A study has found widespread uranium contamination in groundwater from aquifers in 16 Indian states.
What are the findings?
The main source of Uranium is natural.
But human factors such as groundwater-table decline and nitrate pollution may exacerbate the problem.
Over-exploitation of groundwater for irrigation also have exacerbated the problem.
Many of India’s aquifers are composed of clay, silt and gravel carried down from the Himalayas by streams or uranium-rich granitic rocks.
When overpumping of these aquifers’ groundwater occurs and their water levels decline, it induces conditions that enhance uranium enrichment in the shallow groundwater that remains.
Nearly a third of all water wells tested in Rajasthan contained uranium levels that exceed the WHO safe drinking water standards.
It also identified aquifers contaminated with similarly high levels in 26 other districts in northwestern India and nine districts in southern or southeastern India.
So there is a need to revise current water-quality monitoring programmes in India and re-evaluate human health risks in areas of high uranium prevalence.
