CGWB to conduct survey of ground water quality in 21 states

The Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) will undertake a survey in 21 states to find if those chemicals that could harm the people's health are present in the ground water or not, its member Dipankar Saha said today.
The CGWB, which functions under the Water Ministry, will recommend these states to avoid potable water being extracted from wells, dug immediately beneath the surface, due to huge possibility of presence of chemicals such as arsenic and fluorides.
He said these chemicals are "utterly dangerous" if consumed by humans.
West Bengal, Assam, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan are among the states where survey will be conducted.

He said these states have used fertilisers excessively in the last couple of decades, leading to accumulation of arsenic and fluorides immediately beneath the surface, and thereby contaminating the ground water.
The focus of the survey would be to dig wells, deeper below the surface of 300 metre, in which there is less possibility of these chemicals being present as of now, Shah said.

The dug up wells would be handed over to the states concerned for necessary water supply for drinking purposes, he added.
A report, jointly prepared by the PHD Chamber and Water Aid, was also released on the occasion.

The report warned that India will become a water stressed nation by 2020, keeping in view the fact that the average availability of water is reducing steadily with growing population.
The Chamber recommended that a political consensus needs to be created for judicious use of water and recycling technologies need to be brought in from advanced nations such as Israel, a release said.
As many as 85 per cent of India's drinking water needs are fulfilled by aquifers and 62 million people are suffering from various levels of fluorosis--a chronic condition marked by mottling of teeth and, if severe, calcification of the ligaments.

Out of total 17.13 lakh water habitations in India, 1.76 lakh are found to be contaminated.