Ground water in TN contaminated with chemicals: study

Chennai:

The ground water in Tamil Nadu is contaminated by chemicals such as chloride, fluoride and nitrate, according to a study done by Central Ground Water Board under Ministry of Water Resources.

Union Minister of State for Water Resources and Minority Affairs Vincent H Pala in a written reply to a question said that a study that was conducted in 451 locations in 29 districts of the state and Puducherry revealed that 38 of them had high chloride, 48 flouride and 161 samples had high nitrate.

Interestingly, the study found that Ramnad district has high incidence of ground water being contaminated with chloride. Of the 19 samples tested in various locations of the district, seven had chloride.

Similarly, Thanjavur had high incidence of fluoride with seven of the 21 samples testing positive for fluoride. The high level of nitrate content in water was found in Erode where 21 of the 29 samples tested positive followed by Coimbatore where 20 of the 37 samples had nitrate. Surprisingly, of the 14 samples tested in Trichirapalli, 10 had high nitrate.

The results are from the analyses of ground water samples collected during 2011. The chemical analyses of ground water samples collected during 2012 are under progress, the minister said.