River Pollution

River Pollution 

• The increasing domestic, municipal, industrial, and agricultural demand for river water has a natural impact on its water quality. As a result, rivers are losing volume as more water is drained from them. On the other hand, untreated sewage and industrial effluents are evacuated into rivers in large quantities. This affects not only the water quality but also the river's ability to self-cleanse.
• For example, given the sufficient streamflow, Ganga water can dilute and assimilate pollution loads within 20 kilometres of major cities. However, increasing urbanisation and industrialisation make this impossible, and the pollution level of many rivers has been rising.
• The Ganga Action Plan (GAP) was launched in 1985, to start off the country's river cleaning programme. In 1995, the Ganga Action Plan was expanded to include other rivers as part of the National River Conservation Plan (NRCP). The goal of the NRCP is to improve the water quality of the country's rivers, which are major water sources, through the implementation of pollultion abatement work.