Cooum and Sabarmati: Most Polluted Rivers of India

NEW DELHI: The Central Pollution Control Board has issued a list of rivers in the country along with the pollution levels in the river and from which part of the river the sample was collected.

The quality of water or the level of pollutants is judged by checking its Biochemical Oxygen Demand or BOD. It is the amount of dissolved oxygen that is needed for aerobic organisms to break down the organic material in the sample. The higher this number goes, the worse the quality of water becomes.

According to the report recently released by the Central Pollution Control Board, the Cooum river located in Chennai of Tamil Nadu has the most polluted waters in the country. The BOD of a sample of water taken between Avadi and Satya Nagar came out to be 345 mg per litre, which is the highest among all 603 river sources that the organisation has studied.

Although the Gujarat government has invested heavily in the development of the riverfront the Sabarmati river in the state of Gujarat, the pollution levels of this river have been reported to be very high. With a BOD of 292 mg per litre, it has the second-highest level of impurities in the country. With a BOD of 287, the Bahela river of Uttar Pradesh comes third on the list of polluted rivers in the country.

Out of the ten rivers of Assam studied for this report, only the Bharalu river located in Guwahati has been listed as Priority 1, meaning that action needs to be taken regarding its rejuvenation. A sample taken near the Ulubari region showed a BOD of 76 gms per litre.

These numbers have been published in the 'Polluted River Stretches for Restoration of Water Quality, 2022' as marked by the Central Pollution Control Board. While several parts of the country show a negative trend, Assam has shown improvements in terms of water quality in rivers.

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