safe levels and 86 districts have high levels of arsenic, it said. Hitherto, it was depletion in the Indo-Gangetic plain’s groundwater levels that was the focus of concern. How would millions of people and livestock survive if water levels continued to plunge due to overexploitation? That concern appears to have receded with 70% of water table in the region said to have improved. Increasingly, excess salinity and contamination of groundwater is the more immediate concern, a clear and present danger to South Asia’s people, its flora and fauna.
Salts and arsenic are naturally found in groundwater. They become a matter of grave concern when their concentrations rise. This often happens due to human intervention, whether on account of poor drainage, inefficient irrigation methods, use of fertilisers or mining activity. Long term ingestion of groundwater with high concentrations of salts like fluorides, for instance, can cause dental and skeletal fluorosis. Consumption of arsenic-laced water over a long period results in skin ailments, early aging, cancer and death. India’s population is at grave risk; 85% of its rural population uses groundwater for drinking, domestic purposes and agriculture.
Fortunately, the problem of groundwater contamination is not irreversible. Water purification devices and groundwater remediation through use of biological or chemical treatment technologies can make contaminated water safe for use. This requires efficient facilities for testing and monitoring of groundwater. Importantly, governments at the Central and state levels need to shed their usual approach of denying that a problem exists. There are laws that forbid industries from releasing untreated toxic effluents directly into the ground. These rules need to be implemented. Importantly, local populations and civil society must be included in an effort to prevent, monitor and treat contaminated groundwater. Problems related to groundwater are assuming crisis proportions across South Asia. Sharing solutions and a cooperative approach would help the region tackle it more effectively.
(Source: http://www.deccanherald.com/)