Water is one of the most basic, yet vital elements of life and is important to maintain health, grow food, manage environment and create jobs. Despite this, mismanagement of this substantive component has led to millions of deaths and severely constrained countries' development potential. Today at least 783 million people lack access to clean water and 2.5 billion do not have access to adequate sanitation.
In current scenario, the encumbrance of pesticides and heavy metal contamination pose a major threat to water resources, thereby having serious implications on human health and environment. A number of studies across the world and in India have highlighted the levels of pesticide and metal contamination; however, very few have addressed the solutions that need to be meted out to tackle such problems.
The second International Workshop on Sustainability and Water Quality: Remediation of Pesticides and Metal Contamination, that took place in the city between January 15 and 18, provided an opportunity for experts to exchange ideas, and propose sustainable solutions that can be implemented by local leaders and replicated in other areas of the world facing similar circumstances. The workshop hosted by Global Innovation Imperatives and organised by The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) discussed the potential avenues of application of various technologies that can help curtail the problem of metal and pesticide contamination in water.
According to the studies, around 90 per cent of waste water in developing countries flow untreated into lakes, rivers and productive coastal zones, thereby, endangering health, access to clean water and natural ecosystems. With increasing population and growing global agricultural water consumption; the load on an already-burdened resource is ever-increasing.
The panelists, some of whom included Professor RK Sharma of University of Delhi’s Chemistry Department and Dr. Kshipra Misra of Defense Institute of Physiology and Allied Sciences, aimed to create a future roadmap for solving the problems related to water contamination in India.
Pesticide and metal contamination of water resources is a serious problem primarily due to industrialisation and heavy use of chemicals in agricultural practices. Metals such as arsenic, zinc, copper, and selenium, are naturally found in many different waters and get integrated into aquatic organisms. So much so, some trace metals are essential metabolic components that are needed in low concentrations by the organism. However, some human activities like mining, waste discharge from industries and agriculture can lead to an increase in mobilisation of these metals into fresh waters that may lead to contamination of water sources.
There is an urgent need to develop a systematic and sustainable approach to prevent and manage the ill effects due to pesticide and metal contamination in water. This could be achieved by utilising relevant technological interventions, regulatory framework and effective implementation strategies and thus curtail issues pertaining to metal contamination and pesticides in water.