Paramita Bhattacharyya and Sudipta Adhikary
Abstract
Microplastic (MP) pollution is a chronic and growing type of water pollution, especially in the river basins of fast urbanizing regions where municipal wastewater, stormwater runoff, industrial effluents, and mismanaged plastic waste all contribute. The lower Ganga system of West Bengal, which is mainly represented by the BhagirathiâHooghly channel and its distributaries, is especially sensitive as it passes through the highly populated, industrial and commercially active areas of the state before reaching the Bay of Bengal. The distribution of microplastics in the Ganga river systems has been shown to be significantly affected by urban drainage, population density, wastewater discharge and rainfall (Jayadev et al., 2026; Verma and Kumar, 2026), and emerging evidence from 2026 has shown the need for integrated monitoring and source-oriented mitigation. This study aims to conduct a spatial evaluation of microplastic pollution at certain sampling sites along the lower Ganga in West Bengal, focusing on the correlation between urban discharge and microplastic presence in the river. The research is relevant to SDG 6, SDG 11, SDG 12, SDG 14 and SDG 15 as it links urban environmental governance to freshwater pollution and estuarine pollution management.