Paper Title
Pollution of Backwater in Kerala and Method for its Impact Assessment

Abstract
Rapid rate of urbanisation has imposed great strain on man and ecosystem. Population explosion compounded with multifaceted activities like rapid industrialisation, expanding population, tourist activity, silting, and agricultural activities have severely affected the water quality of backwaters in Kerala.Clustered along the coastal belt are major industries like Fertilizer and Chemical, Mineral processing, Hospitals. In the small scale industries coir retting, log setting, sugar mill, ice plants, clay, bricks and pottery are making big impact over the existing backwater water quality. In developing countries like India, the main source of spreading diseases is water. Kerala coast is strikingly bordered by a string of backwaters, generally running parallel to the shoreline. These water bodies locally known as Kayals, occupy extensive areas. The size of these water bodies is significantly varied. Out of the 29-backwaters of the Kerala coast, seven are characteristically river mouth estuaries. The backwaters of Kerala provide waterfront for several major and small -scale industries. Coir retting industry discharge effluents like lignin, tannin, and polyphenols into the backwater system. Poisonous gases hydrogen sulphide and methane pollute the air. Community wastes, hospital wastes and hotel wastes contain pathogenic microorganism, which spread water-borne and water related diseases. Apart from this salinity intrusion into dug and bore wells aggravate pollution problem According to the State of the Environment Report, Kerala, a survey carried out by the State Council for Science, Technology and Environment, land use changes, waste disposal, coastal erosion, tourism industry, coastal engineering activities and sand-miningare exerting pressure on the marine and coastal environment. About 300 medium and large-scale and about 2,000 small-scale industries are discharging effluents directly into saline or freshwater bodies. It is estimated that about one million cubic meters of sewage is generated daily in the coastal areas and about 30,000 cubic meters of this reaches surface water bodies in the coastal areas. Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is one of the proven management tools for incorporating environmental concerns in development process and also in improved decision-making. The environmental impact assessment (EIA) is to provide first order considerations of those tangible aspects of social and environmental consequences they deserved. The paper discusses the sources of backwater pollution in Kerala and secondly the method to measure the impacts. It also suggests that there is a need to develop a system for uniformly viewing environmental resources by any analyst without having individual biases or spurious concerns. After determining the impact scores amongst the various alternatives, the best one should be finally recommended for implementation.