Why in news?
- International World Water Day was celebrated on March 22
- This year’s theme was “wastewater”, which is defined as any water that has been adversely affected in quality by anthropogenic influences and as a result of domestic, industrial, commercial and agricultural activities.
What is the global issue?
- Population growth, accelerated urbanisation and economic development have resulted in an increase in the quantity of wastewater.
- Most of our freshwater sources are under threat.
- Industrial water consumption accounts for 22% of the global water used, when public awareness of pollution is limited the cost of pollution to our health and the ecosystem is huge.
- The victims are generally the poor or socially vulnerable communities, and the end result is a high financial burden on the community and government.
What is the problem in India?
- By 2030, the global demand for water is expected to grow by 50%. Most of this demand will be in cities.
- In low-income areas of cities/towns within developing countries, a large proportion of wastewater is discharged directly into the surface water drain, without or with limited treatment.
- Traditional wastewater treatment plants may not remove certain pollutants.
- In India, about 29,000 million l/day of waste water is generated from class-I cities and class-II towns, out of which about 45% is generated from metro cities alone.
- A collection system exists for only about 30% of the wastewater through sewer lines, while treatment capacity exists for about 7,000 ml/d.
- The industrial sector in India discharges around 30,730 million cubic metres of effluents, without proper treatment, into water bodies.
- Run-off from agriculture fields is another major source of pollution.
- India, extracts water significantly for various developmental purposes.
- Hence, the water flow or storage capacity of water bodies has declined substantially, adversely affecting their waste assimilation/sink functions.
What are the water Management strategies?
- Integrated Nature conservation policies between Union and states and Water pollution should be made a punishable offence.
- The effectiveness and power of the “polluter pay principle” should be considered.
- Strategies to protect water resources should be Public-Private Partnership and Capacity building at local levels.
- Market-based strategies such as environmental taxes, pollution levies should be implemented.
- Incentive mechanisms such as subsidies, soft loans, tax relaxation should be included in installing pollution management devices.
- In industries cleaner production-technology must be encouraged.
- The application of eco-friendly inputs such as bio fertilizers and pesticides in agriculture and the use of natural dyes in textile industries can reduce the pollution load considerably.
Way forward:
- Past experience shows that significant progress has not been achieved despite legislative and policy measures being introduced with huge budgets to solve water pollution issues.
- Water pollution is not a major topic of political debate as yet.
- Unfortunately, most common effluent treatment plants are not performing satisfactorily due to improper operations and maintenance.
- There is sufficient evidence to suggest that the problem, though complex, is solvable. While it is not realistic to aim for zero water pollution, a level of socially acceptable pollution, respecting the integrity of ecosystems and service provision, can be reached.
- The benefits to our health, and in terms of economic development and environmental sustainability, business opportunities and ‘green’ jobs far compensate the costs of wastewater management.
Source: The Hindu
