A study has shown that reduced industrial discharge during fifty one days of mandated COVID-19 nationwide lockdown decreased the dissolved heavy metal concentrations in Ganga river by a minimum of fifty per cent. The study was conducted by a team of scientists from Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur. It has shown that efforts to minimize industrial wastewater can substantially reduce heavy metal pollution in Ganga water within a span of few months.
The research was supported by the Indo-U.S. Science and Technology Forum. It is a bilateral organization under the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India and U.S. Department of State. The research was recently published by ‘Environmental Science and Technology Letters’.
