Context: Recently, Under the Namami Gange initiative, over 4,000 volunteers actively combat littering and poaching in the river. Their efforts aim to preserve the river's flora and fauna.
Ganga Pollution
- Rapidly increasing population, rising standards of living and exponential growth of industrialization and urbanisation have exposed water resources, in general, and rivers to various forms of degradation. The mighty Ganga is no exception.
- The deterioration in the water quality impacts the people immediately. Ganga, in some stretches, has become unfit even for bathing. The threat of global climate change, the effect of glacial melt on Ganga flow and the impacts of infrastructural projects in the upper reaches of the river, raise issues that need a comprehensive response.
Sources of pollution of Ganga River:
- In the Ganga basin approximately 12,000 million liters per day (mld) sewage is generated, for which presently there is a treatment capacity of only around 4,000 mld.
- Approximately 3000 mld of sewage is discharged into the main stem of the river Ganga from the Class I & II towns located along the banks, against which treatment capacity of about 1000 mld has been created till date.
- The contribution of industrial pollution, volume-wise, is about 20 per cent but due to its toxic and non- biodegradable nature, this has much greater significance. The industrial pockets in the catchments of Ramganga and Kali rivers and in Kanpur city are significant sources of industrial pollution. The major contributors are tanneries in Kanpur, distilleries, paper mills and sugar mills in the Kosi, Ramganga and Kali River catchments.
Issues Faced in cleaning Ganga River
• Inadequate Sewage treatment: As opposed to around Four thousand MLD treatment capacity available, Ganga basin produces around twelve thousand MLD sewage.
• Pollution from Agriculture: The cumulative use of pesticides has doubled in the last one decade and most of it runs off in our rivers.
• Disruption of Ecological Flow(e-flow): Many interruptions in the flow of the river lead to the reduction in the flow which results in reduced velocity and siltation. This also increases the pollutant concentration. The decrease in flow has led to an increase in groundwater extraction for various uses.
• Challenges of Swachh Bharat: About 180 mld sludge would be generated in five Ganga basin states when they become open defecation free (ODF) and if proper faecal sludge management is not in place, it would invariably pollute the Ganga.
• Escalating costs due to delays in setting up of STPs. An IIT report predicted the cost of treating sewerage to be about 1 paisa per litre at 2010 price levels.
- NMCG could not utilize any amount out of the Clean Ganga Fund and the entire amount was lying in banks due to non-finalization of action plan.
• Lack of coordination: The cleaning of the Ganga requires seamless coordination between the agencies responsible for carrying out different tasks. Jal Shakti ministry signed MOUS with 10 ministries for better implementation of Namami Gange. However, till date no detail is available as to how these ministries are functioning for better convergence.
Nation Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG)
It has a five-tier structure at national, state and district level to take measures for prevention, control and abatement of environmental pollution in river Ganga and
to ensure continuous adequate flow of water to rejuvenate the river Ganga as below.
STRUStructureCTURE:
1. National Ganga Council under chairmanship of Prime Minister of India.
2. Empowered Task Force (ETF) on river Ganga under chairmanship of Hon’ble Union Minister of Jal Shakti (Department of Water Resources, River Development
and Ganga Rejuvenation).
3. National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG).
4. State Ganga Committees and
5. District Ganga Committees in every specified district abutting river Ganga and its tributaries in the states.
NMCG has a two-tier management structure and comprises of Governing Council and Executive Committee. Both are headed by Director General, NMCG.
Thus, the newly created structure attempts to bring all stakeholders on one platform to take a holistic approach towards the task of Ganga cleaning and rejuvenation.
The Director General (DG) of NMCG is an Additional Secretary in Government of India. For effective implementation of the projects under the overall supervision of NMCG, the State Level Program Management Groups (SPMGs) are, also headed by senior officers of the
concerned States.
National River Conservation Plan
• The river conservation program was initiated with the launching of the Ganga Action Plan (GAP) in 1985.
• The Ganga Action Plan was expanded to cover other rivers under National River Conservation Plan (NRCP) in the year 1995.
• The objective of NRCP is to improve the water quality of rivers, which are major water sources in the country, through implementation of pollution abatement works in various towns along identified polluted stretches of rivers on cost sharing basis between the Central and state governments.
Namami Gange Programme
- It is an Integrated Conservation Mission, approved as ‘Flagship Programme’ by the Union Government in June 2014 with budget outlay of Rs.20,000 Crore to accomplish the twin objectives of effective abatement of pollution, conservation and rejuvenation of National River Ganga.
- Its implementation has been divided into Entry-Level Activities (for immediate visible impact), Medium-Term Activities (to be implemented within 5 years of time frame) and Long-Term Activities (to be implemented within 10 years).
Ganga Task Force
- It is a special unit of the Territorial Army raised under the public participation component of the Namami Gange Programme.
- The unit is mandated to carry out rejuvenation of River Ganga through activities such as afforestation, monitoring of river pollution, patrolling of ghats, public awareness campaigns and assist civil administration during natural calamities in the three districts of Uttar Pradesh - Prayagraj, Varanasi and Kanpur.
Way forward
• Multi-dimensional approach: Many of the separated approaches like river-linking, riverfront development projects, access to toilets, making villages open defecation free, piped water supply in rural areas, need to integrate long-term ecological and sustainability goals.
• Organic agriculture: Agriculture along the entire riverbed should be organic.
• Liquid Waste Management:
o Decentralization of STPs: at the colony level.
o Reuse treated wastewater for irrigation and empty into natural drains. For all upcoming cities, smart cities and for those, whose master plans are not in place, earmark land for STPs.
• Develop and restore local storages (ponds, lakes, wetlands) as permanent solutions to both floods and droughts. Only 10 per cent of water received during monsoon rainfall is harvested. Restoration of ponds, lakes and wetlands should be an integral part of river
restoration and conservation strategy
• Restoring lower order streams and smaller tributaries in the Ganga Basin.