While we are busy cringing at the alarming level of air pollution in India, state of our water bodies is no better. According to Water Aid, an international body active in the domain of water hygiene and sanitation, almost four-fifth of the water is contaminated with the sewage from domestic use and untreated industrial wastewater. During the period between 1991 and 2008, the level of sewage has increased around 100 % in class 1 and class 2 regions (where class 1 is the region with population more than 1 lakh and class 2 is the region with 50,000 to 1 lakh population)

Well, this story is not confined to just surface water, ground water contamination is also a reason of serious concern for the country. This abysmal state of water quality in the country can be attributed to lack of adequate sanitation facilities, absence of septage management and government’s lack of initiatives for wastewater and sanitation policy framework. According to the experts, there are lags in the standards enforced for water treatment as well as sewage treatment processes.

Puneet Srivastava, manager policy- Urban WASH & Climate Change at WaterAid India, reports that India lacks a civic body that is accountable or punishable for deficiency in law enforcement pertaining to the water treatment standards. This has resulted in a staggering seventeen million, amounting to one-fifth of the urban households in India, deprived of adequate sanitation and clean water. India, being a country of enormous population base, has not been able to match up to the water infrastructure in the developed world. Most small cities and towns lack water ways and wastewater channels. On-site sanitation systems, such as Septic tanks and Pit latrines are a common arrangement in household which contributes to ground water contamination for the most part.

Let us now come to the possible solutions: The first solution can be to work towards managing soil erosion in a better way. This will entail afforestation in the regions where erosion is massive and people being held culpable for the acts of deforestation. Another mechanism of preventing water contamination is to place checks on toxic matter disposal into water streams along with oil leaks from the vehicles. One of the major contributors of waste in water streams is plastic used in packaging, bottled beverages and other applications. There should be a check on plastic use at all possible points of disposal and their usage should be cut down. Oil leaks from vehicles result in a build-up of toxins dangerous to aquatic flora and fauna of oceans and other water bodies. Ensuring suitable checks for the vehicles and other sources of oil leaks will cut down on oil leaks to a considerable extent.

 India is also fraught by social and religious malpractices that pollute water through huge amount of biodegradable waste in the form of flowers, plants, mud among other pollutants. These practices need to be prescribed and a certain level of mindfulness needs to be promoted about the practical aspects of religious practices that are incongruous with environment and natural resource.

Considering the level of water pollution in the country, it is evident that we have a long way to go before water quality reaches a satisfactory level as per the international standards of potable water. Small steps towards making slight changes in lifestyle, practices, habits and infrastructure will go a long way in securing abundant water for generations to come.

END