Yamuna water unfit for consumption (The Hindu 06 May 2012)

The dead river: The frothy toxic waste in the Yamuna looks like pale lotus fronds. The scene near Kalindi Kunj in Delhi on Saturday Photo: V. Sudershan “To clean up Delhi's dead river we need stringent laws against industrial effluents flowing into it” The Yamuna is a dead river — scientists, water conservation experts and environmentalists — are unanimous on this one count. With no fresh water flows, almost negligible ecology, contaminants and pollutants mixed with its waters, the grand old river has been reduced to a dead waterway. The river being dirty and dead is not the only worry anymore. This unclean, unfit Yamuna that comes to Delhi from Haryana has contaminated the city's other source of water, the groundwater aquifers. Pollutants, including much harsher heavy metals, like lead and arsenic, known to cause severe health conditions have contaminated the groundwater in the city, leaving it unfit for consumption. While the government and the water utilities in the city have been drawing up multi-crore projects to clean up the Yamuna with aid from international and national agencies, there is a growing concern about the toxics that are entering the food chain from the contamination of the ground water. The Yamuna waters are not the only source of groundwater contamination, experts clarify, aquifers are also fed by rains, but the river is considered a major source of recharge. Use of pesticides, untreated sewage, effluents from factories, residue from power plants are all contributing to make the city's ground water unfit for consumption, experts point out. Official figures peg groundwater usage at less than 15 per cent, but the records of groundwater extraction in the city claim otherwise. “Even if we consider that a large part of the extraction is for non potable uses, we still cannot deny that a huge population in this city is dependent on ground water. Also, the vegetables that are being grown using this groundwater are a health hazard,” said a senior official of the Delhi Jal Board(DJB), requesting anonymity. To highlight the city's dependence on groundwater, a report from the Centre for Science and Environment says that in March 2004, the DJB owned over 3,000 tube-wells and 21 ranney wells located near or on the Yamuna river bed; additionally, 449 deep bore hand pumps had also been installed . In 2005-06, the government proposed to install 84 additional tube-wells, re-bore 221 and install 560 deep bore hand pumps. “It is a natural process. When the aquifers are plundered, water from the nearby areas flows in to fill its place through gravity. The groundwater contamination near the floodplains is a consequence of heavy groundwater extraction and the polluted waters from around it moving into its place,” explained Professor Vikram Soni of the National Physical Laboratory. A study conducted by The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) indicates the presence of heavy metals in the vegetables that are grown with water from the Yamuna, making them potentially hazardous to health. These vegetables grown in the city along the floodplains have revealed the presence of metals, like nickel, manganese and lead. Yet another recent study conducted by the Department of Geology at Delhi University has pointed to the presence of arsenic in ground water from around the Yamuna floodplains. “The level of arsenic in some places like Geeta Colony, Shastri Park was very high. Near the Rajghat Power Plant it was as high as 40-45 ppm (parts per million), which is five times the permissible levels of 10 ppm. And people are actually drinking this arsenic laced water which is known to cause skin diseases, kidney problems among others. A resident of a temple near the State Bank Colony in East Delhi told us that he prefers drinking the tube-well water in summer because it is cooler. He also told us that he sometimes feels symptoms like nausea, stomach-ache and headache,” said Dr. C.S. Dubey, head of the Geology Department. During the course of the study from 2007-09, samples were collected from the Yamuna floodplains, considered a crucial ground water recharge zone. The contamination of ground water has also been acknowledged by the Union Water Resources Ministry. In a report to Parliament the Ministry admitted that groundwater in several areas of the city has excess fluoride, nitrates, arsenic and iron. The Ministry has submitted that aquifers in north, west and south-west districts along the Najafgarh drain contain lead. On what requires to be done to check further contamination of groundwater, the DJB official said: “We need to clean up the Yamuna and to do so we need stringent laws against industrial effluents flowing into the river, prevent untreated sewage from mixing with the water, ban the use of certain harsh chemicals used in pesticides and maintaining minimum flow in the river at all times to begin with. Water from the Yamuna is critical for the city, it not only the source of water for a large population, but also recharges our own aquifers, the sooner we act, the sooner we'll safeguard our health.”