Large-scale water contamination found in India

New tests by the State Public Health Laboratory (SPHL) on water quality has found that parts of the country have large-scale water contamination, with contamination levels in Mumbai standing at eight per cent.

There were large traces of both bacterial and viral microbial contamination which can have serious health impacts. Cholera, typhoid, hepatitis, and infectious gastrointestinal diseases are all caused by untreated water that has high levels of contaminations.

4,618 water samples were tested in Mumbai, of which eight per cent were deemed unfit for drinking. A similar water monitoring test was performed last year, which found that only four per cent of the water samples collected were unfit for drinking. This upward trend was also found in rural parts of India, where 421 (11 per cent) of the 3,809 samples collected were found to be unfit for drinking, compared to nine per cent last year.

Many cities were found to suffer from poor water quality, with Jalgaon, Nagpur and Gondia as well as rural parts of Aurangabad, Parbhani, Nanded and Hingoli all found to have unsuitable water quality levels.

R P Dongre, senior scientific officer of SPHL, told the Times of India: "Samples were analyzed for microbial and chemical contamination. But as cities have more water treatment plants, the level of contamination is not that high as in rural parts."

Posted by Joseph Hutton