A number this far past the safety threshold is not a borderline exceedance. It is a sign that whatever treatment was supposed to be happening simply is not.
What the Report Found
A statement from the South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People (SANDRP) reports hexavalent chromium at 50.3 mg/L, within a total chromium reading of 50.5 mg/L, in water entering the Godavari river through local drains near Nashik's Ambad MIDC industrial zone. That figure is over 1,000 times the Bureau of Indian Standards drinking water limit of 0.05 mg/L. SANDRP describes hexavalent chromium, a form associated with cancer risk, as the primary concern in its findings.
The contaminated stretch reportedly includes ghats where the upcoming Kumbh Mela is due to be held, raising the stakes well beyond the immediate neighbourhood, since SANDRP flags a potential health risk to the large numbers of pilgrims expected to use the river during the event.
Where the Contamination Is Coming From
SANDRP points to electroplating, metal finishing, paint, and other industries operating in the Ambad MIDC zone as the likely source, though it frames this as the probable cause rather than a confirmed, investigated finding. Residents in the affected settlement, according to the report, have experienced chemical ulcers, rashes, blisters, and painful swollen lymph nodes, along with chronic illnesses, and two women are reported to have had spontaneous miscarriages, though SANDRP itself says that specific link still needs proper assessment.
Residents reportedly continue to rely on this contaminated water in part because the Nashik Municipal Corporation's own supply is low and inconsistent, which turns a regulatory failure into a public health exposure that falls hardest on people with the fewest alternatives.
How the Regulator Has Responded So Far
The Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) issued a routine show-cause notice to a single company on September 30, 2026, after media reports of yellow-coloured water in the area. SANDRP has called this response inadequate given the scale of what its own testing found, and says the MPCB has neither published its water testing data nor shared it with residents, leaving the community without clear information about what it is being exposed to.
Why a Single Notice Does Not Match the Scale of the Finding
A chromium reading 1,000 times the safe limit points to a systemic treatment failure across an industrial cluster, not an isolated lapse at one facility. Electroplating and metal-finishing effluent requires dedicated heavy-metal treatment stages before it can safely enter a common drain, let alone a river; when that treatment is absent or bypassed across multiple units in a zone, a single show-cause notice to one company addresses a fraction of the actual source.
For industrial zones handling plating, finishing, or metal-processing effluent, properly designed effluent treatment plant systems built specifically for heavy-metal removal are what stands between a cluster like Ambad MIDC and a contamination event of this scale. Retrofitting that capacity after a 1,000x exceedance has already reached a river used for religious gathering is a far more difficult and costly position than building it in from the start.
What Comes Next
With the Kumbh Mela approaching and SANDRP pressing for the MPCB's testing data to be made public, pressure is likely to build for a response that goes beyond a single notice, toward a zone-wide investigation of which units in Ambad MIDC are actually treating their effluent and which are not.
Key Highlights
- SANDRP reports hexavalent chromium at over 1,000 times the safe drinking water limit entering the Godavari near Nashik
- The contamination is linked to industries in the Ambad MIDC zone, including electroplating and metal finishing
- The affected stretch includes ghats planned for use during the upcoming Kumbh Mela
- MPCB has issued a show-cause notice to only one company so far and has not published its testing data
