Water Pollution In Vijayawada

WATER POLLUTION IN ELURU CANAL – VIJAYAWADA

Introduction:

Water pollution is referred to the contamination of water bodies such as lakes, ponds, canals, rivers, oceans and ground water etc by physical and chemical substances. This occurs when pollutants are directly or indirectly discharged into the water. It leads to environmental degradation effecting the plants and organisms living in the water bodies. Water pollution may also occur from natural causes such as sedimentation, volcanoes, storms, floods, earthquakes etc. Though earth is covered by 70% of water, hardly 2% is the drinkable water. Water pollution is on the major problem that demands attention to deal with the emerging water crisis due to mismanagement of resources and growing

Discharge of waste from all the industrial plants located on the banks of the water body into it is an example of non-point source water pollution. As the pollution enters into the environment at different places at once, it is less likely to identify the most affected area as in point source pollution.

Water Pollution in Vijayawada: Vijayawada is located on the banks of Krishna River. At Krishna delta, we can observe deterioration in the quality of Krishna water. The water in this river is used to fulfill the needs of most of the population in Vijayawada and Guntur cities, Eluru, Gudivada, Machilipatnam and thousands of villages in Krishna, Guntur, Prakasam and west Godavari districts. The water from this river is diverted into three canals from a reservoir at Prakasam barrage, namely Eluru canal, Bandar canal and Ryves canal. The water in the reservoir and canals got polluted by several municipal sewerages and solid waste that are directly discharged into it. At many places VMC itself diverts sullage into canals. For example, VMC lets out sullage of about 20mld and sewerage generated from One Town area into eastern canal. The sullage water emits harmful stench, which is harmful to human beings and

 Heavy metals from motor vehicles and acid mine drainage

 Use of water as a coolant by power plants and industrial manufactures leads to thermal pollution

Effects of Water Pollution:

 Ground water contamination through pesticides causes reproductive damage within wild life in echo system.

 Disturbance in the natural ecological balance due to sewage, fertilizer and agricultural runoff containing organic materials into water and in turn increases the growth of algae which leads to depletion of ozone layer.

 Industrial chemicals and agricultural pesticides that got mixed up in water bodies’ effects aquatic environment and can accumulate with the fishes which are later eaten by humans, if the fishes are poisoned by the pollutants, interferers with the development of the nervous system in fetuses and young children.

 Water pollution leads to flooding, because of the accumulation of solid waste and soil erosion in streams and rivers.

 As Oil spills does not dissolve in water, it leads to suffocation for aquatic habitat.

 Aquatic animals are caught and kill due to Plastic materials dumped in water bodies.

Control measures