Microplastic pollution in Ganga

• A Study titled ‘Quantitative analysis of Microplastics along River Ganga’ has been released by a Delhi-based environment NGO, Toxics Link.
• The water testing was carried out in collaboration with the National Institute of Oceanography (NIO) in Goa.
• The highest concentration of such plastic was found at Varanasi and Kanpur, followed by Haridwar, comprising single-use and secondary plastic products.

Key findings

• Sites at Varanasi showed the maximum load of microplastics in the water of the Ganga, as compared to the other two cities.
• Assi Ghat in Varanasi had the maximum abundance of microplastics.
• Pollution of all kinds increased as one travelled downstream from Haridwar to Varanasi.
• The researchers tried to compare the microplastics concentration in Ganga water with similar studies on other rivers across the globe, like the Rhine in Europe, the Patapsco, Magothy, Rhode in North America and the Elqui, Maipo, Biobio, and Maule in South America.
• They found the Ganga microplastics pollution was much higher.
• This was in spite of a higher per capita consumption of plastic in the European countries, North and South America, as compared to India.

Microplastics:

• Microplastics are defined as synthetic solid particles sized ranging from 1 micrometre to 5 millimetre (mm) which are insoluble in water.
• Microplastics are present in a variety of products, from cosmetics to synthetic clothing to plastic bags and bottles. Many of these products readily enter the environment in wastes.
• Classified into two categories:

• Primary microplastics: include microbeads found in personal care products, plastic pellets (or nurdles) used in industrial manufacturing, and plastic fibers used in synthetic textiles (e.g., nylon).
• Secondary microplastics: originate from the breakdown of larger plastics. Plastic bottles, bags, fishing nets, and food packaging are some examples of the larger pieces that break down into microplastics, eventually finding their way into the soil, water, and the air we breathe.

Reason of microplastic in Ganga river:

• Sewage of urban areas, waste of industries etc.
• Low Ecological carrying capacity.
• alarming presence of plastic filaments
• secondary broken down plastics from articles of everyday use
• 97 towns on the bank of Ganga may be discharging about 750 million litres.
• Governments issued waste management rules but hardly gave a heed to implementation.

Impact on humans:

• For humans, too, marine plastic pollution is harmful if it reaches the food chain.
• For instance, microplastics have been found in tap water, beer and even salt.
• One of the first studies to estimate plastic pollution in human ingestion that was published in June 2019 said that an average person eats at least 50,000 particles of microplastic each year.
• Consumption of plastic by humans is harmful since several chemicals that are used to produce plastics can be carcinogenic.
• Even so, since microplastics are an emerging field of study, its exact risks on the environment and human health are not clearly known.