Arpita R| TNN | Jan 27, 2017, 08.17 AM IST
BENGALURU: One third of what Bengaluru now is actually the catchment area of Vrishabhavathi river, which flows southwest for about 50 km before joining Arkavathi river. And the city empties about one third — roughly five million litres daily — of the waste water it generates into the waterbody, unmindful of catastrophic consequences to people downstream.
According to researchers, all regulation and monitoring is a sham when it comes to checking pollution of Vrishabhavathi river.
Priyanka Jamwal, Sharachchandra Lele, Bejoy Thomas and Veena Srinivasan, fellows, Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (Atree), who have been studying contamination levels at three different sites along the river’s course for the past three years, said the waterbody is contaminated by not just biological waste, but discarded material from heavy industries which release untreated effluents into the water.
“The state pollution control board considers four parameters for judging whether or not the water is suitable for irrigation but none of them takes into account the metal content in the water which makes it an insufficient measure. Each watershed should have location and situation specific criteria,” Priyanka said.
She said authorities take water samples from 9am to 5pm when industries do not release their waste. “We took water samples every hour, including at night, and found that the levels of nickel, zinc, chromium and other metals were at their peak,” she pointed out.
