IMPACT OF INDUSTRIAL EFFLUENTS AND SEWAGE ON GROUND WATER QUALITY

Abstract

Industrialization plays a vital role in the growth and development of any country. The idea of industrialization originated in the UK, where the first industrial estate was established in Manchester in 1886. This rapid industrialization also has a direct and indirect adverse effect on our environment. Industrial development manifested due to setting up new industries or expansion of existing industrial establishments resulted in the generation of industrial effluents, particularly small scale cottage industries which discharge untreated effluents, and these untreated effluents cause air, water, soil, and soil solid waste pollution. The present method of transportation of these effluents and their ultimate disposal and treatment for making effluents innocuous and safe are inadequate and unplanned, and their development at the hands of municipal bodies and corporations suffers from negligence and a shortage of funds. The apathy of industrialists towards treating the effluents from their respective units prior to discharge to sewers or open surface drains, storm water canals, rivers, etc. Untreated water near the disposal point creates a foul smell and bad odor. This bad odor is due to the decomposition of floating solids present in untreated sewage. 
Heavy metals are essential for properly functioning biological systems, but their deficiency or excess could lead to several disorders [12]. Industrial effluents discharged from the textile and tannery contain more metals, especially chromium, copper, and cadmium. These effluents are released on the land as well as dumped into the surface water, which ultimately leaches to groundwater and leads to contamination due to the accumulation of toxic metallic components, resulting in a series of welldocumented problems in living beings because they cannot be degraded entirely [13] Hence, industrial effluents offer a broad scope of environmental problems. Health hazards are becoming more complex and critical in developing countries like India and developed countries.

The net result is immense scale pollution of the water bodies, which may act as a source of water supply for domestic use in habitats of localities. This loss of water quality is causing health hazards and death of humans, livestock, aquatic life, crop failure, and loss of aesthetics. It is alarming that most of the cities and industries in India do not have wastewater treatment facilities. Large quantities of untreated municipal sewage and industrial effluents are being discharged directly to surface water or side-by-river bodies, resulting in a severe water pollution problem. Due to high organic loads and toxic materials, industrial effluents have become a significant source of water pollution. High levels of pollutants, mainly organic matter in river water, cause an increase in Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD)1, Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD), Total Dissolved Solids (TDS), Total Suspended Solids (TSS), and fecal coliform. They make water unsuitable or unfit for drinking, irrigation, or any other use or purpose. 
Worldwide, water bodies are the primary means of waste disposal, especially the effluents from nearby industries. This effluent from industries has a great deal of influence on the pollution of thewater body3, which can alter the physical, chemical, and biological nature of the receiving water body. The initial effect of waste is to degrade the physical quality of the water. Later, biological degradation becomes evident in the number, variety, and organization of the living organisms in the water. Often, the water bodies readily assimilate waste materials they receive without significant deterioration of some quality criteria; the extent of this is referred to as its assimilative capacity5. 
Therefore, the input of waste into water bodies does not always negatively impact the aquatic environment because of the self-purification property of the water bodies. Industries turn out wastes peculiar in terms of type, volume, and frequency depending on the type of industry and population thatuses the product6. Present studies were carried out in the Jajmau industrial estate of Kanpur city, where a large number of tanning industries are functioning, and the study also identifies the number of industries majorly contributing to water pollution in the industrial estate area, their impact on groundwater resources which can be identified by analyzing physicochemical characteristics of groundwater quality of the study area.