Musi River Water Pollution Its Impact on Cropping Pattern

Dr. Pullaiah Cheepi,

Department of Economics, Osmania University, Hyderabad, India.

ABSTRACT:

Agriculture is the back bone of the developing economy; water pollution is one of the major causes to adverse effect on the yielding as well as soil condition. Musi river water pollution has been drastic changes occurs in the downstream villages of the Musi river belt. In this paper we are focusing Musi river water pollution, conducted the survey under the downstream villages of musi river, here we are select four villages. . The total number of households in the study area is 2,385. The sample for the present study consists of 10 percent random sample of total households in each village. Water pollution its impact on agriculture productivity, positive as well as negative effects, due to this impact on wealth and health of the people.

KEY WORDS: Water pollution, industrial pollution, domestic sewage, paddy, musi river

INTRODUCTION:

The agricultural sector uses roughly two thirds of all the polluted water consumed, mainly for irrigation (World Bank, 2007). The use of polluted water leads to a decrease in produced quantity as well as in quality of the crops. It may be reflected in two forms on the one hand, the crops may accumulate heavy metals or toxic substances dissolved in the wastewater, making them unsuitable for consumption. On the other hand, the polluted water may affect the level of nutrients and vitamins the crops would normally have (World Bank, 2007). World Bank calculations yield a total loss of (1 billion USD or 0.05% of GDP) for the four major crops (wheat, corn, rice, and vegetables) in 2003 (World Bank, 2006; World Bank, 2007). In addition to the direct effects, polluted water also adversely affect the soil quality leading to further reductions in quantity and quality in future harvests

The industry’s share of using contaminated water is about 20% (World Bank, 2007). If the industry is exposed to polluted water during the production process, it is likely to face a decrease of the product quality or is forced to stop production entirely. The fisheries also suffer from direct and indirect effects of water pollution. The former refers to aquatic wildlife such as fish, shrimps or crabs being damaged or killed. The latter refers to possible future losses in fishery production due to reduced reutilization of natural fishery resources, reduced fertility, and damaged breeding grounds (World Bank, 2007).

Water Pollution of Musi River

The Musi River is a river which passes through the city of Hyderabad in India. It flows through a major portion of Hyderabad and divides the historic old city with the new city. The river originates in Anantagiri Hills, 90 km to the west of Hyderabad and joins Krishna River near Wazirabad in Nalgonda District.

Musi river, that flows adjacent to Hyderabad , has an upstream flow of 70km before it enters Hyderabad and downstream flow of 186 km to ultimately join Krishna river. The river is clean when it enters Hyderabad, becomes the dirtiest and toxic as soon it leaves it. The river is joined by several streams from north-west. The river water is completely stopped 20 km above with anicuts and the water is used for drinking water purpose in the city. However, the city’s sewers join the river to make it one of the perennial rivers in the downstream of the city. The problem starts exactly here. The city’s sewerage water meters about 280 million litres per day (mld). There is a make believe sewerage treatment plant at the end of the city at Amberpet, that leaves 95 percent of sewerage untreated as it has no capacity to treat. In addition, there is a pipe line from Jeedimetla industrial estate that carries 4.5 MLD pf untreated chemical effluents to join Musi. The city’s sewer contains suspended solids, plastics, metals, alkalilines, acids, chemical effluents situated within the city like, chromium hexane from tanneries, cyanide and cadmium from goldsmiths and silver bromide photo studios, oil and grease from automobiles, lead from batteries, organic waste etc. Besides these the industrial chemical effluents include metals, inorganic and organic compounds of several varieties. All these have been flowing into Musi for the past two decades and more.

The Hyderabad city discharges about 600 million liters per day untreated sewerage water into Misi River. Additionally, industrial estates in Bollaram, Jeedimetia, Saroor nagar, Uppal, Nacharam, Mushiribad, Azamabad etc drain their untreated industrial effluents into Musi near Uppal. There is an effluent treatment. The water in Musi is now having high degree of effluents like heavy metal, phenols, oil, grease, alkaline, and acids. Consequently, the people in the downstream are receiving dangerous toxic chemicals directly from the river. The drinking water in entire area is brought from distant places, by spending lots of money. There are at least 30 villages with a population of 1.00.000 that are directly affected in this region. The quality of water in Musi is beyond description. The colour of the water is dark tan, resembles coffee decoction, with one meter high forth some times. The Musi fills around 35 small tanks in the down streams. Now all the 1, 00,000 acres of agriculture is under threat. The yields have fallen by 60 percent in some villages. The fish in most of the ponds are dead. Buffaloes fall sick frequently after drinking water from these tanks. Even those who get into water to wash buffalos get sick allergies. Several people in the villages are suffering from rheumatic arthritis. The region has a rich dairy industry that supplies milk to Hyderabad city. There are no studies conducted so far on what the quality of milk is that comes from the buffalos that graze on the polluted lands. Additionally, the people in these regions suffer from calcium and fluorine effects that result in digestion to arthritic problem. The growing incidence of cancer in Hyderabad city might have been too caused by the high levels of mercury, nickel, cadmium etc. The social impact of the loss of livelihood is much larger as the value of capital assists in the villages has fallen substantially. So far there are no studies conducted in this area. Therefore the present study finds befitting to study the impact of Musi pollution on the downstream villages and its adverse effects comprehensively.

METHODOLOGY:

We propose to take four villages, one at head reach, second at middle reach, third and fourth at the tail-end, four villages namely, Pratapa Singaram (located 15 Km away from Amber Pet Treatment Plant), Enkiryal (30 Km away from Amber Pet Treatment Plant), Surapally (45 Km away from Amber Pet Treatment Plant), and Aroor (60 Km away from Amber Pet Treatment Plant) The Four villages, besides distance being a factor, are prominent for three different activities such as agriculture, handloom industry and other non-agricultural activities like diary. The study can bring out the impact on various economic activities in the process. The study has two sets of data from each village. One is at village level, we call it village survey, and second one is household survey. The total number of households in the study area is 2,385. The sample for the present study consists of 10 percent random sample of total households in each village.

Causes of Water Pollution

Domestic Sewage:

Domestic sewage is waste water from household activities. It contains organic and in organic materials such as phosphates ad nitrates. Organic materials are food and vegetable waste, where inorganic materials come from soaps and detergents. Usually people dump households wastes in the nearby water source, which leads to water pollution, The amount of organic wastes that can be degraded by the water bodies is measured in terms of Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD). BOD is nothing but the amount of oxygen needed by microorganisms to decompose the organic waste present in the sewage. The higher the amount of BOD, the more water is polluted with organic waste and vice versa. Many people are not aware of the fact that soaps and detergents enrich the water bodies with phosphates. These phosphates often lead to algal bloom and eutrophication which are common problems in stagnant water bodies such as ponds and lakes. Algal bloom and eutrophication lead to the suffocation fish and other organism in the water body.

Industrial Effluents:

Wastewater from the manufacturing and processing industries causes pollution. The industrial effluents contain organic pollutants and other toxic chemicals, some of the pollutants from industrial source include lead, mercury, asbestos, nitrates, phosphates, oils, etc. wastewater from food and chemical processing industries contribute more to water pollution than the other industries such as distillery, leather processing industries and thermal power plants. Also, dye industries generate waste water which changes the water quality especially water color. Since the water color is changed there is alteration in the light penetration, thereby disturbing the aquatic plants and animal. Many of the big industries have come up with waterwater treatment plants,. However, it is not the case with small-scale industries. It is very difficult to treat wastewater from the industries.

Agriculture Waste:

To meet the increasing demand for agricultural products, it is very common across the world to use more sophisticated cultivation methods and chemicals, such as fertilizers and pesticides, to get the higher yield. Although the use of chemicals and heavy machineries has increased the yield beyond over beliefs, the use of these chemicals is one of main causes of water pollution. Agrochemicals, such as, among others, fertilizers, organic manure, growth hormones, and nutrient solution, pollute water significantly when they enter into the water through rains.

Agriculture sector is not only the cause of water pollution but it is also significantly affected by contaminated water. Being a cause of water pollution, the agriculture sector mainly affects water by loss of soil due to poor agricultural methods used in developing countries. Further, agriculture sector also results in a loss of net soil by salinization and waterlogging of irrigated land. Finally, agricultural waste significantly causes water contamination when this is washed into the water.

Being a victim of polluted water, the yield and other activities of agriculture sectors are strongly affected by using dirty and polluted wastewater as well as contaminated groundwater. No doubts, the use of polluted water not only infects the yield of crops but also it transmits number of diseases to workers those work in farms or fields and to consumers those consume these contaminated products.

Paddy is major crop in the village, 55.84 % is paddy, now the next cultivated crop in the village is para grass 41.32%, it is very high profitable crop to , and with use any fertilizers they can get much more yielding of the para grass, this village vegetables are also cultivate but these vegetables are highly polluted , the scientific test was conducted by the NIN, leaf vegetables are very high level of toxics, the overall picture shows the para grass cultivation of number of acres are more from 2000-01 to 2009-10, paddy are declined over a period. The details are given in the table no I.

Paddy is the major crop in the village. Para grass is cultivated less, but increased from the year of 2000-01 is 0.16% to the year of 2009-10 is 0.21 per cent, the para grass in the village and mainly for domestic consumption. Few farmers are cultivating vegetables, the vegetables cultivation also increased from 0.16 per cent to 0.21 per cent. Kharif cultivation is increase from 930 acres to 1152 acres, and Rabi cultivation also increases from 910 acres to 1152 acres. The overall picture show the number of acres under cultivation is increase from 1848 acres to 2319 acres. The details are given table no II

Table –I Cropping Patternin Pratapa Singaram (Acres)

Year	Paddy			Para Grass	Vegetables	Total
Year	Kharif	Rabi	Total	Para Grass	Vegetables	Total
2000-01	401 (30.72)	401 (30.72)	802 (61.95)	490 (37.54)	13 (0.99)	1305 (100.00)
2009-10	387 (27.91)	387 (27.91)	774 (55.84)	573 (41.32)	39.5 (2.84)	1386.5 (100.00)

Source: Village Reports

Table –II CROPPING PATTERN IN THE ENKIRYAL (Acres)

Year	Paddy			Para grass	Vegetables	others	Total
Year	Kharif	Rabi	Total	Para grass	Vegetables	others	Total
2000-01	930 (50.32)	910 (49.24)	1840 (99.56)	03 (0.16)	5 (0.27)	--	1848 (100.00)
2009-10	1152 (49.67)	1152 (49.67)	2304 (99.35)	5 (0.21)	10 (0.43)	---	2319 (100.00)

Source: Village Report

Table –III CROPPING PATTERN IN THE SURAPALLI (ACRES )

Year	Paddy			Para grass	Vegetables	others	Total
Year	Kharif	Rabi	Total	Para grass	Vegetables	others	Total
2000-01	772 (49.39)	772 (49.39)	1544 (98.78)	13 (0.83)	01 (0.06)	05 (0.31)	1563(100.00)
2009-10	807 (48.83)	807 (48.83)	1614 (97.68)	21 (1.27)	4.5 (0.27)	13 (0.78)	1652.5 (100.00)

Source: Village Report

Among the general problems of the village, labour problem is not that much severe in the village. For this village, migration from outside villages is very less. Here majority of the people are purchasing drinking water. There is a mineral water station in this village and the water is supplied at a subsidized rate. The fishermen in the village are worst sufferers economically in this village. Due to pollution, the survival of fish is becoming difficult and due to the health problems for fish, the fishermen are unable to get proper price even for the small quantity of survived fish. Due to pollution, weed is growing abundantly in the tanks and removing this weed is a costly affair and it requires minimum one lakh rupees for one year per tank. But in the tank depending on rainfall, the survival of fish is more. Health problems for the people here are also more due to pollution.

Paddy is the major crop in the village. Para grass is cultivates is very less, but increased from the year of 2000-01 is 0.83 % to the year of 2009-10 is 1.27, vegetable is also grown and increase in this village, the para grass in the village and mainly for domestic consumption purpose only not like a commercial. Few farmers are cultivating vegetables, the vegetables cultivation also increased from 0.06 per cent to 0.27 per cent. Kharif Rabi cultivation is no more changes of the irrigated area in this villages, because this village is nearly 50 kilometers along from the uppal nala chervu. So the pollution effect of the water is some fluctuations are occurred in this area acres to 1152 acres, and Rabi cultivation also increases from 910 acres to 1152 acres. The over all picture show the number of acres under cultivation is increase from 1848 acres to 2319 acres. The details are given table no II

Regarding the general problem in the village, labour problem is more and people from Khammam, Miryalaguda, Kodhada and Mahboobnagr come here for work during agriculture season. Both the quality and quantity of Paddy is very less in this village. The yield below the Bore wells is more when compared to the yield under Musi. Fertilizers are used more by the farmers in this village. The soil is saline in nature. The weed problem is more in the tank which is highly expensive to clean it. Health problems are also more for the villagers. The purchase of water is more but due to the availability of mineral water for a subsidized rate due to the mineral water station in the village, many people are able to purchase the water.

Coming to the general problems of the village, labour problem is more in this village. People are coming from outside for agricultural work from districts like Nellore, Guntur, Srikakulam and Mahboobnagar. Drinking water problem is less in the village. People here are getting Krishna water for drinking purpose. Very few people are purchasing drinking water. The people here are suffering from various health problems of Musi. The coordination among the people is less for fighting against pollution.

Paddy is the main crop in the village. Paddy is increase from 1264 ares to 1350 acres during the year of 2000-01 to 2009-10. Cotton is the other crop in the village, cotton increase from 35 acres to 52 acres. And the total numbers of acres are cultivation is increase from 1341 acres to 1435 acres. Very few farmers cultivate Red gram, Green gram etc the details are given below. The soil here is not suitable for vegetable cultivation; all The details are given table no IV.

Coming to the general problems of the village, Labour shortage during agriculture seasons and people are coming from Srikakulam, Karimnagar, Palnadu , Guntur and Mahaboobnagar for work. There are 50 hand pumps in the village out of which two pumps are working. The drinking water is costly when compared to other selected villages because here there is no filter water plant and filter water will come from Vemulakonda which is 5 K.M. from Aroor. Here fertilizers utilization is more when compared to the other selected villages. Yielding of crops is also very less. In this village there are 5 poultry forms. The birds are dyeing due to contaminated water. Here the problem is same with the fish. The villagers are suffering from various health problems due to contaminated water.

FINDINGS:

· With respect to impact of pollution on cropping pattern it is observed that paddy has been replaced by para grass and vegetables as a predominate crop in the Pratapa Singaram, in the other villages para grass and some other crops has increased. While in the other grass cultivation has expanded, the grass cultivation is more remuneration.

· The area under paddy in Pratap Singaram has come down and preference for para grass has increased due to its profitability. In other villages, the grass is cultivated for domestic purpose.

· In Enkiryal village the yields of paddy come down from 27.36 quintals to 26.60 quintals, due to the pollution affect yielding falls. But the paga grass yielding increased from 300.0 quintals to 320.0 quintals during the years. So the pollution water is positively impacted on the para grass cultivation and negatively effects on the paddy yielding.

· In Surapally village Para grass cultivation is less and mainly for domestic consumption. Vegetable cultivation is also there in few acres of land. There are other crops like red gram, green gram etc., in few acres of land.

· In Surapally village When compared, from 2000-01 to 2009-10, the area under cultivation under paddy has increased from 1544 acres to 1614 acres.

· Surapally the Para grass has increased from 13 acres to 21 acres, vegetables from 1 acre to 4.5 acres and other crops from 5 acres to 13 acres. The total area under cultivation has increased from 1563 acres to 1652.5 acres.

· In Aroor, there is no vegetable cultivation because of the non-suitability of soil. Apparently it shows that there is no negative affect on crops due to pollution. But the reality is quality is badly affected and there is lot of difference between the prices offered for the same in other places.

· In Aroor The paddy yielding is very less from 22.80quintels to 22.04 quintals. Cotton yield are decline from 17 quintals to 16 quintals during the last two years.

· In Aroor Paddy is the main crop in the village. Paddy is increase from 1264 ares to 1350 acres during the year of 2000-01 to 2009-10. Cotton is the other crop in the village, cotton increase from 35acres to 52 acress. And the total numbers of acres are cultivation is increase from 1341 acres to 1435 acres.

· The paddy becomes weightless and the wastage is more. Even the cooked rice is spoiled within a short span of three hours. Health wide also there is negative propaganda against the crops under Musi. This was supported by the sufferings of the people in the sample villages.

· The para grass is a highly profitable crop. The investment on crop is very less (Rs.20,000/- per year). Due to para grass, the yield of milk is more but the milk is polluted. The cattle, if once habituated for paragrass, it will be difficult to give them other feed.

· The yield of para grass is also more and people are coming from outside to cultivate para grass on lease basis and they will pay Rs.1000/- per month for one acre of land.

· The outside labourers coming to harvest the grass are getting skin allergy. Due to this, The farmer has to pay Rs/- 10,000/- in advance apart from the payment of wage regularly. The vegetables also quality wise are very poor.

summary and Conclusions:

It is clear urgent need to pay attention to the problem of water pollution in the downstream area. An scientific study of problem of pollution and its socio economic implications, it should be under taken a massive movement has to be launches to create among the people and to bring pressure on the government to tackle this problem, it may be observed that the problems arising out of pollution of River Musi have to be tackle two levels, and they must taken up simultaneously. The sources of pollution have to be tackle in the Hyderabad Metropolitan city itself, where which is the source of pollution the government have to initiative urgent effective measure to control pollution causing industries and set up treatment plants for industrial effluents and there by minimize pollution of river. The drainage and sewerage system also need to be totally modernize for the same reason. To establish the safe food , safe water and safe sustainability.

References:

1. World Bank (2007). Cost of Pollution in China [electronic version]. Beijing: World Bank. Retrieved on February 23, 2008 from http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTEAPREGTO PENVIRONMENT/Resources/China_Cost_of_Pollution.pdf

2. Muthyam Reddy.k and R.V.Ramana Murthy. (2004) “In Search Of Sustainable Development:Musi “Green Belt” Blues” A Paper Prepared for presentation in “Two-Day National Seminor on Institutional Policy Options for Sustainable Agricultural Development’, Osmania University, Hyd.10th and 12th April 2004

3. Pullaiah cheepi (2009) “Impact of pollution of Musi River Water in Down Stream Villages-A Study”. Unpublished Ph.D Thesis submitted to Department of Economics, Osmania University Hyderabad India.

4. www.worldwildlife Fund.2004. World Water Facts and Figures. Retrieved from www.panda.org

5. (2004.) Environmental Economics in practice case studies from India” Oxford University press

6. (Pearce, 1990). “Economics of Natural Resource and Environment” Harvester Wheat sheaf, New York

Received on 18.10.2012

Modified on 10.11.2012

Accepted on 20.11.2012

Year	Paddy			Cotton	others	Total
Year	Kharif	Rabi	Total	Cotton	others	Total
2000-01	632 (47.12)	632 (47.12)	1264(94.24)	35 (2.60)	22 (1.63)	1341 (100.00)
2009-10	675 (47.03)	675 (47.03)	1350 (94.06)	52 (3.62)	33 (2.46)	1435 (100.00)