Water quality and waste water generation in class I cities of India

India is endowed with many river basins and rich civilizations have grown over which received high concentration of population. Urbanization attracts a large number of people to urban centers for better life and employment leading to concentration in cities. This leads to environmental problems which arise from lack of provision for piped water, waste water generation, sanitation/ drainage and solid waste collection. An attempt has been made to understand water quality degradation in class I cities of India. The total waste water generated by class I cities was 7,007 mld in 1978-79 and 16,662 mld in 1994-95, but only 39 percent of this is treated and drained into river or other water bodies. Only 24 percent waste water generated in class I cities, is treated in 1994-95 against to 39 percent in 1978. Mumbai alone generates 2456 mld waste water followed Kolkata and Delhi. The bulk of sewage gets retained on land to percolate/ get washed off to streams/ groundwater or drain into water bodies. There is a need to analyze water quality and correlate with demographic characteristics like life cycle, education and age- sex structure Since a large number of rivers are seasonal in nature the situation is alarming.