Search

This article provides updated status of the arsenic affected rural habitations in India, summarizes the policy initiatives of the Ministry of Drinking Water & Sanitation (Government of India), reviews the technologies for arsenic treatment and analyses the progress made by states in tackling arsenic problems in rural habitations. It also provides a list of constraints based on experiences and recommends suggested measures to tackle arsenic problems in an holistic manner. It is expected that the paper would be useful for policy formulators in states, non-government organizations, researchers of academic and scientific institutions and programme managers working in the area of arsenic mitigation in drinking water, especially in developing countries, as it provides better insights compared to other available information in India on mitigating arsenic problems in drinking water in rural areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Water reuse is recognized as a tool to increase water supply in peri-urban areas of semi-arid and arid regions of the world. However, it is an option rarely explored for rural areas in developing countries, and has not been documented extensively in the scientific literature. This paper presents results from 6 greywater reuse systems which were built with the objective to augment water supply and to provide sanitation in rural low income areas of Madhya Pradesh, India. The systems are based on reclaiming greywater from bathing for the use in toilet flushing and kitchen garden irrigation. The reuse systems were implemented based on the scientific rationale presented in the WHO (2006) guidelines. The paper presents evidence from the operation and evaluation of the greywater treatment plants under field conditions between 2005 and 2008. The paper concludes that greywater is a highly cost effective solution for water scarcity. In this study, reusing greywater resulted in a 60% increase in water availability, a reduction in open defecation and a fourfold increase in food availability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper suggests an approach to solve the Indian coastal water quality management problem based on waste load allocation studies and application of modelling techniques. The waste load allocation procedure suggested in this paper assists in deriving a quantitative relationship between the waste load discharged and the receiving coastal water concentrations or effects of concern as presented by water qualitystandards. The approach sequentially addresses the topics of hydrodynamics, mass transport, water quality kinetics and problems of bioaccumulation and toxicity. The water quality modelling section describesthe role of water quality modelling in WLA procedure. The paper alsodiscusses the criteria and procedures for formulation of coastal zone management plans. The second part of the paper illustrates the concept with the help of brief case studies wherein simple screening procedures and the water quality modeling techniques have been applied. The first case study describes the application of the WASP model to arrive at the level of treatment required for municipal wastewater being discharged into Mumbai coastal waters so that the designated coastal water quality criteria is not violated and the degree of treatment is optimized. The second case study deals with the study of differentoptions relating to disposal of tailings from an iron ore beneficiation plant keeping in view the impact of these tailings on marine water quality and ecology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The quantity and quality of water available for irrigation is variable from place to place in India. There are regions where the farmers have no access to any surface water body, nor do they have any groundwater source yielding water of acceptable quality for irrigation. Insome of the coastal areas, neither surface water nor ground water ofacceptable quality may be available. In such areas, setting up an industry and transporting good quality surface water from long distances to the site may be useful for farmers in the adjacent areas; the treated wastewater from the industry may constitute a dependable sourcefor irrigation. This paper gives a brief account of some of these peculiar situations. Whatever the situation, it is necessary that the water used for irrigation is of an acceptable quality for the crop concerned, growing on the soil of the site. For a given crop, during itsgrowth cycle, it is essential that the concentration of the soil solution around the root zone with regard to dissolved solids and specific ions, does not exceed the tolerance limit for the crop. The tolerance limits for various crops are different, representing 8- to 10-fold variation. Soil type and meteorological parameters of the site, fora given irrigation scheduling, also govern as to what will be the maximum soil solution concentration during the growth cycle of the crop. For a given crop, given soil and prevailing climate, the quality ofirrigation water and management ultimately determine this maximum level. At a given place, the type of soil and meteorological parameterscannot be managed by human beings. The farmer can, however, exercisesome control on the quality of irrigation water by selecting an appropriate source or changing the quality by dilution and/or he can makecertain changes in the agronomic control and crop selection. In thispaper, an attempt has been made to describe a few more important irrigation water quality criteria which will be easy for the users to follow and ar [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Concern over agricultural diffuse pollution sources in integrated water quality management has been growing recently. Such sources are likely to be even more critical in developing countries, including India, where agriculture and rural habitats are still dominant, unlike the G7 or other affluent industrialised nations. A number of special features of the Indian scene need to be considered. These include: (i) extremely varying rainfall and stream-flow patterns; (ii) still largely traditional agricultural practices with average application of fertilizers and pesticides and significant areas under dry farming or only marginal irrigation; (iii) a very large cattle population, with agriculture almost always linked with animal husbandry; (iv) a culture of living close to the river (if not in the river) with dominating instream uses of bathing, washing, cattle wading, waste disposal, etc. and large-scale floodplain farming; and (v) scant respect for rules, regulations and laws alongside an extremely weak law-enforcement machinery. The paper shows that in the non-monsoon (non-flood) periods, which may account for all but 2 months of a year, agricultural diffusepollution sources seem to have no impact on stream water quality. During these periods flows are low to minimal and pollution is dominated by the in-stream uses, sullage waters of rural communities and point discharges from urban/industrial sources, if any. Pollution due to agricultural return waters, either as wash-off or as seepage, appearsto be rare during the 8-10 fair weather months. However, surface wash-off of pollutants from agricultural sources becomes the dominant factor during flood flows, and seepage/drainage from agricultural fields/soils continues to pollute streams for a month or two after the monsoons are over. Application of chemical fertilizers and pesticides (or any other agricultural chemicals) in India is still low compared todeveloped countries, and while eutrophication due to high levels of was [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]