Little did Goodenough realize during his constant urgings to the

workforce “Dig boy, dig” in 1857, that he has started digging

watery graves for the pristine water resources of a rainfall blessed
state called Assam.

Today the Digboi refinery is run by the Indian Oil Corporation and
is said to be the largest commercial enterprise of India. The
refinery produces 650,000 metric tones of crude oil every year.
Assam produces about 15 percent of India's onshore crude, with
state-owned exploration companies, Oil India Limited and Oil and
Natural Gas Corporation Limited and Indian Oil Corporation's
refineries.

“For more than 40 years, oil companies have been polluting the
state like anything," said Jawahar Lal Dutta, chairman of the
Assam Pollution Control Board. The oil industry had for over four
decades been destroying resource-rich areas through deforestation,
pollution and preventing tree regeneration by not cleaning up
spillages.

Water pollution is immense given the huge canvas available in a

rainfall rich state like Assam. About 8251 sq km, which is 10.5%
of the total geographical area of the State, is occupied by surface
water bodies. Of this about 6503 sq km is occupied by the river
systems including the mighty Brahmaputra and 1748 sq km by
natural wetlands. The total surface water resource of the State is
thus estimated at about 600 billion cubic metre. The annual
replenishable groundwater resource of the State has been estimated
as 27.23 billion cubic metres.

TROUBLED WATERS OF ASSAM 2

On expected lines, the paragraph ‘Pollution and Environment’ in
the State water policy of Assam of 2007 reads “In project planning,
implementation and operation, the preservation of the quality of
the environment and the ecological balance would be a primary
consideration. Adverse impact, if any, on the environment would
be minimized and off-set by adequate compensatory measures.
Effluents will be treated to acceptable levels and standards before
discharging them in natural streams and other bodies.”

Still, the pollution of water resources by the powerful oil industries

goes unabated and the following paragraphs paint disturbing
graphic images of the same.

Surface water
A survey conducted by the Assam Remote Sensing Application
Centre (ARSAC), Guwahati and the Space Research Centre,
Ahmedabad has revealed that 1,367 out of 3,513 wetlands in
Assam are under severe threat due to a host of reasons of which oil
pollution is a major one. "Our wetlands have turned into
wastelands and majority of them are in a dying state," claims D C
Goswami, head of department of environmental sciences at
Gauhati University. These wetlands are the reservoirs of many
migratory birds, mammals, fish, amphibians and reptiles, and many
plant species.

Refineries discharge bio-chemical waste such as oil and grease,

phenolic compounds and sulphide into the Brahmaputra river and
its tributaries, well above permissible limits.

Oil spills and leaks, which are equally common as the fuel price
hikes, allows oil to find its way through rice fields killing all
synergistic soil bacteria and thereafter into the main drain fondly
called as Brahmaputra. The invisible thin film on this river blocks
all Oxygen possible getting into the water suffocating the
planktons and endangering aquatic life in totality.

TROUBLED WATERS OF ASSAM 3

Oil pollutants, such as hydrocarbons, entering the aquatic
environment may lead to large-scale and sudden kills of animal life
especially fishes. The resulting damage may include
immunosuppression, physical damage to gills and epithelia, and
adverse affects on metabolism. Also, there may well be increased
susceptibility to various infectious diseases, including
lymphocystis and ulceration (Brian Austin, 2007).

Gangetic river dolphins locally called xihus are critically

endangered and protected under schedule I of the Wildlife
(Protection) Act 1972. Conservationists say there are just about
268 xihus fighting a losing battle for survival in Assam's vast river
networks. Since refineries started in 1960, Brahmaputra Porpoise
dwindled from a million to near zero today.

Though there are no scientific studies on the effect of oil pollution

on Brahmaputra’s aquatic life, equally pertinent studies in tropical
Africa indicate that large-scale alteration of habitat was caused by
oil-industry related pollution as seen in the habitat use of four
species of freshwater turtles (Pelusios castaneus, Pelusios niger,
Pelomedusa subrufa, Trionyx triunguis) in River Niger of southern
Nigeria between 1996 and 2004. The numbers of turtle specimens
observed during this period declined drastically (Luiselli et al.,
2006).

IUCN has rated oil pollution of Assam wetlands as a major threat

to avifauna like white winged ducks. Oil coats the feathers of
wintering birds, reducing their insulatory properties and causing
death due to hypothermia. On lake shores, oil coats plants
preventing photosynthesis. It covers the gills of fishes interfering
with feeding and respiration.

Species richness, Shannon diversity, biomass and number of taxa

of algal communities in a stream polluted with oil refinery effluent
at Digboi showed significant negative relationships with the levels

TROUBLED WATERS OF ASSAM 4

of pollution (Singh and Gaur, 1988). On similar lines, a research
report from Chesapeake Bay (USA) affirms that a substantial
portion of grasses like S. alterniflora in a marsh was killed by the
oil pollution; the remaining portion evidenced sublethal effects
including delayed development in the spring, increased density,
and reduced mean weight per stem. The second annual cohort of
shoots, usually produced in late summer and early fall, was
suppressed almost entirely. Oil which entered the roots and
rhizomes of dead S. alterniflora was retained in a relatively
undegraded state for at least 7 months (Hershner and Lake, 2004).

Oil contamination induced significant shifts in the structure of the

indigenous bacterial communities in the soil at the bottom of water
bodies as shown by ribosomal intergenic spacer analysis (Miralles
et al., 2007). Lack of studies on the effect of oil pollution on
microbes in India forces another example from Russia - The
composition of natural microbial communities, including the
distribution of different groups of microorganisms (including those
able to degrade oil hydrocarbons) changed significantly within the
areas of oil seeps in the Lake Baikal (Pavlova et al., 2008)

Levels of thirteen heavy metals like Fe, Mn, Ni, Pb, Cr, Cu, Zn,
Hg, As and V in ponds/stagnated water bodies around oil well sites
in Sibsagar district of Assam have been found to be above
permissible levels (Sharma et al., 1995).

It is the custom of Assam Pollution Control Board (APCB) to warn

unsuccessfully the Digboi authorities from releasing highly toxic
effluents, including oil and grease, into waterbodies. The untreated
effluents from the refinery cause extensive damage to freshwater
diversity as well as water quality endangering life. Since
November 1999, the APCB has served 14 notices to the refinery
authorities, urging them to conform to pollution norms.

TROUBLED WATERS OF ASSAM 5

To make things still complicated, the bioremediation technologies
followed by the industries are not effective. Allegedly, the oil does
not separate with the famous IOC/TERI technology.

Groundwater

Groundwater is contaminated by dumping sludge in ponds and

polluting rivers by discharging untreated effluents, posing health
risks to millions of people.

Pollution of soil with oil products from refineries first affects

surface and sub-surface soil which accumulates pollutants. Water
dissolves and washes down the oil hydrocarbons thus polluting the
groundwater (Vasarevicius et al., 2005). Soil contamination with
oil products threatens groundwater and drinking water quality. On
contamination, soil acts as a permanent pollutant source and hence
groundwater remediation is hardly successful. Damage of storage
tanks and oil pipelines during conflict allows large quantities of oil
and oil products to infiltrate into the soil and groundwater.

Oil contaminated rainwater can infiltrate and reach the water table
within a period of three to four days for average annual rainfall of
every 120 mm (Al-Sulaimi et al., 2004). Once the groundwater is
polluted; there are chances that nearby rivers especially the
omnipresent Brahmaputra is also polluted through lateral
movement because research reports indicate that contaminated
groundwater is polluting the Danube river upstream through
infiltration galleries in Novisad (UNEP feasibility report, 2007).
Agriculture
Surveys conducted around Madras Refineries Limited, India
revealed the cumulative effects of oil pollution on plants. Damage
was both immediate and long-term. The four categories of plant
symptoms to oil pollution, typical of nutrient deficiencies include

TROUBLED WATERS OF ASSAM 6

yellow foliage, chloronecrosis, wilting and defoliation and leaf roll
(Naidu, 2002) The effect of oil polluted water on agriculture is
alarming as evident from the following research findings from
other countries.
Crude oil contaminated irrigation water cause poor growth of crop
plants due to suffocation of plants caused by exclusion of air by the
oil or exhaustion of oxygen by increased microbial activity,
interference with plant-water relationships and toxicity from
sulphides and excess available Mn produced due to decomposition
of hydrocarbons (Udo and A. A. A. Fayemi, 1975)
Reactions of higher plants (mustard, oat, rye, lettuce, dill and
barley) to the contamination of water with oil and oil products
showed negative effects with regard to germination of seeds,
length of sprouts, dry biomass and length of plant roots (Petukhov
et al.,2004).

Conclusion

India's economy has been growing at an average 8 percent over the

past few years and the country is hungry for more energy. Hence it
would be a futile exercise of hope and imagination, if we think that
this galloping great nation is going to apply brakes for the sake of
few grasses, fishes and poor human lives. More appalling than the
well known indulgence of political bosses and bureaucrats, is the
lack of academic and scientific interest on a subject that touches
life, as there are no systematic studies of the effect of oil pollution
in Assam.
But hope is the mantra of life. And hence we see technologies
(though copied shamelessly like bollywood music directors from
other advanced nations) coming up like phyto remediation, bio
remediation, electro coagulation and so on to save our rivers,
ponds, lakes, water table and biological life from annihilation.

TROUBLED WATERS OF ASSAM 7

Since mature democracies believe that cure is better than
prevention.

References

Al-Sulaimi, Viswanathan and F. Székely, 2004 Effect of oil

pollution on fresh groundwater in Kuwait Environmental Geology
22(3): 246-256

Brian Austin, 2007 The Involvement of Pollution with Fish Health,

NATO: Security through Science Series Pages 13-30

Hershner and Lake, 2004 Effects of chronic oil pollution on a salt-

marsh grass community, Marine Biology 56 (2) : 163-173

Luiselli Godfrey C. Akani and Edoardo Politano, 2006 Effects of

habitat alteration caused by petrochemical activities and oil spills
on the habitat use and interspecific relationships among four
species of Afrotropical freshwater turtles, Biodiversity and
Conservation 15(11): 3751-3767

Miralles, David Nérini, Claude Manté, Monique Acquaviva,

Pierre Doumenq, Valérie Michotey, Sylvie Nazaret,
Jean Claude Bertrand and Philippe Cuny, 2007 Microbial Ecology
54 : 4

Naidu KC, 2002 Effect of oil pollution on certain plants under field
condition, J Ecotoxico Environ Monit, 11(3): 195-203

Pavlova, T. I. Zemskaya, A. G. Gorshkov, V. V. Parfenova,

M. Yu. Suslova and O. M. Khlystov, 2008 Study on the Lake

TROUBLED WATERS OF ASSAM 8

Baikal microbial community in the areas of the natural oil seeps,
Applied Biochemistry and Microbiology 44: 3

Petukhov Fomchenkov, V. A. Chugunov and V. P. Kholodenko,

2004 Plant Biotests for Soil and Water Contaminated with Oil and
Oil Products Applied Biochemistry and Microbiology 36 (6):
564-567

Udo and A. A. A. Fayemi, 1975 The Effect of Oil Pollution of Soil

on Germination, Growth and Nutrient Uptake of Corn, J Environ
Qual 4:537-540

UNEP Feasibility Report, 2007

Vasarevicius S, Greicuite K and Siaulyte E, 2005 Investigation and

evaluation of oil products in intensively used military areas Journal
of environmental engineering and landscape management 23 (4):
160-166

http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/39648/news
Date/29-Dec-2006/story.htm

http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=3021924

http://www.springerlink.com/content/k836886318r80n51/?p=9630
c5f9fcac42e2b1da2fe49f828f6a&pi=1

http://www.iucnredlist.org/search/details.php/3460/summ

http://www.cpcb.nic.in/

http://www.pcbassam.org/

http://www.hindu.com/

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