What about Water Quality?

I read with great interest Mihir Shah’s report and accompanying blame game for the Nehruvian era published in the EPW (for example, Nirmal Sengupta, 24 December 2016) with a pinch of salt. Mihir Shah’s report has forgotten, or deliberately ignored, the most important issue related to the water resources in India, which is water pollution. Are there measurements of the water pollution in the erstwhile areas of the Green Revolution in Andhra Pradesh, Punjab and Tamil Nadu? Can anyone disclose what those measurements show? How bad is the water pollution in the “holy” river Ganga?

In India the main issue is not about the supply of the quantity of water but the supply of quality water. So the future commissions on water should first start with the quality of water and then worry about the quantity of water. The data on cancer-related illnesses and deaths related to water pollution should be published and the people be made aware of the situation. Once that information is publicised, new technologies for clean water will be developed.