Flood and Society in the GBM Basin

The headwaters of the Ganga-Brahmaputra-Meghna river basin span the Himalayas from the Gangotri glacier in the west to the tributaries of Yarlung Tsangpo/Siang, Lohit, Dibang and Subansiri in the east. This mega basin combining the three rivers is home to over one billion people living in the nation-states of India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan and China.

Hydropower from Tibet to the Mekong

Hydropower from Tibet to the Mekong

Hydropower from Indus to Mekong

This project explores the hydropower milieu shaping the river systems of the Tibetan Plateau to the Mekong.

Friday, October 22, 2010

Groundwater contamination from chrome sulphate factories outside Kanpur, October 2010



This well was disabled because it was delivering contaminated groundwater.

Showing contaminated well water

The yellow color indicates sulphates in the groundwater


Unusable water
A closed chrome sulphate plant.  Chrome sulphate is produced for use in tanning hides at nearby leather tanneries.
Chrome sulphate sludge dumpsite

The waste from producing chrome sulphate is dumped around the plant area and villages on land adjacent to roads, villages and shops.  It has leached into the groundwater to contaminated all wells in the vicinty.

An operational chrome sulphate plant
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Photos of Effluent Drains in Kanpur

Major drain delivering untreated effluent from tanneries and other industries to the river Ganga


Leather waste from the tanning process stored near the river bank

Untreated effluent mixed with some treated effluent and directed to nearby agricultural fields for use in irrigation.  This effluent has chromium and heavy salts.

The effluent enters the adjacent fields through small breaches in the irrigation canal
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Groundwater contamination from chrome sulphate factories outside Kanpur

Rakesh Jaiswal of Ecofriends talks with villagers at one of many contaminated well sites.
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