1.

2 Pollution of Water Resources

It is a well known fact that polluted environment has a detrimental effect on the
health of people, animal life and vegetation. For the overall development and prosperity
of the people the rapid industrialization is the need of any country but industrialization
brings with it the attendant problem of waste disposal. It has its inevitable effects in the
form of pollution of air, water and soil, depending on the type of industry, nature of raw
katerials used and the manufacturing processes involved (Ghosh, 1966, Dolar et al.,
1972; Abdul Baki and Anderson, 1973 etc.). In most cases, the liquid industrial
effluents get mixed with the streams or rivers, which in due course serve as the source
for irrigation of crops or for other domestic or industrial purposes. The industrial
effluents contain several toxic materials, which lead to poor crop growth.
Many industries in India presently discharge their untreated or partially treated
wastewater on land or in natural streams. This causes pollution of surface as well as
ground waters. Waste water when disposed off on land or in natural streams causes
physical, chemical and bacteriological nuisance. Due to lack of treatment and improper
mode of disposal, the breaches are polluted and the natural water carry organic matter
which is decomposed by micro-organisms increasing bio-chemical oxygen demand
(BOD) of water, reduced dissolved oxygen (DO) in water and non-oxidisable
substances increase chemical oxygen demand (COD). When such polluted water is
used for irrigation the fertility of soil is also seriously arsenic, hexavalent chromium,
cadmium and cyanide, in toxic concentrations endangering a large segment of human,
livestock and aquatic population.
Shrinking and destruction of fresh water resources is feared to be one of the
major and serious impacts of industrial wastes. India, the land of holy rivers is fast
becoming a land of highly polluted and toxic rivers. In global context the scientific
evidence surely indicates that it is the western industrialized nations where the situation
is acutely grave and they are at the point of no return. In India, waste water from almost
all the mills are being discharged untreated er on land or into water courses. Since most
of the mills are located in the countryside, effluents are generally spread on land. Even
at places where some treatment facility does exist, it is not being operated properly.
 With the growth of the industry, in the country, pollution in natural water by the
industrial waste has increased tremendously. The pollution is objectionable and
damaging for varied reasons. Of primary importance are the possible hazards to the
public health. Of a lesser consequence, but still very real, is aesthetic damage to the
attributes of streams and destruction of the economic values of clean natural water. Due
to lack of treatment and improper mode of disposal the beaches are polluted and the
streams carry deadly substances.
Towards this, most of the states do not have enough legislation to control the
pollution. A few of the states like Maharashtra use the Factory Act and Nuisance Act as
indirect means of controlling water pollution. Bureau of Indian Standards with co-
operation of the leading members of Public Health Engineering profession has come
with standards necessary for water pollution control and guide lines for the treatment of
certain industrial waste. Several big cities have their own ordinance promulgated for the
discharge of industrial waste in to the rivers and sewers, and on to fields in order to
ensure that the wastes do not cause any harm to the public health and also to the
environment. Even then in recent years, pollution from industrial waste has become a
sizeable problem in Tamil Nadu (Durairajan, 1972). Organic pollution has been caused
by sago industries, tanneries and sugar factories, which have imparted, to well waters
obnoxious odour and colour. The effluents from tanning industries, containing dissolved
solids exceeding 10000 mg/l, are discharged into fields, dry gullies and river beds,
rendering the ground water altogether unfit for drinking and even irrigation, polluting up
to distances of a kilometre.
The rapid growth of pulp and paper industry has posed serious environmental
problems throughout the world. The pulp and paper industries have typical waste water
problems. The effluents of pulp and paper are highly coloured and have high pH and
total dissolved solids, high BOD and COD. Problem of pollution with the effluents of pulp
and paper industries Is due to its decay and degradation of organic matter. When the
effluents are discharged into surface water body cause depletion of oxygen thereby
affecting aquatic life, while open land discharge of the same results in release of
obnoxious odour.
 During the last four decades there have been many changes in the foot hill
(Tarai-Bhabar) region of Western Himalayas including Nainital, Udham Singh Nager
and Rampur Districts. Not only the dense forests have been cleared, there has been an
inprecedented increase in urbanization, industrialization and agricultural activities.
Intensive use of nitrogenous fertilizers, has been on increase for better crop production.
Many new industries such as Pulp and Paper Mills, Sugar factories etc. have come up.
Urbanisation has also increased. As a consequence in the last few years there have
reports of changes in ground water quality by the people inhabiting the area.

1.4 OBJECTIVES
Considering the above, the present investigation was undertaken with the
following major objectives
1. To characterize the physic-chemical properties of water of the Gola River,
effluent of Century Pulp and Paper Mill being added to Gola River through a
channel, and of the ground water in the vicinity of Gola River to assess the
pollution level of water bodies.
2. To assess the quality of the above mentioned of surface and ground waters for
their suitability for irrigation, industrial and other uses.

4. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The present study was taken up with the objective to characterise the surface
water and ground water, collected from Gola River, Pulp and Paper Mill effluent stream
and hand pump near the Shantipuri village in U.S. Nagar Tarai area Utttar Pradesh for
the assessment of the pollution load due to the effluent of pulp and paper mill, and to
evaluate the quality them for their suitability for irrigation, industrial and other purposes.
The results obtained are given below:
4.1 Physical characteristics of water samples
4.1.1 Temperature
 The water samples were collected on two different dates, i.e. March 10, 2000
and May 26, 2000. The temperature was recorded promptly after taking the sample. It
varied from 17.5 to 21 , which was within the tolerance limit prescribed for the inland
surface and ground waters.