Hotspots

Due to the natural transport of contaminated surface waters generally from urban areas to the coastal regions many regions of the coastal belt in India has been declared “Hot spots” indicating to the fragile nature of quality of water. Similarly, all regions of the country that does not meet even the water quality criteria can also be considered as potential hot spots. Based on water availability and quantity, areas that are generally deficient in rainfall, such as Gujarat, Rajasthan and Tamilnadu are also potential hot spots. In addition, regions that have specific problems such as the fluoride problem (Ajmer district, Rajasthan and Ananthapur district in Andhra Pradesh) and arsenic problem (seven districts in west Bengal) are also hot spots. Since the entire country faces one or other type of water quality problems, potentially there is hotspot at every corner simply based on the fact that more than 70% of health problems in our country are caused by water borne diseases.

Regions such as Ahmedabad is reported to have sub-surface waters in some villages showing high levels of mercury due to seepages of industrial effluents. Even in Delhi, highly acidic industrial effluents from metal based small scale factories discharge into small water bodies that in turn drain into the river Yamuna without undergoing any treatment though all small scale industries are supposed to have common effluent treatment plants. Hence all water bodies are potential hot spots in India.