CURRENT ISSUE AUGUST 28, 2006

TOXIC SLUDGE

Pollution wreaks havoc on ground water in Madhya Pradesh. India Today's Ambreesh Mishra discusses the grave implications.

The latest furore over pesticides in colas is just the tip of the iceberg. Wait till you hear about the widespread groundwater contamination in Madhya Pradesh. Pollution from industries and municipal sold waste is wreaking havoc with groundwater in many towns and industrial areas across the state.

And the bigger tragedy is that there's no coordination among government agencies at state or central levels. The result: alarming findings of hydro and geo-chemical studies conducted by the Central Ground Water Board (CGWB), an agency that works under the Union Water Resource Ministry, have gone completely unheeded.

Almost every major city and industrial township of the state – Indore, Bhopal, Ujjain, Dewas, Nagda, Peethampur, Mandideep and Ratlam is sitting atop a highly toxic sludge underground. Pollution studies conducted by the CGWB point at degrading groundwater quality at a lot of places. The chemical quality of ground water has been brought out
by analyzing 790 water samples collected from National Hydrograph Network Stations since May 2001.

For instance, industrial effluents from Adarsh Electroplating Works in Govindpura in Bhopal were found highly toxic due to high electrical conductivity (EC), zinc and iron and toxic metals like cadmium, chromium and copper. The continuation of disposal of such effluent through unlined drain is very dangerous for the quality of ground water in nearby areas.

With its population of 16-lakh plus, Indore, the state's business hub is water starved. Its ground water is also highly polluted. Major parts of the city have higher pH value from 8.20 to 9.10 in ground water. EC is also very high, especially near Navlakha, 56 Markets (MG Road) and at Banganga area. Fluoride concentration at Agriculture College is excessive for drinking use.

Khan River, which is a tributary of Kshipra, is the main source of pollution because 70 per cent of total wastewater and sewage of Indore city drains directly into it, the recharge from which pollutes ground water as well. In Khan, water bacterial pollution is recorded, especially coliform is in high concentration in the entire section of the river.

Industries along Indore-Ujjain road also add to pollution in Khan river, thus polluting ground water sources in Ujjain as well. Out of the10 deep tube wells drilled by CGWB, eight had EC in the harmful range. Says Housing and Environment Minister Jayant Mallaiya, "If a widespread problem exists, we need to address it immediately." However, it's easier said than done, primarily because of lack of any institutional mechanism to deal with it.

Admits CWGB Regional Director R.N. Singh: "We're just a monitoring agency. Enforcement isn't our mandate." The agency that actually has the task of tackling pollution is Pollution Control Board. However, its pollution control mechanism works differently. "We deal with pollution from specific industrial units upon complaint. We don't test
ground water per say," says Board's member-secretary B.K. Singh.

The MPPCB will deal with the problem of polluting industries if it gets information or complaint. This is classic case of various agencies working in grand isolation. So, the MPPCB will get the pollution studies once CGWB passes it on to its parent Union Water Resource Ministry. Then, the Centre would write to the State Government before MPPCB's administrative department passes it on. That, in any case, hasn't happened.

Besides, there's another problem. While pollution from untreated industrial effluents that seep down is directly visible, nitrate pollution caused by municipal solid waste, which the urban civic bodies are unable to manage is also a major culprit. In Bhopal, high nitrate concentration, which occurs almost in every part of the city, is a matter of concern.

"It's politically not always possible to act tough against urban civic bodies on this count. Besides, water quality is so difficult and costly to improve that the Government can't simply allow tough measures," says a scientist of MPPCB.

The high nitrate concentration is due to disposal of untreated sewage in open and unlined drains or nalas and indiscriminately dumping of solid waste. Jabalpur, Gwalior and Dewas cities also have high concentration of nitrates in groundwater. While there is no industrial pollution in Jabalpur, groundwater is bacteriologically contaminated since there is no sewage treatment plant and the human waste is discharged directly into the open drains, which pollutes ground water..

Nitrate concentration in excess of 45 mg/l in water is harmful for humans, particularly infants as it causes blue baby syndrome disease. Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) has set permissible limit of 45 mg/l of it but in 84 places in the State, it is in excess of 100 mg/l.

In vast areas across the State, ground water is polluted from nitrates seeping down from fertilizers. Studies showed that nitrate presence is also attributed to decaying organic matter, improper sanitation facilities in villages and disposal of animal waste and human excreta near water source points that seep to the ground water aquifers.

However, anything that touches farm sector is politically explosive. That's what the likes of MK Khanna – former director of the MP Groundwater Survey Organisation - found out in their campaign since the turn of the millennium. "Our studies also showed alarming pollution and depletion. However, no agency in MP has clear-cut mandate to enforce pollution norms for ground water," he says. Every move to regulate quality or usage of ground water has been frustrated. The draft Ground Water Bill submitted by the Organisation to address these issues is gathering dust with the MP Water Resource Department since 2001, so does a policy paper submitted in 2003 to the Digvijay Government.

Mandideep (Raisen): Many industries are discharging effluents through drains that join Betwa River. The EC, chloride and nitrate concentration in river water is very high. Betwa recharges groundwater in the area and the effluents seep down polluting it too.

Index