Contamination, Pollution and Quality

Featured Articles
December 16, 2022 In this article, we will understand how the WQM course is continuing to influence the needs of learners that come from diverse backgrounds. The course model also offers core insights to many others who would like to engage in a virtual training program.
During a WQM course, a field team member from INREM facilitating a demonstration
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)
September 5, 2022 In an attempt to present a perspective on how rivers are used and abused, a map of the Bengaluru rivers illustrate how waste flows through natural river corridors, polluting the rivers and altering their status.
Vrishabhavathi river flow at Thagachguppe Bridge, Kumbalgodu (Image Source: Paani.Earth)
August 27, 2022 Study looks at microplastic types in lakes of Ladakh
(Vinay Goel, Wikimedia Commons)
August 19, 2022 Better access to clean water coupled with health education to bring about changes in behaviour are critical to prevent exposure to dangerous cholera bacteria that lurk in untreated waters.
The hidden threat of cholera in India (Image Source: IWP Flickr photos)
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)
Paving the way for the control of Cholera and Typhoid fever in Kolkata - A research project report of the NICED-IVI collaboration
Cholera and typhoid consume lives even today in the Eastern Kolkata slums. This research seeks to generate enough data to help planning and implementation of vaccines against the two. Posted on 13 Nov, 2010 08:43 AM

This collaborative research work between National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases (NICED), Kolkata and International Vaccine Institute (IVI), Seoul under the Diseases of the Most Impoverished (DOMI) Program, supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation aims to give useful information for the prevention and control of typhoid fever and cholera. The aim is to accelerate the introduction of new generation vaccines against cholera, shigellosis, and typhoid fever, through research and capacity-building. 

The burden of cholera in the slums of Kolkata - A community based study by NICED
Measuring the burden of cholera; this paper searches for potential risk factors that need immediate addressal by public health strategies. Posted on 12 Nov, 2010 12:29 AM

This paper by National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases (NICED) is based on a prospective, community based study in an impoverished urban site in Kolkata in order to measure the burden of cholera, describe its epidemiology, and search for potential risk factors that could be addressed by public health strategies. The study population was enumerated at the beginning and end of the study period. Surveillance through five field outposts and two referral hospitals for acute, watery, non-bloody diarrhoea was conducted from May 2003 to April 2004.

Heavy rains, cyclones and floods affect the life of millions; News Roundup (1-7 November 2010)
Cyclone disrupts life and living in three states, Posted on 09 Nov, 2010 08:09 PM

Recent news indicates extensive reports on the threat and destruction unleashed by cyclone Jal in the three states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, with the states of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka being affected the most. Cyclone Jal has led to heavy rainfall in both these states leading to floods and a heavy death toll in the coastal districts of both the states, besides reports of destruction of agricultural produce in the state of Karnataka.

South India

Andhra Pradesh

Urban local initiatives and government responses: A case of Dev Nadi in Pune
Most of the rivers and streams in urban India are dead. Race to urbanisation has cost us these once-beautiful water bodies. One story from many - Pune's Dev Nadi Posted on 21 Oct, 2010 01:26 PM

Most of the rivers and streams in urban India are dead. With a very few and rare exceptions, these once-beautiful water bodies have been encroached upon, sources dried up or converted into sewage drains all over the country.Water is being sourced or pumped from sites upstream of the city for its needs or from long distances and the city administration has little incentive for cleaning its own muck. The dismal figures of urban sewage treated by sewage treatment plants, their installed capacity and efficiency stand testimony to this.

Environmental Pollution and Management - A Civil Engineering Course under the National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning
enhancing the quality of education through specially designed and interactive courses on environmental pollution and management Posted on 13 Oct, 2010 10:32 PM

This Civil Engineering Course under the National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning (NPTEL) on the broad subject of Environmental Pollution and Management is being carried out by Indian Institute of Technology’s and the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore as a collaborative project supported by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (Government of India) to enhance the quality of engineering education in the country, by developing curriculum based video and web courses. In these web based lectures, the authors have developed the subject in detail and in stages in a student-friendly manner. The broad group of Environmental Pollution and Management is structured into modules on the following topics:

Ramlila performed on a river, in Saharanpur after 30 years !
Paondhoi in 30 years witness the first Ramlila on its banks; revival of heritage and celebration at the riverfront. Posted on 12 Oct, 2010 03:22 PM

Saharanpur (9 Oct) :  History was created in Saharanpur once again.  Today, Paondhoi had thousands of visitors (e.g.

The water (prevention and control of pollution) cess (amendment) act - Ministry of Environment and Forests (2003)
This document is an amendment of the earlier Act in 1977 and includes:
Amendment of Section 2

This includes redefinition of what constitutes industry and namely includes "operation or process, or treatment and disposal system, which consumes water or gives rise to sewage effluent or trade effluent, but does not include any hydel power unit"
Posted on 12 Oct, 2010 11:16 AM

Modification of Section 16

The water (prevention and control of pollution) cess act - Ministry of Environment and Forests (1977)
This document provides the details of the act to provide for the levy and collection of a cess on water consumed by persons owning certain industries and by local authorities, with a view to augment the resources of the central board and the state boards for the prevention and control of water pollution constituted under The water (prevention and control of pollution) act, 1974. Posted on 12 Oct, 2010 11:12 AM

The document provides the details of the Act in terms of :