Events & Issues

New Delhi, 29 June 2015

Purifying Holy Ganga

WANTED: “BHAGIRATH” EFFORT

By Dr.S.Saraswathi

(Ex Director, ICSSR, New Delhi)

The National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) under the rubric Namami Gange Programme echoes the dream of renowned environmental specialists that the 21st century should be the era of restoration in ecology.

The project launched by the Government it is set to fulfil one of the most ambitious election promises of the BJP and is estimated to cost Rs.20,000 crore. It is set to be completed by 2018 as assured by the Solicitor General reply to a PIL in the Supreme Court.   

In the first stage, the  entire stretch of the river surface abutting 11         identified towns --- Rishikesh, Haridwar, Garhmukteshwar, Mathura-Vrindavan, Kanpur, Allahabad, Varanasi, Patna, Sahibganj, Kolkata, and Nabadweep --- would be taken up for solid waste management.

Pertinently, the project gives priority to stopping pollutants at the entry point itself. Namely, any physical, chemical, or biological alteration of water that is harmful to living organisms. Notably, any water contamination makes it unusable for its highest use yet the same might be usable for other purposes.

Water pollution might be caused by natural phenomena like flood, earthquakes and cyclones.  But, they are not as harmful as water pollution caused by human activities like sewage and waste disposal of industrial and domestic activities.  When both causes blend, the effect is disastrous

In embarking on the formidable job of cleaning the 2,500 km long Ganga or any river, one must find first the polluting sources.  These are classified as “point sources” when the source is one and “non-point sources” where the resource cannot be precisely pointed out as it emanates from diverse places. 

The former consists of mostly industrial wastes like oils, metals, chemicals, debris, etc, the latter of domestic wastes, sediments from different sources, sewers, etc. Sadly, the holy Ganga receives abundant amount of both types of pollutants.

Indeed, after air effluence, water pollution is the most serious threat to safe existence for living beings globally. Worse, the situation is deteriorating daily and demands urgent remedial action and drastic cleaning operation.  Alas! Human beings are indifferent to nature’s woes, and wake up only when their own lives are threatened.

Undoubtedly, both air and water pollution increases with development --- a paradoxical situation --- wherein development has to find easy ways to fight pollution without halting its own progress. Resulting in countries initiating steps to arrest it.

Sceptics aghast at the very idea of cleaning the Ganga and see it as a monstrous task beyond human capacity need to realize India is not fighting a lone battle, but among many in dire need of protecting its water sources and restoring rivers to their original natural state by reducing harmful effects of human interventions. 

Remember, rivers in the modern age are not just shipping canals and sewers.  The European Union’s Water Framework directive issued in 2000 makes it a political imperative for all member countries to turn all rivers   to a “good status” by 2015.  The object is to stop using rivers as industrial sewers or constructing them as concrete shipping lanes. Water engineers are actually fighting environmental battles.

In the UK, centuries old criminal law protects free flow of water across land and the River (Prevention of Pollution) Acts adopted during 1950-60 introduced legal control over pollution.

Even Washington DC finalized a plan in 2004 for a “Clean Rivers Project”.   Anacostia River, nee “forgotten river”, flowing behind the Capital building is vulnerable to contamination and is being restored. The Clean Water Act regulates discharge of contaminants and protection of water standards. And violations are strongly dealt by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Notably, China can provide many lessons for countering water pollution as it faces massive problem, not only agricultural and industrial pollution, but also dead pigs block rivers surrounding Shanghai.  According to a Land and Resources Ministry report China’s water crisis is due to contamination in more than half of its rivers and lakes and over 60% of groundwater.

Another report in 2014 declared 3/5 of China’s water as “moderately or seriously” polluted and only 3% of urban water was clean.   The pollution causes are ditto India.

Interestingly, China is seeking a solution by strengthening its water infrastructure and enforcing more regulations for use and protection.  Technological solutions are also being explored.  Courts are being given power to enforce penalties for violations of regulations.  A project to clean up the Yangtze River was taken up in 2002.

The State Council Plan on Water Pollution is targeting cleaning of China’s seven major rivers to restore them to “good condition” by 2020.  Experts, however, caution this would be a big challenge.  Despite this, China is going ahead with dam construction and even diverting the course of rivers.

Even the Amazon which house many rare and vital medicinal plants   is not free from monstrous levels of pollution whereby the river undoes all the good forests do. All its tributaries inhale huge amounts of carbon dioxide and release them to the sky. Indeed, it faces a strange problem of bacteria eating the woods.

In clean Singapore, five rivers are classified as “dead” and unfit for even fish and aquatic plants. Dumping of garbage and discharge of raw sewage pose enormous problem of periodical compulsory cleaning.  In Malaysia, the Global Environmental Centre’s Chief of River Care Programme asserts their river looked like a drain wherein people have stopped thinking of it as a river.

Thus, cleaning rivers in any country involves coordinated policies and action plans involving various ministries and departments and cannot be thrust on one agency.  While the water department deals with water, land pollution which flows into water sources is treated as an environmental problem.  Also, local bodies are interested   in neighbouring canals flowing from rivers. 

In India too, not only the Central and State Governments, municipal authorities, and Panchayats are involved in river cleaning. One way of solving the problem of sewage disposal which causes water pollution is for India to adopt foreign techniques as practiced in many countries including USA and UK.

Importantly, most pollution in the Ganga is from land and human activity.  Coupled with religious sentiments and beliefs which need to be respected as the river is believed to be the purifier of all impurities of mind and body, it now needs human cleaning.  The task has to be taken with vigour, moral strength, and spiritual detachment. Cooperation and active participation of religious leaders must voluntarily come with the firm faith that “cleanliness is godliness”.

Undeniably, the task is complex as it requires the fusion of science, technology, political will, and people’s faith.  The launching of the Ganga project is like the outbreak of a marathon fight.  Legends depict the story of King Bhagirath’s epic struggle   to bring the holy Ganga to our land, still referred to as an example of undaunted perseverance.  We now need the same faith and hope to purify the holy Ganga! ---- INFA                                                                

(Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)