Abstract
The 2020 COVID-19 pandemic has not only resulted in immense loss of human life, but it also rampaged across the global economy and socio-cultural structure. Worldwide, countries im-posed stringent mass quarantine and lockdowns to curb the transmission of the pathogen. While the efficacy of such lockdown is debatable, several reports suggest that the reduced human activities provided an inadvertent benefit by briefly improving air and water quality. India observed a 68-days long, nation-wide, stringent lockdown between 24 March and 31 May 2020. Here, we delineate the impact of the lockdown on groundwater and river sourced drinking water sustainability in the arsenic polluted Ganges river basin of India, which is regarded as one of the largest and most polluted river basins in the world. Using groundwater arsenic measurements from drinking water wells and water quality data from river monitoring stations, we have studied ~700 km stretches of the middle and lower reaches of the As (arsenic)-polluted parts of the river for pre-lockdown (Jan-uary-March 2020), syn-lockdown (April-May), and post-lockdown periods (June-July). We provide the extent of As pollution-free groundwater vis-à-vis river water and examine alleviation from lock-down as an opportunity for sustainable drinking water sources. The overall decrease of biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) and chemical oxygen demand (COD) concentrations and increase of pH suggests a general improvement in Ganges water quality during the lockdown in contrast to pre-and-post lockdown periods, potentially caused by reduced effluent. We also demonstrate that land use (agricultural/industrial) and land cover (urban-periurban/rural) in the vicinity of the river reaches seems to have a strong influence on river pollutants. The observations provide a cautious optimistic scenario for potentially developing sustainable drinking water sources in the arsenic-affected Ganges river basin in the future by using these observations as the basis of proper scientif-ically prudent, spatially adaptive strategies, and technological interventions.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 2832 |
| Pages (from-to) | 1-22 |
| Number of pages | 22 |
| Journal | International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health |
| Volume | 18 |
| Issue number | 6 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Mar 2 2021 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Funding
Acknowledgments: This work could not have been executed without the cooperation of the Bihar Pollution Control Board, Government of Bihar. However, the ideas presented in this report are those of the authors and have not been officially endorsed by any other person or organization. The work was partly supported by Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India (vide no. DST/TM/INDO-UK/2K17/55(C) & 55(G) through NERC-DST Newton-Bhabha project (FAR-GANGA) and Ministry of Earth Science, Government of India (vide no. MOES/PAMC/H&C/23/2013-PC-II). The authors also express their gratitude to Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur, Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bangalore. Special thanks to members of Applied Policy Advisory to Hydro-sciences Group at IIT Kharagpur for various supports. Funding: This work was supported by FAR-GANGA project jointly funded by Department of Science and Technology ((DST/TM/INDO478UK/2K17/55(C) & 55(G)) in India and NERC (NE/R003386/1) in UK. The DM and AKG acknowledges funding from UKIERI in conjunction with DST in India (DST-UKIERI2016-17-0064). This work was supported by FAR-GANGA project jointly funded by Department of Science and Technology ((DST/TM/INDO478UK/2K17/55(C) & 55(G)) in India and NERC (NE/R003386/1) in UK. The DM and AKG acknowledges funding from UKIERI in conjunction with DST in India (DST-UKIERI2016-17-0064).
Keywords
- BOD
- COD
- COVID-19
- Fecal coliform
- Ganges river
- Lockdown
- Water quality