Elemental behaviour of pollutants in groundwater plume. A study in relation with their bio-remediation

Abstract or Introduction

This thesis is an attempt to study some of the aspects of the groundwater contamination and what could be done by the scientific community to reduce or eliminate such contaminations. Water is one of the most essential needs of every living being. This need stems from the fact that it is the water which causes and sustains any life form. The first living creature of earth took birth in the water only and even today the maximum number of life forms and their population is supported by water only. The terrestrial life forms came on the earth in view of the fierce competition for the life supporting parameters within the water. The most notable among such limiting parameters was the sunlight and the nutrients. This shifting to the land provided the ample quantity of sun light and the nutrients which resulted into their fast growth and today we can find the various life forms even in the supposedly inhospitable areas of the earth.

Yet these life forms could not alter their great dependence on water. It is the reason that every life form be it is human; plant or animal cannot keep themselves away from water. However, the success of human race in the matters of survival has brought about many problems in its wake. The biggest among them is the serious shortage of usable water for various human purposes. This shortage led the man to explore a particular source which other living beings can never do i.e. the exploitation of the groundwater. The groundwater is termed as mother’s milk also by some poetic scientists. Yet the over exploitation of this scarce source is poisoning this precious and sacred source. A large number of human problems could be attributed to the misuse of this resource. Severe depletion of the groundwater and its contamination are the two broad categories of the problem.