This Newsletter is published quarterly for the WFEO Committee on Engineering and Environment (CEE) at 
The Institution of Engineers (India), 8, Gokhale Road, Calcutta 700 020, 
Phone: 223-8311/14/15/16, 223-8333/34, 223-3155, Fax: 91 33 223-8345, 91 61532911, 
E-mail: intnl@ieindia.org ; gplal@hotmail.com 
Secretary & Director General : Cdr. A K Poothia, IN (Retd.)

Vol. 27 No. 1 March 2006  Editor: Mr. B. J. Vasoya

Editorial ... 1               

Under-Ground Water Pollution – one of the Greatest Threats to Humanity ..............           2

How to conserve Water and Use It Effectively ...     2-5

Around the World ...      6

Outcomes of the World Congress on Engineering Education .....                 7

India hosts the General Assembly of FEISCA at Chandigarh during April  8-9, 2006 .....                7

We look forward to WEC 2008 .......                      8 

Acronyms commonly used ... 4

Under-Ground Water Pollution – one of the Greatest Threats to Humanity     

  Underground water is amongst the best sources of clean water for mankind. Its purity was taken for granted till early 1950s. but lately due to the mixing of toxic substances and industrial chemical with it, grave doubts are being raised whether in the years to come it will be a safe source of drinking water at all.

During the last 60 years, use of chemical fertilizers, insecticides and other chemicals has increased several hundred fold. Today industries use nearly 50,000 chemicals and out of them almost 75% are quite hazardous for human beings. Toxicelements from such chemical and pesticides get mixed up with under-ground water in a slow and gradual manner and ultimately render it unsuitable for drinking. Intensive studies have startled scientists & environmentalists as water at large number of places has been found to contain substantial traces of deadly carcinogenic material & Nitrates.

Another threat to underground water is due to incessant cutting of trees and depleting forest-cover. What man is doing in the name of growth & development is posing two fold challenge to humanity as on the one hand our natural sources of water are dwindling year after year and on the other our environment is getting polluted at a rapidly alarming pace.

India and number of other developing countries face another dilemma. Tube wells were earlier source of regular supply of water which was being used both for irrigation and drinking digging and over-reliance on tube wells has brought down the level of water drastically and very soon this is going to be a potent source of irritation for a country like ours.

However what is of greater concern is that there is hardly any process of detoxification and cleaning of underground sources of water. Unfortunately not much research has been undertaken either on local or global level to face this gigantic problem. It is going to be further compounded by the fact that the process of contamination of underground water is a slow process and continues to affect the water purity even after centuries. In 1950 British experts discovered to their horror that water in the wells dug near Norwhitch in Britain was badly effected by accidental discharge of whale oil which took place as back as year 1815.

Acid rains due to rapid industrialization is also emerging a grave threat to lake-water and underground water. Hundreds of lakes in Sweden are almost dead because of acid rains and millions of sea animals and fishes are dying in the lakes of Norway. In Holland, even water just 10 meters below the surface level has been found to be full of toxins.

This problem seems to be extremely serious as this is a universal problem and not merely going to affect the health of present generation but generations coming after hundreds of years and unless tackled with top most urgency may spell disaster for mankind.

Contributed by Eng. H. C. Parekh