Environmental Issues in India

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WATER POLLUTION CONTROL: ROLE OF COMMUNITY AND PUBLIC ACTION

Himanshu Thakkar

INTRODUCTION

Rising, and increasingly widespread, incidence and levels of pollution of surface and groundwater sources in different parts of the country is a matter of grave public concern. Pollution of the Ganga, Yamuna, Sabarmati, Lower Bhavani, and Palar have attracted nation-wide attention. But the problem is far more widespread. According to the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI), a staggering 70 per cent of available water in India is polluted. ‘From the Dal lake in the North to the Periyar and Chaliyar rivers in the South, from the Damodar and Hooghly in the East to the Thana creek in the West, the picture of water pollution is ...