Marine pollution level high in tier-I,II coastal cities: Govt

The pollution level was found to be high in the coastal cities of Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata and few tier-II cities, the government today said.

"The sea water quality data collected under Coastal Ocean Monitoring and Prediction System (COMPAS) programme being implemented by Earth Science System Organisation-Integrated Coastal Marine Area Management (ESSO-ICMAM), indicate that there are no high level of pollution in coastal waters of India, except at few tier one (Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai) and tier 2 cities (Mangalore, Kochi, Puducherry, Visakhapatnam).

"In some occasions, where high pathogenic bacteria load was observed was largerly due to untreated sewage discharge. Further nutrient loads, sporadic algal blooms were observed occasionally," Harsh Vardhan, Minister of Earth Sciences said in a written response to a question in Rajya Sabha.
 
He added that sea water data and status of coastal water quality are disseminated to the Coastal State Pollution Boards of the Ministry of Environment and Forests and Climate Change for implementating necessary mitigating measures.