Foreword
Wastewater generated from urban areas is the major cause of pollution of surface water in our country In 1978- 79, the Central Pollution Control Board prepared reports on the status of wastewater generation, treatment and disposal in Class I cities and Class II towns Since then there has been considerable change in the number and size of Class I cities and Class II towns and updating of the reports became necessary

An updated report on Class I cities has been separately published. The present report deals with the status of water supply, wastewater generation its treatment and disposal in Class II towns. Information could become available from only 241 out of 270 Class II towns in the country as per the 1981 Census. The States of Jammu & Kashmir, Meghalaya, Manipur, Nagaland, Sikkim and Triupura do not have any Class II town. Although the number and population of Class II towns have both increased by about 70 percent during the above period, the total water supply only marginally increased by 5.8 percent Thus the water

supply of 125 litres per capita per day (Ipcd) in 1978 became 78 Ipcd by 1988. The volume of wastewater from Class II towns has not increased significantly but the concentration of organic matter in the wasterwater and the pollution load reaching the receiving water bodies have increased quite significantly The estimated wastewater generation from these towns is 1,298 million litres per day.

From the information provided by the municipalities, it is observed that less than five percent of the total wasterwater generated is collected and only about 2 percent is receiving some kind of treatment against 15 percent collected and 5 percent treated in 1978. Thus the situation is deteriorating which is bound to have adverse effect on public health and quality of life. Urgent action is imperative for reversing the trend towards disaster.

The cooperation extended by the municipalities, public health engineering departments and water supply and sewage disposal authorities of the variouS'States, and the Central Public Health and Environmental Engineering Organisation of the Government of India in furnishing data is gratefully acknowledged. I hope of the report would be useful to all those interested in improvement of environmental quality in urban areas and would generate concern and action for improving water supply andlsanitati~n facilities in Class II towns of our country.