Delhi water carcinogenic: CPCB

A study by CPCB finds that the water supplied in Delhi contains carcinogenic substances, reports Chetan Chauhan.

Published on: Nov 11, 2006, 01:54:00 IST

None | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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The water that flows out of the taps in Delhi is a cocktail of carcinogenic substances. A study conducted by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) on the levels of toxic substances called total trihalomethanes (TTHM) in tap water has revealed shocking results.

Over the past six months, the CPCB tested water collected from 30 locations in the capital. It found that the levels of TTHM were four to five times the World Health Organisation (WHO) standards. While the TTHM levels considered safe by the WHO are 60 micrograms per litre, in the United States they are 80.

TTHM is the sum of organic substances like chloroform, bromoform and bromodichloromethane which cause cancer.

The water-treatment process is to blame, says a CPCB official. Trihalomethanes are formed when chlorine reacts with small concentrations of naturally occurring organic material — and the Yamuna has a high level of those. TTHMs are also formed during the water-distribution stage when chlorine reacts with metals.

Dr Anil Bansal of the Delhi Medical Council says that when the concentration of TTHM is more than 0.46 milligram per litre, the water can cause cancers of the colon, rectum and bladder and miscarriages. Studies worldwide have shown that drinking TTHM-laced water or even bathing in it can lead to health problems. "Cancer is the greatest among the possible TTHM risks," says Dr John Capece, in his recent study published in Southern Datastream, a US medical journal.

While the battle against TTHM is yet to start in India, many western countries have adopted water-purification processes to lower TTHM levels. The US follows a five-level purification process as compared with a three-level system in India. "The US's additional levels of chemical treatment and ozonation kill TTHMs," says a CPCB scientist.

The CPCB's TTHM testing was the first of its kind in Delhi and was done at its new National Organics Trace Lab, set up with the help of German development agency GTZ. The details of the study will be published in the December edition of Parivesh, the CPCB newsletter.

Email Chetan Chauhan: cchauhan @hindustantimes.com

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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