EDITORIALS

Toxic Water
Polluted water is killing millions of already malnourished children.

any children under five die each year in India not from
life-threatening diseases but because they are poor
and do not get enough to eat. Even if they did get
adequate nutrition, their chances of surviving beyond five years
are limited because the water they drink will kill them. And even if
they survive their daily deadly dose of contaminated water,
they will live half lives, debilitated by disease, stunted and
weak. Despite numerous studies that repeat the statistic that
one-third of all deaths of children under five in India are due to
diarrhoea and pneumonia, the strategies to change this depressing
fact have failed to work.
This is possibly because the emphasis in dealing with malnutrition has remained on providing nutrition and not enough
on dealing with the environmental factors such as polluted water
that contribute to the disease burden. If the government was
waiting for more proof, one more report has been produced
convincingly making the case for dealing with what it calls the
time bomb of increasing water pollution. Water in India: Situation
and Prospect, a report released recently by UNICEF, documents
the ugly reality of water pollution in India. It states that 70% of
surface water and a growing amount of groundwater in India is
contaminated by chemical, organic and inorganic, biological
and toxic pollutants. This happens because untreated industrial
effluents and municipal waste are dumped into water sources.
Chemical pollution run-offs from agricultural fields as well as the
high incidence of open defecation in rural areas are a further
cause for contaminating groundwater in rural areas, often the
only source of water for millions of residents.
The data on water pollution over the years has clearly indicated that the situation, far from improving, has become worse.
Despite having pollution control boards around the country, a
central pollution board based in New Delhi and a slew of laws
that were formulated to deal with this problem, there appears
to be no stopping the deterioration in water quality. The reasons
are twofold. One, with a growing population especially in urban
areas, municipalities are simply not equipped to deal with the
quantity of waste that is generated much of this is dumped

Economic & Political Weekly

EPW

march 2, 2013

vol xlviII no 9

untreated in landfills or in water bodies. And, two, these water

bodies, especially rivers, are unable to dilute this massive
quantity of contamination because their flows have reduced
over time due to increased withdrawals as well as environmental
deterioration upstream. These two factors together have made
the biological contamination of our major rivers alarming.
The problem of untreated industrial effluents is equally worrisome.
According to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), out of 88
industrial clusters, 43 are critically polluted. In many cases,
untreated industrial effluents continue to be dumped into the
nearest water body, sometimes a river that also supplies water to
urban residents. This heady mix of toxic chemicals is often the
only source of water for the urban poor who do not have the capacity to treat the water before they consume it. As a result, the
cycle of illness and death is played out, especially amongst children.
Even interventions, such as feeding programmes, make little
difference to children who suffer continuous bouts of diarrhoea
and other water-related diseases as well as pneumonia and
worm infestations. No medical intervention can work in such a
crisis. Data from urban slum settlements reveals that even
though families have access to some form of medical care, and
also are able to earn enough to feed their children, the incidence of malnutrition and stunting remains unacceptably high.
The strategy to deal with this pathetic state of affairs is so obvious as to barely need repetition. With growing urbanisation, it is
imperative that investment is sought and found for waste treatment. It is simply unacceptable that a majority of domestic and
municipal waste is released into waterbodies with minimal or no
treatment. Similarly, it is unacceptable that an estimated 68.5 million cubic metres of industrial effluents are dumped untreated
everyday into waterbodies despite the existence of pollution control boards that are tasked to check this. If penalties and the law
are not sufficient to make these polluters pay, then there is reason
to revise them and ensure that they are implemented. The problem
in both instances is not necessarily funds or the absence of rules
and regulations. It is the absence of political will that makes the
health and survival of Indias children a high enough priority.