Ground and surface water quality in North Eastern Region of India

North East (NE) region of India is highly diverse with hilly terrain and has abundant natural resources like forest, water, tea, oil and gas, coal, limestone Uranium etc. The region is witnessing significant fast rate of development of hydropower and industries. Therefore, change in the pattern of utilization of resources in this ecologically sensitive region and changes in lifestyles, culture, farming activities etc. are exerting pressure on the ecosystem. Activities like road building, urbanization, industry (mining, oil and gas exploration, power etc.) and hydel power projects form part of major developmental agenda of the NE region. The data presented in this paper show that groundwater quality in states of NE region has been affected by geogenic contamination from constituents like As, F, and Fe, and the concentration in many areas is beyond the permissible limits. The people of NE depend mostly on surface water (rivers, ponds, reservoirs and natural springs) for their domestic water requirement. Due to industrial and urban activities, surface water also gets polluted with various contaminants rendering them unsuitable for drinking purpose. The monitoring results indicate that lakes, tanks and ponds in the NE have reduced water quality. These water bodies have high organic matter and their BOD is above permissible limits. The water conservation and related management issues of the region and the legislative provisions that address the issues of water management, conservation and control of pollution are discussed.