Partial indicators ...

Published November 18, 2014 08:15 by Harsha Jade Puttaswamy, Employee at Central Water Commission, MoWR, RD & GR, Government of India

Partial indicators sufficient?

Yes, BOD, COD, TOC will give partial information about the success of Ganges clean up program and sometimes they might be misleading too.

1. Ganga is NOT subjected to pollution from organic load only.

2. Vast number of industries dispose effluents that contains toxic metals like Lead, Chromium, Mercury etc into Ganga. BOC, COD, TOC indicate very little or nothing about these toxic metals.

3. Same with pesticide load from agriculture.

4. Above all, Ganga is facing challenge to maintain adequate flows to sustain ecosystem. BOD, COD and TOC does convey nothing about this very vital information.

So, BOD, COD and TOC convey half information that might mislead the very success of any clean up program. (If the purpose is to offer loopholes for industries and corruption in the system to sustain and flourish, then only BOD, COD and TOC are sufficient).