3 Current Status of Environment in India (Air and Water)-I

Gajendra Singh Vishwakarma

1.  Introduction

2.  Air

2.1 Air Quality in India

2.2 Air Pollution management Policies in India

3.  Water related Issue

3.1. Status of water distribution in India

3.2 Rainfall

3.3. Groundwater

3.4. Ground water contamination

3.5. River Pollution in India

3.6. Policies for controlling River and water Pollution

1. Introduction

India has completed about 70 years of its independence. In the last five decades, India successfully developed its agricultural, Industrial and technical infrastructure. India impressively achieved global identification in the Information technology, medical advancement, agricultural production and dairy development. But 50 years of uncontrolled economic development have created serious, environmental issues. The day by day degradation in air, water and soil quality has increased health problems and resulted in annual losses to farmers of crops worth billions of dollars. India is also one of the fastest growing populations in the world, but compared to others, it lags in preserving the environment and the ecology. Today, our motherland is perforated with a number of environmental distresses which have heightened in the last few decades. It is high time for resolving these issues. Neglecting the environment can create disaster and serious damage to mankind. Current situation of environment of India is also not satisfactory. Various agencies and survey also declared India as one of the poor and backward country in terms of efficiency and environmental management. As per the Numbeo (the world’s largest database of user contributed data about cities and countries worldwide) the Pollution Index of India is 76 which is very high and declared it as a most polluted country. The index for different parameter is as follow.

In another report Environmental Performance Index (EPI) 2018 produced jointly by Yale University and Columbia University in collaboration with the World Economic Forum ranks for 180 countries on 24 performance indicators across 10 issue categories covering environmental health and ecosystem vitality, India have very poor score (30.57/100) and very lower (177^th) ranking out of 180 countries.

As per the EPI report, the status all the necessary parameter that defines the environment health and ecosystem vitality, the score of India is very poor. The list of this parameter is as follow.

2. Air

2.1 Air Quality in India

In India, air pollution is one of the major challenges for the sustainable development. It has become an issue of public health and economic crisis. Day by day, the number of people prematurely dies due to increasing pollution levels. As per the research data given by Global Burden of Disease (GBD), (comprehensive regional and global research program including 500 researchers representing over 300 institutions and 50 countries), approx. 3283 Indians died per day due to outdoor air pollution in India in 2015. They also reported that the deaths due to air pollution are only a fraction less than the number of deaths caused by tobacco usage. Another survey conducted by the International Energy Agency (IEA), said that the air pollution is one of the worst tragedy to have exaggerated in India. Approx. 9 lakh premature deaths in the country by 2040 have been estimated by the agency due to the drastic rise in air pollution. Average life expectancies are likely to go down by about 15 months because of air pollution. The World Bank also estimates that India loses around 3% of its GDP due to air pollution. According to the rankings of the 2016 Environmental Performance Index, India ranks 141 out of 180 countries in terms of air pollution and it is also home to 11 out of 20 of the most polluted (in terms of air pollution) cities in the entire world.

Air pollution is a complex issue, requiring an array of solutions. There are many sources that contribute to pollution across the country. Depending on region and climatic conditions, the contribution of particular sources will also differ. However, burning of fossil fuels (coal & oil) contributes majorly to air pollution levels across regions. The status of Air Pollution in India 2015-16 is compiled by the Greenpeace Environment Trust (http://www.greenpeace.org) by covering the cities with a population of 630 million or 53% of the total population (assuming a district with even one manual station covers the entire population of the said district). The main outcomes of reports are as follow. .

• Out of the 630 million Indians covered by the data, 550 million live in areas exceeding national standard for PM10, and 180 million live in areas where the air pollution levels are more than twice the stipulated standards. This includes children under 5 years age (47 million), residing in areas with air pollution exceeding the standards, and 17 million living in areas having air pollution levels more than twice the specified standards.
• The largest numbers of people in areas with more than twice the stipulated levels of pollution are in Uttar Pradesh (64 million), followed by Rajasthan (20 million), Maharashtra (19million), Delhi (17 million) and Bihar (15 million).
• 580 million Indians live in districts with no air quality data available, including 59 million children under 5 years of age.
• Real time data is available for only 190 million Indians, or 16% of the population. After Delhi, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh have the highest coverage of real-time data, while 23 states have no real time data available to public.
• The largest number of people living in areas with no data is Uttar Pradesh (133 million), followed by Bihar (89 million), Madhya Pradesh (48 million) and Rajasthan (45 million).

Delhi still remains the top-most polluted city followed by many more towns like nearby Faridabad and Bhiwadi and far off Amritsar and Patna. These towns are spread along the fertile and heavily populated Indo-Gangetic basin. The major source of PM10 in these areas is the agricultural residue burning and fly ash generated through the Coal burning. These polluted cities not only need long-term action plans but also require a strict emergency, immediate, short-term and time-bound response to bring pollution levels down.

Apart from the PM 10 levels, the status of SOx, NOx and PM 2.5 is also very high in the country. The setup of the coal based thermal power plant emissions play very significant role in the increase of PM 2.5 levels across the country through secondary particulate formation from SO2 and NO2. The states of Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh showed very high SO2, emission in 2015, and at the same time the incremental concentration was highest in Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan in 2013-2015. Similarly the NO2 emission is also reported higher in the states of Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra. (Source: http://m.greenpeace.org/india/Global/india/cleanairnation/Reports.pdf; Date of access 03/02/2018).

In India, the major sources of air pollution are given below in the table.

2.2 Air Pollution management Policies in India National Air Quality Monitoring Programme (NAMP)

Central Pollution Control Board is executing a nation-wide programme of ambient air quality monitoring known as National Air Quality Monitoring Programme (NAMP). The network consists of Six hundred and Eighty Three (683) operating stations covering 300 cities/towns in twenty six (26) states and four (4) Union Territories of the country. The objectives of the N.A.M.P. are (source: official website of Central Pollution Control Board)

1. To determine status and trends of ambient air quality;
2. To ascertain whether the prescribed ambient air quality standards are violated;
3. To Identify Non-attainment Cities;
4. To obtain the knowledge and understanding necessary for developing preventive and corrective measures and
5. To understand the natural cleansing process undergoing in the environment through pollution dilution, dispersion, wind based movement, dry deposition, precipitation and chemical transformation of pollutants generated.

Under N.A.M.P., four air pollutants viz ., Sulphur Dioxide (SO2), Oxides of Nitrogen as NO2, Respirable Suspended Particulate Matter (RSPM / PM10) and Fine Particulate Matter (PM2.5) have been identified for regular monitoring with the integration of meteorological parameters such as wind speed and wind direction, relative humidity (RH) and temperature at all the locations.

The monitoring of pollutants is carried out for 24 hours (4-hourly sampling for gaseous pollutants and 8-hourly sampling for particulate matter) with a frequency of twice a week, to have one hundred and four (104) observations in a year. The monitoring is being carried out with the help of Central Pollution Control Board; State Pollution Control Boards; Pollution Control Committees; National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI), Nagpur.

CPCB co-ordinates with these agencies to ensure the uniformity, consistency of air quality data and provides technical and financial support to them for operating the monitoring stations.

3. Water related Issue

Growing population coupled with agricultural industrial and infrastructural developmental put an increasing pressure on water resources. The irregularity of rainfall and uneven distribution water resources and their modification through human creates situation of water crises in many parts of the world and India. According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) estimates, the total volume of water on earth is about 1.4 billion km3 , which is enough to cover the earth with a layer of 3 km depth. But in this water the oceans cover about three-fourths of earth’s surface while the fresh water constitutes a very small proportion of this enormous quantity available on the earth. It is only about 35 million km3 or 2.5% of the total volume. Of these, about 24 million km3 or 68.9% is in the form of ice and permanent snow cover in mountainous regions, the Antarctic and Arctic regions and another 29.9% is present as ground water (shallow and deep groundwater basins up to 2,000 meters). The rest 0.3% is available in lakes, rivers and 0.9% in soil moisture, swamp water and permafrost atmosphere.

3.1. Status of water distribution in India

In India the major water resources are classified as Inland Water resources which includes rivers and canals; reservoirs; tanks, lakes & ponds; lakes and derelict water bodies; and brackish water. The total length of rivers and canal is about 195095 km and the area of other water bodies (Reservoirs, Tanks & Ponds, Flood Plain Lakes & Derelict Water bodies, Brackish Water) is 7.31Mha.

3.2 Rainfall

In India, the rainfall is one of the major sources of natural water. But rainfall is highly variable in time and space. Over 75% of the annual rainfall is received in the four rainy months of June to September only thereby leading to large variations on temporal scale. The average annual rainfall is 119 cm, but it has great spatial variations. The areas on the Western Ghats and the Sub-Himalayan areas in North East and Meghalaya Hills receive heavy rainfall of over 250 cm annually, whereas the Areas of Northern parts of Kashmir and Western Rajasthan receive rainfall less than 40 cm. The average annual rainfall of last fifty years is given in the graph.

Ground water is the water that leaches through rocks and soil and is deposited below the ground. The rocks in which ground water is stored are called aquifers. Aquifers are naturally made up of gravel, sand, sandstone or limestone. These aquifers cover around 65% of India’s overall aquifer surface area. Most of them are found in central peninsular India, where land is typically underlain by hard-rock formations. These rocks are dense and have low-storage aquifer system, due to this the water level tends to drop very fast. Apart from this these aquifers have poor permeability therefore their recharge through rainfall is also difficult. This indicates that water in these aquifers is non- replenishable and will ultimately dry out due to continuous usage. If we see the use of ground water in India, about 89% of ground water extracted is used in the irrigation sector, this is mainly due to the irregularity of rainfall. Domestic use consumes 9% of the extracted groundwater, whereas, industrial use is responsible for extraction of 2% ground water. In domestic usages, 50% of urban water requirements and 85% of rural domestic water requirements are also fulfilled by ground water. As per the reports of the Central Ground Water Board, Min. of Water Resources in India most of the states about 40-50% of ground water resources are in danger zone. In the states like Punjab, Haryana, U.P, Delhi and Rajasthan, the rapidly depleting levels of groundwater is one of the biggest threat to food security and livelihood. According to news reports, excessive exploitation of limited groundwater resources for irrigation of cash crops such as sugarcane, rice and wheat has caused a 6 percentage point decline in the availability of water within 10 meters from ground level. In the southeastern parts of the country the groundwater is also on worst hit due to low rainfall and drought (Table 6).

3.4. Ground water contamination

The sources of ground water contamination are mainly organic and inorganic pollutants that are in excess than the prescribed limits for drinking water. The common inorganic contaminants in the ground water are nitrate, sulfate, fluoride, arsenic, copper, lead, cadmium, uranium and iron etc. The origins of these contaminants are geogenic in nature. While some other contaminants include bacteria, phosphates and heavy metals which are mainly due to the result of human activities such as domestic waste, agricultural runoff and industrial effluents. The major sources responsible for groundwater contamination are landfills, septic tanks, overuse of fertilizers, pesticides etc. It has been pointed out by the Central Ground Water Board, nearly 60% of all districts in the country have issues related to either availability of ground water, or quality of ground water, or both.

The States like Haryana, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, Assam, Manipur and Karnataka are reported for high concentration of arsenic. The High levels of arsenic above the permissible levels of 50 parts per billion (ppb) are found in the alluvial plains of Ganges covering six districts of West Bengal. The area of south west Punjab and some districts also reported for the uranium contaminated ground water. Fluoride contamination (more than 1.5 mg/l)in ground water is widely prevailing in different parts of India mostly in the states of Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Bihar, Odisha, Punjab, Haryana, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka and Gujarat. Some parts of Chhattisgarh, Delhi and Kerala are also affected by Fluoride contamination. Salinity in ground water is found mainly in western, north western and southern parts of India. Salinity has been observed in all major aquifer systems. Inland salinity caused by high sulphate in ground water has also been reported from some parts of the country. The over pumping of ground water has also increased the salinity of water in the states of Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Odisha, Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh. High levels of iron in ground water (more than 1 mg/l) have been reported from many states. Pollution due to human and animal wastes and fertilizer application has resulted in higher levels of nitrate and potassium in ground water in some parts of the country.

Ground water pollution due to indiscriminate disposal of industrial effluents has been observed in most of the districts and this is the major cause of contaminated groundwater with lead, cadmium and chromium. Table represents the data of different states with the heavy metal contaminated ground water.

3.5. River Pollution in India

India has three major river systems, Indus, Ganga and Brahmaputra. These river systems originate from the snow peaks of Himalayas. All the three rivers has been reported suffering from pollution and has crossed the mark of crisis. These three basins accommodate the maximum populated areas of the world. In southern India, river Godavari, Cauvery, Krishna and Mahanadi are highly polluted. As per the India’s water portal reports, the top 5 polluted rivers of India are as follows.

Yamuna: The river ranks among the top 10 dirtiest rivers of the world, along with the Ganga. With Delhi dumping the most (58%) waste in the Yamuna, and almost all efforts for cleaning are failing, the river is fast turning into a vast sewage. Environment Research Laboratory- (ERL) Lucknow, has reported that Yamuna water is suitable only for fish culture and for consumption by animals. The river passes through the cities like Yamuna Nagar, Panipat, Sonepat, Karnal, Delhi, Gurgaon, Faridabad, Mathura, Agra and Itawa etc. The effluent from these cities is drained in river Yamuna without treatment. The Delhi being the highly populated and larger city contributes the most. Industrial effluents and wastes water discharged in large quantity from Okhla Industrial Estate is drained in Yamuna River. Apart from Delhi, Mathura and Agra also discharges large quantities of sewage in Yamuna river. Apart from inorganic contaminants the surface runoff from the agriculture fields also adds phosphates and nitrates which lead to eutrophication of the river.

Ganga: Ganga being the holy river of our country, reserves a special place in all our religious rituals. The river starts from gangotri and passes through big cities like Haridwar, Farrukhabad, Kanpur, Allahabad, Varanasi, Patna, etc. It is the third largest river in the world by discharge. The river has been polluted by the sewage waste and industrial effluents from all these big cities. Apart, from sewage and industrial pollution, the immersion of religious material also adds up to the pollution. Due to pollution, nearly 140 fish species, 90 amphibian species and dolphins are under threat. The river is dying despite Government efforts to save it and Ganga Action Plan has been started by the Government to clean the river.

Sabarmati: The polluted Sabarmati river in Ahmedabad is branded the third most polluted river in the country by CPCB in 2010, fecal coliform (E. coli) bacteria was found to be the highest in the river, turning lethal at many stretches.

Damodar: The Damodar river that flows through West Bengal and Jharkhand, has seen many industries (mostly coal) sprout on its mineral rich banks. It is one of the most polluted rivers in India.

3.6. Policies for controlling River and water Pollution

1.  Ganga Action Plan (GAP): Ganga Action Plan was launched by late Prime Minister Shri Rajiv Gandhi in June 1986 to reduce the pollution load of the river. The main objectives were to free river Ganga from dumping of waste by the cities along the river bank. This plan continued and was withdrawn on 31st March 2000 due to failure. Further in 2009, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change declared Ganga as National River and constituted National Ganga River Basin Authority under the chairmanship of Prime Minister. Under this Mission Clean Ganga 2020 was launched. During the phase I of GAP, the main objective was to improve the water quality of Ganga to acceptable limits by preventing the pollution. Further the objective was recasted as restoring the river water quality to the bathing class standards by a committee in June 1987. The main water quality parameters included were:

GAP II was launched due to incompetence of GAP I to reduce the pollution load of the river. The main objective of this plan was to focus on the tributaries of Ganga namely, Yamuna, Gomti and Damodar beside river Ganga itself. Later on the GAP II was merged into National River Conservation Plan (NRCP), which was launched to cover other important rivers of the country.

2. Namami Gange Programme: Namami Gange Programme is an Integrated Conservation

Mission, approved as ‘Flagship Programme’ by the Union Government in June 2014 with budget outlay of Rs.20,000 crore to accomplish the twin objectives of effective abatement of pollution, conservation and rejuvenation of National River Ganga.

Main pillars of the Namami Gange Programme are

1. Sewerage Treatment Infrastructure
2. River-Front Development
3. River-Surface Cleaning
4. Ganga Bio-Diversity conservation

3. Yamuna Action Plan (YAP): Yamuna Action Plan was launched in April 1993 under Ganga Action Plan phase II, to take up water restoration measures of the Yamuna river. YAP was also followed in different phases. The main objective of YAP phase I was, to construct sewage treatment plants, low cost toilet complexs and pumping stations in the river bank cities of Haryana, U.P and Delhi. Later, the Government of India started YAP phase II in 2004 to cover other pollution related issues of the river.

• Suggested Reading
  Central Ground Water Board; Min. of Water Resources Annual Report http://www.cgwb.gov.in/Annual-Reports/Annual%20Report%202015-16.pdf Date of access 02/02/2018.
• Department of Animal Husbandry, Dairying & Fisheries, M/o Agriculture 2014 report
  Date of access 02/02/2018
• Greenpeace Environment Trust https://securedstatic.greenpeace.org/india/Global/india/Airpoclypse–Not-just-Delhi– Air-in most-Indian-cities-hazardous–Greenpeace-report.pdf Date of access02/02/2018
• http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/69477/1/WHO_SDE_PHE_OEH_06.02_eng.pdf Date of access 03/02/2018
• http://www.moef.nic.in/sites/default/files/notification/Recved%20national.pdf Date ofaccess 03/02/2018
• https://epi.envirocenter.yale.edu/epi-country-report/IND (Date of access 02/02/2018)
• https://www.numbeo.com/pollution/country_result.jsp?country=India (Date of access08/02/2018)
• Ministry of Water Resources, River Development & Ganga Rejuvenation Report
  (2016)