Polluted river stretches drop to 296, says Govt
The number of polluted river stretches in the country has declined from 351 in 2018 to 296 in 2025, based on biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), an indicator of organic pollution, the Government informed the Rajya Sabha on Monday.
In a written reply to the House, Minister of State for Jal Shakti Raj Bhushan Choudhary said the number of polluted river stretches had come down to 311 in 2022, before further declining to 296 in 2025, according to the latest report of the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB).
He said rivers are polluted mainly due to the discharge of untreated or partially treated sewage from cities and towns, industrial effluents, inadequate dilution, dumping of solid waste on riverbanks, agricultural runoff, geogenic effects and other non-point sources of pollution.
The minister said the CPCB, in association with State Pollution Control Boards (SPCBs) and Pollution Control Committees (PCCs), monitors river water quality through a network of 2,265 monitoring stations under the National Water Quality Monitoring Programme. Choudhary said the government has incurred Rs 11,332 crore under the Namami Gange programme and Rs 1,888 crore under the National River Conservation Plan for river pollution abatement, in addition to schemes being implemented by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs.
He said that while no standards have been prescribed specifically for heavy metals in rivers, they assess such parameters as pH, biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), dissolved oxygen (DO), and faecal coliform (FC) to gauge river pollution.
The minister said the CPCB has one Central Water Laboratory in Delhi and eight regional laboratories for analysis of water quality parameters, while state pollution control boards have their own labs recognised either by the National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL) or under the Environment (Protection) Act.
