River Water Quality Improvement in India due to COVID-19 Lockdown

By: Brisa C. Guerra

Areas/Locations where the river Damodar stretched at. (Chakraborty, B., Bera, B., Adhikary, P.P. et al., 2021)

Water is a daily necessity in order for the human race to survive on this earth. With the growth of pollution invading the world, it is important to maintain water quality as high as it can be. In this particular part of the world being India with the 2nd highest populated country, the river Damodar was the main focus in this research. Due to the recent discoveries, water quality in this river has been decreasing and for that reason, analyzing the date captured will benefit India.In summarization, because of the full lockdown and pause of industrial activites,mining, commerical sectors etc, the water quality improved due to the no mixing of waste effluents in the water. Uniquely, this study had different analysis between pre-lockdown, during COVID-19 lockdown, and unlocking phase which is after the lock down. Once the unlocking phase occured, the improvement of river quality started to deteriorate again. Water is extremely important for human survival and without it, a domino effect can occur. A way in which water quality can go up or improve is by managing the system itself to monitor it. As well as involving the government to provide some regulations like mentioned. In conclusion, India being one of the most populated countries in the world, water is high demand and for it to not be clean can eventually cause disease or dehydration or many other situations.  

Citation:

Chakra, B., Bera, B., Adhikary, P.P. et al. (2021) Positive effects of COVID-19 lockdown on river water quality: evidence from River Damodar, India.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-99689-9