Eighty percent of our surface water is contaminated and 80% of the pollution comes from domestic sewage. The Municipal Corporation of Gurgaon recently admitted before the National Green Tribunal that untreated sewage from the city mixes with treated wastewater in the drains into the Yamuna. The putrid river that flows through New Delhi is only one of the many severely polluted surface water bodies in the country. Government agencies estimate that as much of 80% of India’s surface water is contaminated and most of it comes from sewage. The effects of this contamination are immediately felt with the onset of the monsoons. No sooner had the rains begun this year than reports of water-borne diseases like diarrhea and cholera breakouts trickled in from Delhi, Pune, Varanasi and Chennai as broken water pipes and flooding allowed fecal sludge mix into potable water. The story repeats every year as broken sewage systems across the country keep leaking.

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