Plastic flows through Goa’s tap water: NIO
Category : Plastic pollution |
Location : Goa | Posted on 2021-08-11 22:43:16
PANAJI: People in Goa may be ingesting microplastics along with their drinking water, a new study by the National Institute of Oceanography (NIO) and Delhi-based advocacy group Toxics Link has found.
The study—Clean Drinking Water: A Pipe Dream?—assessed Goa’s tap water and found that the potable water supplied to homes is contaminated with microplastics, one of the sources of which could be the PVC pipes.
“Microplastics may already be there in the water, but when tap water passes through plastic pipes, it adds more microplastics. The water transporting system must be checked as a mitigation measure to understand the status of our drinking water,” lead researcher from NIO, Mahua Saha, said.
Microplastics (MP) are particles of plastic that are less than 5mm in size and have been recognised globally as one of the most critical emerging marine pollutants, due to their persistence, ubiquity and toxic potential.
Eleven samples of water collected from taps and water treatment plants across the state were analysed for microplastics contamination at NIO. A total of 288 MP particles were found in the tap water samples, with the highest level of abundance detected in Mapusa.
“The main sources of drinking water in Goa are rivers and presence of microplastics in the pre-treated water indicates that the water sources or rivers are polluted. This could be primarily due to plastic littering and waste water discharge in the river systems,” Saha said.
Associate director, Toxics Link, Satish Sinha said that MPs are usually fibres, fragments, colours, tyres, packaging material that disintegrate quickly and become a part of the soil, water bodies and seafood. These are synthetic polymers that are not soluble in water.
“It doesn’t lose its original properties and chemical just because it disintegrates and ingesting them could be extremely harmful to human health,” he said.
The impact of the carcinogenic pollutants could also have an impact on marine organisms, especially shrimp. “Birth defects and reproduction problems are caused due to the presence of microplastics, besides reducing the fish population overtime,” Saha said.
They called for immediate intervention of municipal corporations and the state government to address waste management practices and improve the filtration plants and transportation system of water.
“For mitigation, we need to bring the state and central governments in the picture and work on the source of MPs. It should not be confined to one state, but should be expanded to other states as well. This is a preliminary study and it needs to be extrapolated. More comprehensive study and extensive collection of the samples is necessary for analytical procedure,” Saha said.
“Though plastic waste management rules have been in force in the country, public awareness and participation holds the key to improving plastic waste management and the subsequent reduction in microplastic pollution. Various stakeholders, including the industry, government, civil society organisations, need to collaborate to bring about change,” Sinha said.
Source: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/goa/plastic-flows-through-goas-tap-water-nio/articleshowprint/85256064.cms
