Tribune News Service
Vijay Mohan
Chandigarh, May 27
The Geological Survey of India (GSI) is taking on a undertaking to decide the extent of contamination by hint parts and heavy metals in groundwater in components of Punjab and Haryana and put together a geo-environmental map to determine contaminated and non-contaminated areas.
The undertaking, to be executed over a two-year interval, will cowl areas in the districts of Ludhiana, Jalandhar and Nawanshahr in Punjab and components of Rohtak and Bhiwani districts in Haryana, in accordance to GSI officers.
Trace parts and heavy metals are these whose presence in atmosphere is in very low amount and may be poisonous to people if consumed at excessive ranges over lengthy intervals. These embody mercury, nickel, platinum, thallium, uranium, lead, iron, arsenic, manganese and radionuclides.
The undertaking may even hint the geogenic, that’s, elements originating in the soil, in addition to anthropogenic, that’s associated to human exercise, causes of the contamination and counsel doable remedial measures.
GSI will execute the undertaking in affiliation with the Central Ground Water Board (CGWB), with which a memorandum of understanding had been signed final yr to perform collaborative research and trade knowledge, GSI officers stated.
The undertaking has been initiated in the backdrop of official stories that 13 districts of Punjab have arsenic values nicely above the protection restrict. Further, groundwater samples collected from 15,384 properties in Punjab indicated heavy steel contamination.
GSI has earlier carried out a number of hydro-geological and geo-environmental research in totally different components of Punjab and Haryana to find the incidence of groundwater and assess the standard of groundwater from open wells.
High values of arsenic and fluoride have been reported in the groundwater of Majha belt in Amritsar and Gurdaspur, of selenium from Doaba belt in Hoshiarpur and of uranium and fluoride in sure areas of Punjab and Haryana.
According to specialists, the extremely industrialised areas of Ludhiana and Jalandhar districts of Punjab are additionally affected by heavy steel air pollution. Seven districts of Punjab and 14 districts of Haryana have fluoride focus past the permissible limits, in accordance to the hydrological investigation carried out by the CGWB.
Some research have indicated industrial and home effluents, aerosols, fly ash, exhaust from fertiliser vegetation, sewage sludges and pesticides as possible causes for the presence of excessive ranges of poisonous contaminants in these areas.
