Chemical Pollution

Pollution levels rising post-lockdown in cities in south India

How clean air gains of the lockdown and monsoon periods have been now lost with the reopening of the economy and with the onset of the winter. Amita Bhaduri posted 2 months 1 week ago

An analysis was done by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) of winter pollution (until January 26, 2021) in India’s five southern states - a vulnerable but poorly monitored region from the air quality perspective.

Air quality management requires regional approach to implement clean air action plans, says CSE (Image: Pixy)

Delhi smog can’t be blamed on crop fires

There is more to Delhi's air pollution than stubble burning in Punjab and Haryana. Amita Bhaduri posted 3 months 2 weeks ago

The small window of a fortnight between rice harvesting and wheat sowing compels farmers to burn the crop residue (Image: Neil Palmer, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY SA-4.0 Generic)

Air pollution: Filling the gaps

Controlling air pollution needs long-term holistic solutions such as a reduction in the usage of biomass, coal and lignite, and agricultural residues. Amita Bhaduri posted 3 months 3 weeks ago

Air pollution killed 16.7 lakh Indians and led to an economic loss of Rs.

All Indian cities like Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Bengaluru and Hyderabad surpass the air quality standards by a significant margin (Image: United Nations; CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

Holy waters, unholy outcomes!

A study found that mass bathing events in the Kshipra river not only led to high pollution, but also to the presence of multidrug resistant pathogenic bacteria in its waters, posing a risk to health. Aarti Kelkar Khambete posted 7 months 2 weeks ago

Rivers are revered and considered holy since times immemorial in India and mass bathing in some rivers is an age-old ritual. A holy dip and a holy sip of the river waters are considered to be a highly purifying. But is the dip really cleansing at all when almost all the rivers in India are known to be highly polluted?

A priest offers water to the sun at Ramghat on the Kshipra river at Simhastha (Image Source: Makarand Purohit)

Locals struggle with WASH issues post-Amphan

Cyclone Amphan wreaks havoc in the Sunderbans at a time when the country was already battling a large spread of Covid-19. Amita Bhaduri posted 7 months 4 weeks ago

UN’s recognition of safe and clean drinking water and sanitation as a human right recently hit a decade and this makes us ponder even more about the situation in the Sundarbans after the Amphan cyclone. The destruction caused by Amphan in the Sundarbans poses a massive threat to the very right to safe and clean drinking water and sanitation of the people living there.

Having no source of water is proving to be extremely difficult for the people living in the Sundarbans. (Image: WaterAid, Subhrajit Sen)

Groundwater extraction: NGT gets strict with commercial entities

Policy matters this week Swati Bansal posted 8 months ago

NGT bans granting general permissions for groundwater extraction to commercial entities

NGT gets strict with commercial entities (Source: IWP Flickr album)

A third of world’s children poisoned by lead: UNICEF

Urgent action needed to abolish dangerous practices including the informal recycling of lead acid batteries. Amita Bhaduri posted 8 months 1 week ago

Around 1 in 3 children – up to 800 million globally – have blood lead levels at or above 5 micrograms per decilitre (µg/dL), a level that the World Health Organization and the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have stated requires global and regional interventions.

Two girls recycle metal from used batteries at a workshop in Dhaka, Bangladesh (Image: UNICEF/Naser Siddique)

Reinventing waste management during Covid-19

There is an urgent need to revamp our municipal waste management systems. Amita Bhaduri posted 9 months ago

India stares at a Covid-19 induced waste management crisis and there is a need to strengthen waste management services. An important sanitary barrier to prevent the dissemination of illnesses and diseases, waste management’s impact on the world’s healthcare systems, and the economy are significant.

A lab technician discarding disposable gloves (Image: CDC/Kimberly Smith, Christine Ford acquired from Public Health Image Library)

Water fleas can warn of water pollution!

Water fleas, tiny organisms found in water can help save rivers! Read this interview with freshwater biologist, Dr Sameer Padhye, to know how. Aarti Kelkar Khambete posted 9 months 2 weeks ago

Water fleas are small crustaceans widely found in varied aquatic habitats. They are very sensitive to changes in the water quality of water bodies such as rivers and streams that they inhabit.

Water fleas can warn of water pollution (Image Source: Sameer Padhye)

Covid-19 threatens to worsen India's water crisis

Regulations for water use, innovation for treating antimicrobial resistance and monitoring of infected plastic leakage needs to be prioritised to curtail the water crisis. Amita Bhaduri posted 10 months 3 weeks ago

While the world has got a reprieve from pollution with emerging wildlife, cleaner air and clearer water bodies during lockdown, Covid-19 might actually be worsening the present water crisis in an inconspicuous manner. The world is still developing more clarity on safeguards that can prevent transmission, treatment and post treatment complications.