Pollution Load on Indian Soil-Water Systems and Associated Health Hazards: A Review

India's soil-water systems provide a vital source of freshwater and sustain the drinking water supply for the world's second-largest population. However, groundwater within the large geographical area of India continues to be affected by geogenic pollution and industrial spills. Thus, an effort has been made to review the studies performed to investigate distributions and behaviors of major pollutants of Indian soil-water systems. Furthermore, a state-of-the-art literature survey has been performed to understand the progress in wetland hydrology and in the estimation of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from India's soil-water systems. The geochemically induced health issues have been presented here. Five major observations have been noted as follows: (1) the majority of aquifers in India are highly affected by multiple pollutants, i.e., arsenic (As), fluoride (F), nitrate (N), selenium (Se), uranium (U), and hydrocarbons; (2) although there is sufficient literature on laboratory and field investigations of individual pollutants' behavior in India soil-water systems, these investigations haven't been performed for multipollutants; (3) scant information is available on reactive solute behaviors in Indian wetland systems; (4) significant work has been done in the past to estimate GHG emissions from Indian wetlands, dams/reservoirs, forests, and crop lands, but very limited information is available on its connectivity with local and regional hydrological processes and water quality; (5) large populations are affected by serious health issues such as dental/skeletal fluorosis, malignancy, and hyperkeratosis in areas highly contaminated with multipollutants. This is the first study to present the current status of multi-pollutants' distributions and behaviors in Indian soil-water systems and associated health hazards. The manuscript will help policy makers, geochemists, and environmental scientists to frame management and remediation plans for polluted sites in India.