Rajat Banerji | April, 2002

Every month we feature a report on a polluted Indian river - this time around, the River Damodar in the lower Ganga Basin. With 40 per cent of India's reserves in coal and 90 per cent of mica reserves, the basin's mineral wealth poses the biggest threat to the waterway's survival.

This is not a very pretty story about the once-sparkling Damodar that is now one of India's most polluted rivers.

For starters: Thirty-three species of fish are endangered; while carp fingerlings introduced into its waters do not survive longer than 96 hours.

	The Damodar is the primary source of drinking water for thousands.

Vegetables utilizing its irrigation water display severe disruption in normal cell functioning, with nuclei and chromosomes also affected. So high are the levels of oil and grease, along with heavy metals and phenollic compounds, that the river water is unfit for human use. The Damodar has indeed borne the brunt of industrial development.

As a small tributary in the lower Ganga Basin, the 595 km river starts its journey in the Palamau hills of Jharkhand state. It joins the Hugli at Falta, 55 km downstream of Kolkatta (Calcutta). The river basin has a catchment area of 23,170 sq. kms. There are four dams, one barrage, and 2,495 kms of canal and five thermal power stations in the basin.

With 82 per cent of the 1,200 mm annual rainfall occurring in June-September, the Damodar valley has been ravaged by floods for centuries: first recorded flood was in 1730.

The Damodar starts in highlands that are rich in mineral wealth, whose rampant exploitation has led to severe pollution of the river.

Devastating floods in 1943 led to the formation of a Board of Inquiry headed by the Maharaja of Burdwan and the noted physicist, Dr Meghnad Saha. This board recommended the formation of a water authority, along the lines of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) in the USA. M.L. Voorduin, a senior engineer at TVA, was then called in to make recommendations for comprehensive development for the valley, in terms of flood control, irrigation, power generation and navigation. This eventually led to the Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) Act of 1948, and the formation of India's first multipurpose river valley project.

Industrial boom
The basin is rich in metallic and non-metallic minerals, with substantial deposits of iron ore and bauxite. Some 90 per cent of the country's mica and 40 per cent of its coal reserves - 80,403.87 million tons- are in this valley, as is Jharia, India's largest and oldest coking coal producing area. The mineral wealth in this valley has meant considerable industrial growth and urban centers.

There are around 50 large-scale and 100 small scale and medium industries in the basin. This includes 15 coal washeries, five thermal power stations, and four fertilizer and chemical plants. According to the Central Inland Capture Fisheries Research Institute (CIFRI), Barrackpore, 10,000 tonnes of fly ash is released into the river, every day.

The Asansol-Durgapur- Raniganj industrial belt in fact, has no water source of its own and as such, depends on DVCs feeder canal. And herein lies one of the greatest ironies of river exploitation, which is replicated in most of the Indian river-valleys. Two storm-water drains, the Nunial nullah from Asansol, and the Tamla nullah from Durgapur, return toxic laden waters to the river.

Effluent from industries and wastewater from the mining and mineral processing activities on or near the river, have added high levels of pollution load and silt. So high are the levels of oil and grease and, heavy metals and phenollic compounds, that the river water has been designated unfit for use. Yet the river remains the primary source of water for thousands of rural, industrial and domestic users in the basin.

Evidence aplenty
The impact of this wanton discharge is documented in a report, "Pollution in the Damodar - a case study", by Kumkum Bhattacharya, of the University of Burdwan. "Toxic chemicals are scattered in the sediments in and around the Asansol-Durgapur region," the study notes. It adds that the thermal power plants contribute 2.1 million cubic metres (mcm) of wastewater having "substantial metallic toxic load". Mine water discharge amounts to 0.2-0.5 mcm of wastewater.

There have been repeated reports about toxic contents. A recent Department of Science and Technology sponsored test "Distribution and behaviour of arsenic in the permial coal of north Karnpura" states that the "presence of arsenic and lead was above tolerance level in the sediment." It also found "threatening levels" of lead, arsenic, chromium, iron and manganese in the sediments and surface waters. These findings are based on studies carried out by Mecon, based at Ranchi, and a subsidiary of Steel Authority of India.

The lower stretches of the Damodar valley had been destroyed by coal mining, according to a study by Dr M.K. Pandit and Dr Arun Bhaskar of the Centre for Inter-Disciplinary Studies on Mountain and Hill Environments at the University of Delhi.

A dated but interesting study "Industrial Pollution of Irrigation Water" by Malabika Ray, Viswa-Bharati University, Shantiniketan (1994) reveals another aspect of the polluted Damodar. Using plant material to assess the "phytotoxicity" of the polluted water, Ray found "severe disruption in normal cell functioning, and that even the nucleus and chromosomes were affected. " It may be suggested from the results that these chemicals affect all living systems adversely," the report concludes.

Table no 1: Results of phytotoxity tests, in parts per million (ppm).

Heavy metal	Traces in vegetables
Copper	50-80 ppm
Cadmium	20-50 ppm
Zinc	65-235 ppm
Lead	20-240 ppm
Mercury	270-1430

CIFRI has noted a "conspicuous change" in the composition of the fish in the Damodar. They note that 33 species of fish are endangered, and that commercially viable species introduced in the numerous reservoirs in the valley had failed to survive. Carp fingerlings were unable to survive more than 96 hours in these waters. Many species displayed damaged gills, and cellular deformities.

Clearly, all forms of life are under threat. Amazingly enough, there do not appear to be studies carried out on the impact on human health! Yet such evidence surely is enough to indicate that the poor quality of water poses serious health hazards in the long run.

There has been public outcry. Abhiyan, a Ranchi-based NGO held a protest march at Panchet (Dhanbad), Piparwar (Hazaribagh) and Bokaro. They commissioned a film "Damodar - ek marti nadi" (Damodar - a dying river) to document the adverse health effects of using this polluted water.

Government Pollution Control authorities collect the mean of 12 months data from 34 stations on the river, of selected parameters. The only significant observation they made involves "high suspended solids downstream of the thermal power stations." The Damodar Action Plan, part of the national river-cleaning plan, essentially seeks to treat sewage generated by towns and cities along the Damodar.

Costly silting
While the annual erosion rates for a forested area stand at 8.5 tonnes per square km, this ranges from 850 (100 times that of a forested area) tonnes for abandoned surface mines and 17,000 tonnes for active surface mines (2000 times that of a forested area). This massive erosion has led to silting up of the dams, the irrigation canals and in fact, the entire basin, nullifying DVC's flood control potential.

In fact, the issue of river silting has repeatedly surfaced in the public debate. Elected representatives from Durgapur have demanded that the catchment area of Damodar and the feeder canals of Durgapur barrage be de-silted. Silting had resulted in fierce floods, with even embankments of canals being washed away. A total of 75 per cent of the land area of the basin suffers from varying degrees of soil erosion.

The Central Pollution Control Board estimates that Rs 450 crores (approximately US $ 96 million) would be required to be spent on soil conservation, Rs 3500 crores (US $ 747 million) on de-silting the reservoirs, and a further 12.5 (US $ 2.6 million) crores to de-silt the river. This is a bill of close to Rs 4,000 crores (US $ 854 million). Should the 'polluter pays' principle ever be applied here, the mining companies and owners of thermal power stations would have a lot of forking out to do! But rest assured, India is the land where a dip in a holy river washes away sins. Since the Damodar is a tributary of the holy Ganga, the sins of polluters have surely been washed away.

Written by Rajat Banerji, an independent environmental journalist in New Delhi