Skip to main content

Research Repository

Advanced Search

Population density controls on microbial pollution across the Ganga catchment

Milledge, D.G.; Gurjar, S.K.; Bunce, J.T.; Tare, V.; Sinha, R.; Carbonneau, P.E.

Population density controls on microbial pollution across the Ganga catchment Thumbnail


Authors

D.G. Milledge

S.K. Gurjar

J.T. Bunce

V. Tare

R. Sinha



Abstract

For millions of people worldwide, sewage-polluted surface waters threaten water security, food security and human health. Yet the extent of the problem and its causes are poorly understood. Given rapid widespread global urbanisation, the impact of urban versus rural populations is particularly important but unknown. Exploiting previously unpublished archival data for the Ganga (Ganges) catchment, we find a strong non-linear relationship between upstream population density and microbial pollution, and predict that these river systems would fail faecal coliform standards for irrigation waters available to 79% of the catchment’s 500 million inhabitants. Overall, this work shows that microbial pollution is conditioned by the continental-scale network structure of rivers, compounded by the location of cities whose growing populations contribute c. 100 times more microbial pollutants per capita than their rural counterparts.

Citation

Milledge, D., Gurjar, S., Bunce, J., Tare, V., Sinha, R., & Carbonneau, P. (2018). Population density controls on microbial pollution across the Ganga catchment. Water Research, 128, 82-91. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.watres.2017.10.033

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Oct 17, 2017
Online Publication Date Oct 27, 2017
Publication Date Jan 1, 2018
Deposit Date Oct 17, 2017
Publicly Available Date Oct 31, 2017
Journal Water Research
Print ISSN 0043-1354
Publisher IWA Publishing
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 128
Pages 82-91
DOI https://doi.org/10.1016/j.watres.2017.10.033

Files






You might also like



Downloadable Citations