Cleaning of Ganga , inspired from Rhine River, Murray -Darling Basin and Israel.
We are aware that the Govt. of India has taken up mammoth task of cleaning Ganga. The Ganga is India’s life. It is an integral part of our history and cultural ethos.
The river has been proclaimed as India’s national river. It is of 2525 km in length with the overall basin area of 8, 62,769 sq.km. It starts from the Gangotri in the Himalayas to Diamond Harbour in the Bay of Bengal. During its flowing down, it passes various states along either sides of its bank. These states are Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal. The average depth of the Ganga river is 16m or 52 ft and the highest depth is 30 m or 100ft. All these states get benefit in terms of navigation, irrigation, domestic & industrial water. Large no of people are depending on the precious water resources of river ganga.
But, unfortunately the ganga suffers badly from extreme pollution level .The People, , who live close to rivers are affected due to sewerage from city, industrial waste, religious offerings which are wrapped up in non-degradable plastics and along with, other pollutants carrying during its flowing over densely polluted areas. Apart that, the continuing customs, burning dead bodies, throwing carcasses are all constant chronic sources of pollutants.
It is a fact that the Industrial waste water is one of the major concern to us. It is discharged by a number of industries situated in this riparian zone The central pollution control board listed 192 grossly polluting industries in the state of UP, 6 numbers -Bihar, and 67 numbers — in WB. These industries were discharging toxic substances into effluent flows with BOD concentration of more than 100mg per litre and each unit was generating over1 million litres waste water per day.
Therefore, the Industrial waste water has been considered a prime issue in the mission programme towards cleanliness of the Ganga riverine system. No industrial waste would be allowed without processing through treatment plant and the water quality parameters need to be maintained within the permissible limit as codified in the guide lines before final discharge in to outfall system.
In this regard, one report has caught an attention to all of us. The Rhine of Western Europe which was the most polluted river system of the world, now recorded to be most successfully rejuvenated. No of cities from different European countries, which are located at the bank of Rhine river, which once saw discharges of industrial effluents and solid waste, had to face many odds and achieved the goal . Now, having inspired to this success , it is planned to follow the same in case of Ganga and Yamuna.
Moreover, the lesson from Rhine in Europe and also from Australia in maintaining the Muray -Darling Basin, which is one of the largest systems in the world, will also help a lot to restore the ecological balance and overall development of big river basin Ganga is concerned.
Besides, Germany and Australia, India is also planning to seek important solution from Israel in respect of drip irrigation technology as well as efficient use of water resources. It is reported that the experts from Israel could help India in Ganga basin so that substantial amount of river water does not diverted for irrigation. Thus, the efficient use of irrigation water would help a lot in maintaining the river’s ecological flow.
Amid that, there will set up no of sewage Treatment Plants and effluents treatment plants. The Govt. is very much in mind to rejuvenate the Ganga River in a scientific manner and of course with innovative approach to achieve the goal. Now, it is our moral duty to follow the guide lines for cleanliness in real sense.
But, there are other factors which are contributing pollutants in bulk quantity. It is reported that more than two -thirds of the sewage generated in 118 towns located along ganga river basin, is being discharged in to the river untreated The towns collectively generates 3636 million litres per day (MLD) of sewage while the treatment capacity of existing 55 STPs is hardly 1027MLD.
There are 144 drains that discharge water from the surrounding region without being treated. Setting up STPs and associated units to recycle the entire drain water for the other uses is under the Government’s ambitious ‘ Namami Ganga ‘ plan launched last year to clean the river
Incidentally. it may be stated that though the river Ganga and its tributaries , supports nearing 500 million people , have become the planet’s most polluted river system.
Fecal coliform and other type of chemical contamination is also causing great concern to us
· Thus, i) the untreated sewage discharge from urban, ii) direct dumping of industrial waste and leakage of industrial pollutants, including biological & chemical contaminants iii) along with , over drawal of fresh water from surface and ground water are all the culprits for fouling the Ganga.
· Therefore, under the plan the government has devised comprehensive action for short term, medium term and long term (10 years) to clean the river. The mission covers all the factors to ensure the continuity of unpolluted flow maintaining ecological restoration and river hazards management All sorts of river hazards management has been taken into account to ensure the cleanliness. We hope that outcome of the mission would fetch a desired result. Of course, it will need our active support to make the programme a great success
· So let us wait and see how the works are executed and performs!
