Chemical Pollution

Featured Articles
September 9, 2022 Highlights from a new report released by iFOREST
An old coal-fired power plant has been dumping vast quantities of ash out in the open for many years. (Image: Lundrim Aliu/ World Bank; CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
August 27, 2022 Study looks at microplastic types in lakes of Ladakh
(Vinay Goel, Wikimedia Commons)
August 11, 2022 This could lead to water quality crisis reinforcing the need for basin-specific management strategies
Around the world, more than a fifth of nitrogen released by human activity ends up in aquatic ecosystems (Image: Wikimedia Commons)
July 14, 2022 The river is faced with the dual problem of flood plain encroachment and growing levels of water pollution
Illegal transverse check dams (Badhals) built on Ichamati near a village in Basirhat (Image: Prithviraj Nath @ TheWaterChronicles)
June 13, 2022 A CEEW study indicates that forecasting systems helped avert extremely severe air pollution episodes last winter.
(Image: Ville Miettinen, Wikimedia Commons)
May 25, 2022 A study develops a decision support tool to identify polluted river stretches
Ulhas river near Khandpe village (Image: Ganesh Dhamodkar, Wikimedia Commons)
Groundwater extraction: NGT gets strict with commercial entities
Policy matters this week Posted on 12 Aug, 2020 08:41 AM

NGT bans granting general permissions for groundwater extraction to commercial entities

NGT gets strict with commercial entities (Source: IWP Flickr album)
A third of world’s children poisoned by lead: UNICEF
Urgent action needed to abolish dangerous practices including the informal recycling of lead acid batteries. Posted on 05 Aug, 2020 01:35 PM

Around 1 in 3 children – up to 800 million globally – have blood lead levels at or above 5 micrograms per decilitre (µg/dL), a level that the World Health Organization and the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have stated requires global and regional interventions.

Two girls recycle metal from used batteries at a workshop in Dhaka, Bangladesh (Image: UNICEF/Naser Siddique)
Reinventing waste management during Covid-19
There is an urgent need to revamp our municipal waste management systems. Posted on 11 Jul, 2020 10:19 PM

India stares at a Covid-19 induced waste management crisis and there is a need to strengthen waste management services. An important sanitary barrier to prevent the dissemination of illnesses and diseases, waste management’s impact on the world’s healthcare systems, and the economy are significant.

A lab technician discarding disposable gloves (Image: CDC/Kimberly Smith, Christine Ford acquired from Public Health Image Library)
Water fleas can warn of water pollution!
Water fleas, tiny organisms found in water can help save rivers! Read this interview with freshwater biologist, Dr Sameer Padhye, to know how. Posted on 02 Jul, 2020 07:29 PM

Water fleas are small crustaceans widely found in varied aquatic habitats. They are very sensitive to changes in the water quality of water bodies such as rivers and streams that they inhabit.

Water fleas can warn of water pollution (Image Source: Sameer Padhye)
Covid-19 threatens to worsen India's water crisis
Regulations for water use, innovation for treating antimicrobial resistance and monitoring of infected plastic leakage needs to be prioritised to curtail the water crisis. Posted on 24 May, 2020 12:50 AM

While the world has got a reprieve from pollution with emerging wildlife, cleaner air and clearer water bodies during lockdown, Covid-19 might actually be worsening the present water crisis in an inconspicuous manner. The world is still developing more clarity on safeguards that can prevent transmission, treatment and post treatment complications.

Marine litter. Plastic bottles on a beach. (Image: Bo Eide, Flickr Commons; CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
Global infections from water poised to rise with climate change
As climate change handshakes water contamination, we pass by very much uncertain times. Posted on 24 Apr, 2020 04:11 PM

Climate change triggered heat waves threaten water availability

Ninjallama rues as she remembers, " It was a terrible summer. The heat wave was killing. Three people died in my village. People with skeletal fluorosis suffered .. "

Water contamination, a growing concern (Image Source: IWP Flickr photos)
Gearing to overcome water quality woes
A workshop highlights the need to give a boost to affordable household water treatment and storage technologies. Posted on 21 Apr, 2020 05:22 PM

India has the most people in the world without access to safe drinking water (133.9 million). Many studies indicate that poor and marginalized populations are the worst affected from waterborne diseases resulting from the consumption of contaminated water.

HWTS solutions are best suited for villages (Image: WaterAid)
Community-led piped water supply initiative in Bihar
For Har Ghar Nal Ka Jal to succeed, the state needs to look at water harvesting to augment groundwater availability. Posted on 28 Mar, 2020 12:34 PM

Water is a precious natural resource that ensures human well-being. However, across the globe there is a severe water crisis, which is heightened by issues of inaccessibility and contamination.

The community at the ward level of the panchayat is supposed to have complete ownership of the system created. (Image: GG Vogman, Flickr Commons, CC BY-NC 2.0)
Clean water, a crucial weapon to combat COVID -19
The recent COVID -19 pandemic highlights the important role that access to clean water can play in dealing with such diseases in the future. Posted on 21 Mar, 2020 04:32 PM

This month has been seeing a different kind of a scare world over, that of the deadly corona virus pandemic that has been spreading rapidly, infecting people and leading to a rising number of deaths in numerous countries.

Is our tap water really safe? (Image Source: IWP Flickr Photos)
Tap water to all
What can be learnt from past experiences on scaling up coverage of piped water supply? Posted on 20 Mar, 2020 01:47 PM

Efforts are underway by both state and central governments to improve access to safe and adequate drinking water to people, and nationally, as on 31 December 2018, 79% of rural habitations had been covered at 40 litres per capita per day (lpcd) but only 47% at 55 lpcd.

Child drinks water from a tap (Image: Imal Hashemi/Taimani Films/World Bank, Flickr Commons, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
×