The Gobar Times water
test
Water can be dangerous for our health if the amount of certain chemicals and minerals
exceed certain levels. Gobar Times reporters tested water samples from the Yamuna.
Here are the results. Ammonia was alarmingly high! |
 |
Contamination |
Amount |
Comments |
| Ammonia |
more than 3 mg/l |
Toxic to fishes and plants |
| Total Iron |
0.6 mg/l |
Above 1 mg/l not good |
| Flouride |
1 mg/l |
Above 1 mg/l harmful |
| Coliform |
Present |
Should not be present |
| Nitrate |
50 mg/l |
Desirable is 45mg/l |
| Note: These tests have been
conducted with the help of a water testing kit provided by the Central Pollution Control
Board, New Delhi, and the results are approximations. |
Interview with Ashok Mishra,
Health Officer, Noida |
GT Reporters (Suman, Abhinav,Shivani, Simar and
Chawi) went to Noida's Health Officer Dr Ashok Mishra and interviewed him.
GT: What does your
organization do to prevent pollution?
AM: We do not do anything to prevent
pollution. We clean Noida's garbage everyday.
GT: Do you also clean the drainage
system?
AM: No, we do not have enough manpower.
GT: How many people are involved in this organization?
AM: There are 1250 sweepers, supervisors, 4
police officers and one head person.
GT: Where do you dump the garbage you
collect?
AM: In pits near Khora village.
GT: Did you start any campaign to stop
the throwing of plastic bags on roads?
AM: Yes, we did start in some schools to
recycle the poly bags. But soon they stopped bringing polybags. We also stopped our
campaign.
 Poly Bags
Nowadays, we use plenty of polythene shopping bags. You see your parents carrying their
things in polythene bags. But do you know these plastic bags are very harmful to us in
many different ways? They choke the drains and produce harmful gases when burnt. In our
city more than 250 tonnes of plastic waste come out of each colony everyday. All this
waste chokes the city’s sewer systems. In
many countries like Italy, a tax is imposed on the manufacturers of polythene bags. This
increases the cost of the bags and people stop using them. Something like this should be
started in India. Many things that were made of materials (like mud) and paper (like cups
and bags) are today made of plastic. This also affects the people who were making these
things earlier. In Delhi, many people don't care for all these things. They wrap their
children's lunch-boxes in plastic bags. As these wrappers are light in weight, they fly in
the wind. Unlike cotton or paper bags they remain undissolved in the soil and stop the
rainwater from seeping deep into the earth. This affects the natural growth of
greenery and our water quality.
Nupur |
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