Among other things like a good Budget or bureaucratic will, the cleaning of Ganga needs better groundwork at the initial stage
The Ganga, which is the most sacred river in India, is caught in a vortex of pollution. Its salvation seems not only difficult but almost impossible. According to the original plan, as envisaged by the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in May 2015, this year (2019) was supposed to be “clean” in true essence of the word. The deadline, however, has been pushed to 2020 now. Two months into this year have gone by but we are yet to witness any change in the quality of Ganga’s water. In fact, according to a map of Ganga river’s water quality presented by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) to the National Green Tribunal (NGT) in August 2018, only five out of the 70-odd monitoring stations had water that was fit for drinking and seven for bathing. Initiatives to clean the Ganga began with the Ganga Action Plan I in 1986. Various projects have been launched since then. They year 2014 saw over Rs 4,000 crore being spent for cleaning up the river. To top this, the Namami Gange plan of the NDA Government infused a further Rs 20,000 crore to clean the holy river. But all of this has still not evoked the desired result and the river still remains dirty. It is a monumental failure that even after three decades of efforts to clean the national river, it is not even fit for bathing.
A glance at the humongous effort put to clean the river will impress anyone. The Namami Gange project was taken up under the National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG). Under the plan, the NMCG would establish field offices wherever necessary. The National Ganga Council (NGC), too, was created. To give it utmost importance, the Prime Minister was made its head. This council replaced the National Ganga River Basin Authority (NGRBA). NGC would have on board Chief Ministers of five Ganga basin States — Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal — besides several Union Ministers who were supposed to meet once every year.
The Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation signed Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) with 10 other Ministries to synergise activities under the Namami Gange programme. The Government said that it would involve grassroot level institutions such as urban local bodies and panchayati raj institutions to implement the scheme. To add teeth to its efforts, the Centre also set out to establish a four battalion eco-task force which would spread awareness about pollution and protect the river. Additionally, the Government contemplated a legislation to arrest and fine those found flouting norms regarding Ganga pollution. The Government also tasked seven Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) to prepare a report on best strategies to clean up the river. Finally, an empowered task force, headed by Union Water Resources Minister, was also created, which had on its board chief secretaries of the five Ganga Basin States. Its mandate was to meet once in every three months. Further, State Ganga committees have been formed, which were to be the nodal agencies to implement the programmes in States. These committees would conduct safety audits of the river and take remedial measures.
But surprisingly, in spite of all this bureaucratic action, the beleaguered river still flows polluted. The reason is the existence of practical hurdles that should have been addressed before the setting up of an elaborate and mostly irrelevant superstructure. Take for instance, the state of sewage treatment. Sewage treatment plants (STPs) are the key to Ganga pollution abatement. But here, too, the news is grim. As per Namami Gange targets, STPs with over 2,000 million litres a day capacity had to be rehabilitated, of which only 328 MLD have been done. Moreover, as far as sewage infrastructure projects are concerned, 68 of them were sanctioned after the Cabinet approved the Namami Gange project and only six were completed. Till August 31, 2018, a total of 236 projects, including STPs, had been sanctioned, out of which only 63 had been completed.
In addition to the insufficient sewage treatment plants, industries, especially the tanneries in Kanpur’s Jajmau area, have several times attracted the wrath of both the Supreme Court and the NGT for their role in consistently polluting the Ganga with emissions. To make matters worse, the Uttar Pradesh Government is unable to rein in these errant units for reasons best known to it. In the background of lax policing of these polluting units, industries at Jajmau are discharging much more than nine MLD industrial effluents, mainly containing chromium, into the Ganga.
What should be the way forward considering the fact that the deadline year, 2020, is just round the corner? As an urgent initiative, the Government must stop all effluents flowing into the Ganga forthwith and start a daily pollution control board monitoring of the river water quality. It must also install mobile sewage treatment plants at various pollution hotspot locations along the length of the river. These measures will help prevent the river from turning into one of the biggest man made pollution disasters of our times.
(The writer is an environmental journalist)
