Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Fig. 1 Districts in Malwa region of Punjab state where the concentration of uranium in ground
water was observed beyond WHO permissible limit are encircled
between 139 and 295 ppb. The fl y ash from two coal-fi red power plants located in
this region was presumed to be one of the causes of the uranium related toxicity
but a recent study (Alrakabi et al. 2012 ) which corroborated the observation of
high concentration of uranium in ground water in Malwa region ruled out the
possibility of fl y ash being the cause of ground water contamination. The uranium
concentration in water from Nawanshahr region of Punjab has been reported
(Bajaj et al. 2011 ) to be slightly higher than 15 ppb, the threshold of permissible
limit prescribed by WHO.
The State of Punjab being the home to the Green Revolution in India as well as
being one of the most prosperous states has seen excessive use of chemical fertil-
izers in the past couple of decades. It has been shown (De Kok and Schnug 2008 )
that the uranium in phosphate fertilizers can contribute signifi cantly to the uranium
load in the soils and this could perhaps lead to contamination of subsurface ground
water sources. Therefore a humble attempt was made to evaluate the actual signifi -
cance of fertilizer as possible source leading to the extremely elevated uranium
concentration in the ground water.
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