This Environment & Ecology quiz on Water Pollution and River Cleaning puts 10 multiple-choice questions to you, the verified MCQs published with GK24's note on the topic, 1 of them asked in real previous-year papers. Every question carries a full explanation of why the correct option is right and why the other options are wrong, so you learn the fact behind the answer rather than the letter. Attempt it right after reading the note, keep to the timer, and use the explanations at the end to mark what needs another look. Sit it again before the exam as a quick revision of the topic.
10 questions with answers and explanations
Which pollution causes Itai-Itai disease in human beings?
Itai-Itai disease was first identified in Japan among people who ate rice grown with water polluted by cadmium from mining waste.
Read the full explanation →Minamata disease is caused by the pollution of water with which metal?
Minamata disease takes its name from Minamata Bay in Japan, where a factory discharged mercury compounds that were converted by bacteria into methylmercury, concentrated in fish through biomagnification and then eaten by people.
Read the full explanation →A high value of biochemical oxygen demand in a water sample indicates:
Biochemical oxygen demand measures the oxygen that micro-organisms need in order to break down the organic matter present in a sample.
Read the full explanation →Blue baby syndrome, or methaemoglobinemia, in infants is caused by an excess of which substance in drinking water?
Nitrate from fertiliser run-off and from sewage seeps into groundwater; in an infant it is converted to nitrite, which binds to haemoglobin and forms methaemoglobin, a compound that cannot carry oxygen.
Read the full explanation →The excessive growth of algae in a water body due to enrichment with nitrates and phosphates is called:
When fertilisers, detergents and sewage add nitrates and phosphates to a lake or a slow-moving river, algae multiply into a bloom that covers the surface.
Read the full explanation →The Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, which set up the Central and State Pollution Control Boards, was enacted in which year?
The Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act of 1974 was India’s first comprehensive law on pollution.
Read the full explanation →In which year was the Ganga Action Plan, India’s first major river cleaning programme, launched?
The Ganga Action Plan was launched in 1985 to intercept, divert and treat the sewage of the towns along the river, and it was the first programme of its kind in India.
Read the full explanation →The Namami Gange Programme is implemented by which body?
The mission, working under the Ministry of Jal Shakti, is the implementing agency of the Namami Gange Programme launched in 2014, and it works through State Ganga Committees and district committees along the river.
Read the full explanation →Water hyacinth, the floating weed that chokes nutrient-rich water bodies, is popularly known as:
Water hyacinth is an aquatic weed introduced into India from South America.
Read the full explanation →Excess of which substance in drinking water causes fluorosis, a disease that mottles teeth and deforms bones?
A small quantity of fluoride in drinking water protects teeth against decay, but when the concentration rises above the permissible limit it causes fluorosis.
Read the full explanation →