India is often referred as “The land of rivers”. For generations India has had a strong tradition of preserving water judiciously. Our forefathers were visionaries who had the wisdom of thinking ahead of future. They anticipated the growing population which would lead to an increased demand for water in the future. Like today we have civil engineers, hydrologists and architects, who have acquired knowledge through lesser known or prestigious Institutions, our ancestors carried with them the same inborn talent to preserve water, that too without any formal degrees. They were people of intellect and had great sense of developing natural water resources. In a total of about 6.5 lakh villages of the country, approximately 50 lakh ponds and other similar structures exist. Unfortunately, during the past two decades the water quality has deteriorated at a rapid pace. One of the major reasons for this is the untreated waste water reaching the water sources, turning them to be a dirty drain. The Ganga and the Yamuna, the two most sacred rivers of our country are no exception to it.
This has been achieved though an association with the World Water Monitoring Day program last year. This programme is globally being run by International Water Association (UK) and World Environment Federation, Netherland. It is worthwhile to mention here that the organization was also awarded with the Water Champion Award 2009 for its successful achievements through the programme. According to Raman Tyagi, Director of the Foundation, “This year NEER Foundation has managed to spread the programme, both geographically and also in terms of involvement of students and people”. This year sites from 30 districts have been covered. To name a few, water samples were taken from rivers; ponds; lakes and other similar water resource structures of Meerut, Muzaffarnagar, Ghaziabad, Baghpat, Bulandshahr, Moradabad, Gautambudh Nagar, Saharanpur, Aligarh, Agra and Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh; Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh; Jaipur in Rajasthan, Dehradun, Haridwar, Kotdwar and Nainital in Uttarakhand; Mansa, Bhatinda and Panipat in Haryana and Delhi. The samples were tested at the locations and the results were noted. Another milestone achieved is that of about 4000 students of 30 different schools and around 1000 social workers of different civil society organizations and institutions becoming a part of the programme. The participation proportion ranged from rural to urban, male to female and students belonging to the marginalized and poorest sections of the society.
Initiated in June, over a period of six months, about 1450 water samples for 300 different sites were tested, which included 530 of rivers, 195 of handpumps, 370 of tap water, 160 of ponds, 50 of submersible pumps, 15 of dams, 20 of lakes and 50 of nallahs. Again, the sites were chosen keeping in mind the fact that the community/people of the areas around the sites depended on this water for domestic, agricultural and industrial purposes. This helped us involving the local people as they were eager to learn about the quality of water which they use. The locations were of Historical Ganga River, Yamuna River, Hindon River, Kali Nadi (East and West), Krishni River, Dhamola River, Boodhi Ganga River, Aril River, Gomti River, Paondhoi River, Sahasrdhara River, Saur Ganga, Upper Ganga, Lower Ganga, Sanjay Gandhi lake, Gandhari pond belonging to Mahabharata period, Historical Navaldeh Well, handpumps, submersible pumps, tap water, dams, nallahs and other ponds. The tests came up with alarming findings. Rivers like Yamuna, Krishni, Kali (East and West), Dhamola, Aril, Gomti and Hindon are almost dead. The water these rivers carry is highly toxic and has elevated levels of pollution. However, there seems a hope that rivers like Ganga, Shahsrdhara, Saung and Paondhoi, and a few groundwater sources could be saved.
Schools which participated in this programme included Raghuveer Sahai Inter College, Rajkiya Inter College, PGAK International School, J P academy, Manideep Inter College, Shanti Niketan Vidyapeeth, Shri Dayaleshwar Public School in Meerut; K V Public School in Parikshitgarh; Mahakavi Gangadas Saraswati Shishu Mandir, Hapur; DAV Public School, Budhana; Aatmasevanand Kanya Vidyalaya, Karnawal; Dayalbagh University and Sent Johns Inter Collge, Kripal Kanya Uchtar Madhyamik Vidhalya and Delhi Public School, Haridwar, Haridwar and organizations are Jan Kalyan Sanstha, Meerut; Nature Foundation, Delhi; AIM, Lucknow; Haritima, Aligarh; Shehzad Rai Shaudh Sansthan, Baghpat; Lokhit Foundation, Dehradun and Samiksha, Ghaziabad alongwith others; selected on the basis of their interest and geographical area of working/presence.
This programme was quite fruitful as the young impressionable minds took this as an eye-opener. Excited about the programme, the students showed keen interest in learning about the water testing ways and also discovered the quality of the water available in resources around them i.e. the quality of water which they use. The major success of the progarmme was that the children and organizations keenly requested the foundation to associate them with the programme and appealed to take up this activity every year with their participation.
Through the World Water Monitoring Day programme, the organization expects that it has been able to make efforts to bring our history to life and this has been supported by masses especially children, contributing in their own ways by understanding the sensitivity of the issue and co-operate in its journey towards a better tomorrow because the journey of a 1000 miles starts with a step. As per a saying, ‘Yesterday is a dream and tomorrow is a vision. But today well lived, makes every yesterday a dream of happiness and every tomorrow a vision of hope’. Thus to leave behind us a golden past and to build a bright future we need to come up together and act now. This testing programme was a step in the direction.
Note - “Neer Foundation grants WEF and IWA permission to edit and use the attached news story [and photos] on the World Water Monitoring Day Web site and other promotional materials.”
Results:
S.No. | Water Resources | Total Samples | DO (PPM) | Turbidity (JTU) | Temperature | Ph |
| 1. | Ganga River | 170 | 4.00 | 40.00 | 23-26 | 7-8 |
| 2. | Old Ganga River | 30 | 4.00 | 40.00 | 24-26 | 7-8 |
| 3. | Hindon River | 50 | 8.00 | 100.00 | 24-30 | 10 |
| 4. | Yamuna River | 50 | 8.00 | 100.00 | 14-18 | 10 |
| 5. | Krishni River | 50 | 8.00 | 100.00 | 24-30 | 10 |
| 6. | Kali River East | 100 | 8.00 | 100.00 | 24-28 | 10 |
| 7. | Kali River West | 50 | 8.00 | 100.00 | 22-26 | 10 |
| 8. | Dhamola River | 10 | 8.00 | 100.00 | 24-30 | 10 |
| 9. | Paondhoi River | 10 | 4.00 | 0.00 | 20 | 7-8 |
10. | Aril River | 10 | 8.00 | 100.00 | 26 | 10 |
11. | Song River | 5 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 18 | 7 |
12. | Sehshradhara | 5 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 18 | 7 |
13. | Gomti River | 10 | 8.00 | 40.00 | 22-24 | 8-9 |
14. | Hand pumps | 195 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 18-28 | 7-8 |
15. | Submersible Pump | 50 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 18-28 | 7-8 |
16. | Tap Water | 370 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 18-26 | 7 |
17. | Lakes (Naini, Lancedown & SG) | 15 | 4.00 | 40.00 | 14-16 | 7-8 |
18. | Ponds | 160 | 8.00 | 40.00 | 18-28 | 8 |
19. | Golden Temple Pond | 10 | 4.00 | 40.00 | 20 | 8 |
20. | Nawaldeh Well | 5 | 4.00 | 0.00 | 22 | 7-8 |
21. | Canals | 10 | 4.00 | 40.00 | 20-26 | 7-8 |
22. | Bhangela Drain | 10 | 8.00 | 100.00 | 22 | 10 |
23. | Dams (Kolar, Dahod & Ghoda Pachad) | 15 | 4.00 | 40.00 | 20-30 | 8-9 |
Download the attachment to read the report in Hindi