Revitalization of Rivers in India Draft Policy - Isha Guru Jaggi Vasudev

Revitalization of Rivers In India
Draft Policy Recommendation
Thus, a concept of “Designated Best Use” (DBU) was developed. According
to this concept, out of several uses a water body is put to, the use which
demands the highest quality of water is termed as “designated best use”,
and accordingly the water body is designated to that. Primary water quality
criteria for different uses have been identified. A summary of the use-based
classification system is presented in the Table 9 (Centre Pollution Control
Board, February 2015).
(c)
Causes of Pollution of Rivers
The typical causes of pollution of rivers are the following:
(i)
(ii)
(iii)
Domestic Sewage, often mixed with storm water
Industrial Effluents
Agricultural Chemicals Run-offs
(d)
Extent of Pollution of Rivers
Based on the long term assessment of water quality data, 275 rivers
out of 445 rivers monitored under the National Water Monitoring
Programme are identified as polluted. The sources of pollution range
include sewage, industrial effluent and chemicals from agricultural
run-off.
The river stretches not meeting the prescribed criteria are designated
as polluted stretches. As the level of BOD varies widely in river
stretches the same polluted stretches are prioritized in five categories
as follows:
(i) Priority Class I: Monitoring locations exceeding BOD concentration
30 mg/l has been considered as the standard of a sewage treatment
plant and in a river it appears without dilution. (River locations having
water quality exceeding discharge standards for BOD to fresh water
sources)
320 Annexures