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INTRODUCTION
Of dirt and smell your sources wake... And near the sea where one would think
Your water might be cleaner, It forms a cesspit by the bridge, Adjoining the
Marina. Oh viscid stream! Oh smelling flood. Oh green and beastly river!
As you all would have already guessed it, this poem refers to the Cooum River,
which has been badly polluted.
Cooum is a narrow, docile, slow and sinuous river. It is primarily fed by
discharge from tank and water bodies and has seen a steady drop in
freshwater over the years, a primary reason for its present day condition. The
rotting stench of this cesspool near Kilpauk has made living in the urban
neighbourhood unbearable. For instance, aquatic biodiversity of the river
decreased from 49 to 21 between 1950s[3] and the 1970s[4]. Currently, no fishes
have been found due to increased toxicity of the contaminants in the river.
Fifteen thousand.
That is the number of families living along the banks of Cooum as of 2013s
biometric survey[1]. A study by a few researchers suggests that 90% of the
water have toxicity levels of over 80%[2]. Yet, surprisingly, this river did not
always have a barren history.
The Cooum used to be a navigational route, a useful waterway in the
paramount trade between the Roman Empire, South India and Sri Lanka, now
only a reminder to mankinds odious past, present and future in pollution.
Luckily, water that flows away from urban areas and to the rural are clean
enough to be used as a means of transport for clean water into Chennai and
to store drinking water for Chennai's needs. It has been found that huge
amount of sand deposits in the banks of the unpolluted part of the Cooum
River have the potential to rejuvenate the river back to its original state.
The Cooum is currently under a 604.77 crore sanction by the Municipal
Administration and Water Supply department to complete 60 short-term
projects including a massive clean-up drive which they wish to achieve with
the help of the the Water Resources Department of the PWD, Chennai Metro
Water, Corporation of Chennai, Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board and Chennai
River Restoration Trust
Moreover, once resurrected, the river will prove to be a vital source for
irrigation purposes, flourishing the field of agriculture.
Thus, the main focus and objective of this research project is to provide
a statistical analysis of the various sources of contaminants dumping into
the Cooum river thereby creating an insight into the nature of this ecological
damage while discussing potential alternatives for the management of
wastes.
LITERATURE REVIEW:
LITERATURE REVIEW
i.
Our project will also use similar parameters for water tests.
iii. An environmental research conducted find that high levels of metals in
the tissues of the aquatic organisms traceable to human activities,
especially waste disposal into aquatic ecosystems, are currently a major
environmental problem all over the world (Laxmi Priya et al 2011; Wang et
al. 2009). In recent years, there has been a growing awareness of the
need to improve the ability to detect and assess adverse effects of
contaminants in marine biota.
iv. Elevated heavy metal concentrations in aquatic systems are often toxic
to animals living in those environments. Most of the trace metals are
considered as essential micronutrients but are also toxic at
concentrations higher than the amount required for normal growth.
Other metals like Pb, Cd and Cr have unknown roles in living organisms
and are toxic even at low concentration (Siwela et al 2009).
v. More research had been gone into the cleaning of cooum river and the
government had took it as a serious concern. The Chennai Metropolitan
Development Authority (CMDA) had expressed concern of the highly
contaminated habitat and had felt the need for action to stabilize,
rehabilitate and sustain the river along with its surroundings.
Specifically, item no. 25 in the Department Strategy of Madras 2011: An
Agenda for Action [9] illustrates this worry:
STUDY AREA:
STUDY AREA
comparison between the rivers. Here Adyar river is used as a control. Our
samples are taken in five different locations each at approximately regular
intervals . The locations along with their latitudes and longitudes in the
following table (Table 1.1)
S. NO.
LOCATION
LATITUDE
LONGITUDE
Nagalkeni (Sample A)
12.9602707
80.1391948
Chembarambakkam (Sample B)
13.0114448
80.0590804
Saidapet (Sample C)
13.019954
80.218136
Chetpet (Sample D)
13.0724599
80.2404959
Chepauk (Sample E)
13.062028
80.280612
TESTS
pH Test :
It is important to test the pH--the level of acidity or alkalinity of water.
Water is consumed by the plants and animals we depend on, and we
directly consume it everyday. The pH level of water can provide
information on potential contamination and can be used as an
important public health precaution. Hence, this is a very important, toppriority test that should be done and can be done in a lab using a regular
pH meter.
TDS Test :
Total dissolved solids (or TDS) is the measure of all organic and
inorganic substances dissolved in a given liquid, revealing the
proportion of different solids. There are a number of different uses for
TDS: it can measure pollution levels in lakes and rivers or mineral levels
in drinking water, for example, and also has agricultural applications in
irrigation. Hence, this too is a really good scale to decide the degree of
contamination.
There were mainly two reasons in choosing these tests:
Taste/Health
Aquaculture
Procedure
pH and TDS (total dissolved solids) tests of the samples were calculated
using digital pH meter and digital TDS calculator.
RESULTS
RESULTS
The following are the pH and TDS (total dissolved solids) tests of the samples
taken (Table 1.2). The pH ranges between 6.20 to 7.60.
TDS concentration varied from minimum 1320 mg/l to maximum 5900 mg/l.
The above results were mainly due to the discharge of polluted water into the
river from leather factories and sewage water.
Given below are the graphs plotting the results shown in table 1.2.
SAMPLE
pH
TDS (mg/L)
6.8
1320
6.31
1984
6.2
2652
6.28
2900
7.6
5900
pH Results
8
7.6
6.8
pH Axis
6.31
6.2
6.28
Sample II
Sample III
Sample IV
Sample I
Sample V
TDS Results
6000
5,900
TDS (mg/L)
4500
3000
2,652
2,900
1,984
1500
1,320
10
Sample I
Sample II
Sample III
Sample IV
Sample V
INFERENCE
From the above results it can be inferred that water quality of cooum river
before entering Chennai city (Sample I) is good which can be inferred from
the appropriately low TDS and the near neutral pH. The gradual disintegration
of water quality along the course of the river towards the urban parts of
Chennai is mainly due to the environmentally harmful activities like dumping
garbage in the river and discharging industrial wastes and sewage into the
river within the city, making its water quality worse and unfit for domestic
purposes (potability) as well as agriculture (irrigation). Therefore effective
management and treatment of this river is necessary in order to not lose a
valuable water resource One possible solution is to remove unregistered
illegal housing along the banks of the river which acts as a barrier to the flow
of the river hindering the flow of contaminants causing them to sediment on
the river bed. Other solutions are to collect the sedimented waste by building
fences to filter out the garbage, letting out junk-free water.[8] Hence, if these
measure is undertaken, Cooum river may finally have a chance to rejuvenate
and come back to its native, original state.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
BIBLIOGRAPHY
S
1.
Shivakumar, C. (11 April 2015). "May Date set for Mega Cooum Clean up
Drive". The Indian Express, Chennai
7.
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Hindu, Chennai
9. Dattatri, G., and P. B. Anand. "Development Strategy for Madras 2011: An
Agenda for Action." Madras 2011: Policy Imperatives-An Agenda for Action,
Seminar Theme Paper. 2011.
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