Pollution in Water Bodies

The Minister of state (I/C) for Environment and Forests Smt. Jayanthi Natarajan informed the members of Lok Sabha today that The Central Pollution Control Board is monitoring water quality of various water bodies in the country at 2500 stations in 28 States and 6 Union territories spread over the country. The monitoring network covers 445 rivers, 154 lakes, 12 tanks, 78 ponds, 41 creeks/Sea water, 25 canals, 45 drains, 10 Water Treatment plants and 807 Wells. On that basis, 150 polluted river stretches have been identified covering 121 rivers for priority action.

The Minister further added that the proposals for rivers and lakes conservation, projects are funded on a cost sharing basis of 70:30 from Central and State Government and for North-East region this sharing is 90:10. However, for conservation of wetlands projects, 100 % financial assistance is provided under management action plans in identified wetlands in the country.

Smt. Natarajan expressed happiness to state that the water quality, in terms of Bio-Chemical Oxygen Demand values for major rivers is reported to have improved as compared to the water quality before taking up pollution abatement works under NRCP. However, the levels of bacterial contamination in terms of fecal coliform are reported to be exceeding the maximum permissible limit at a number of locations along various rivers.

DK