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After faltering for three years, India's largest test drive for uranium contamination in groundwater shows signs of revival

- Jitendra

INDIA HAS put its largest ever groundwater testing for uranium contamination on high gear. Started by the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC ) in 2014, the testing drive, which had slowed down, has again picked up in recent months. The drive is to be finished by 2019 and has a target of checking 0.12 million groundwater samples. Till early 2018, just 10,000 samples had been tested in the project where the Central Ground Water Board (CGWB ) is a key partner.

The project, which BARC is keeping under wraps, is crucial as several scientific reports have in the recent past pointed at rampant uranium contamination in India’s groundwater. It accounts for 85 per cent of the country’s drinking water supplies.

In May, scientists from the Duke University in the US, along with CGWB , Rajasthan Ground Water Department and Gujarat Water Resources Development Corporation, reported that water in around one-fourth of the 324 wells they tested in Rajasthan and Gujarat had uranium in quantities higher than the World Health Organization’s (who) standard of 30 µg/l. The study, published in the