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GANGA, THE MOTHER IN A CURSE

The World Wildlife Fund in March
listed the Ganges among the
worlds 10 most endangered
rivers. In India, the river provides
more than 500 million people with
water for drinking and farming.
More than 100 cities and
countless villages are situated
along the 1,568-mile river, which
stretches from the foothills of the
Himalayas to the Bay of Bengal,
and few of them have sewage
treatment plants. But recent
reports by scientists say the
Ganges is under greater threat
from water pollution & even
greater from global warming.
According to a U.N. climate
report, the Himalayan glaciers
that are the sources of the Ganges
could disappear by 2030 as
temperatures rise. The shrinking
glaciers also threaten Asias supply
of fresh water. The immediate
effect of glacier recession is a
short-lived surplus of water. But

eventually the supply runs out,

and experts predict that the
Ganges eventually will become a
seasonal river, largely dependent
on monsoon rains.
Arrangement at the Central
Level
The river cleaning program was
started with Ganga Action
Plan(GAP) in 1985 under the
aegis of GPD established under
the Ministry of Environment &
Forest. A CGA under the
chairmanship of the PM was
constituted to finalise the policy
framework and to oversee the
implementation of GAP. The
Chief Ministers of the concerned
States, Union Ministers and
Secretaries of the concerned
Central Ministries and Experts
were its members. The GAP was
later extended to GAP II in 1993
and was broad-based in the form
of NRCP in 1995. The GAP II
was merged with NRCP in

December 1996. Since then a

single scheme of NRCP is under
implementation as a Centrally
Sponsored Scheme. The CGA
was renamed as National River
Conservation Authority (NRCA)
with a larger mandate to cover all
the programmes supported by the
NRCD.
National Ganga River Basin
Authority
To face this challenge the Central
Government by a notification on
20th February,2009, has set up
the National Ganga River Basin
Authority (NGRBA) as an
empowered planning, financing,
monitoring and coordinating
authority for the Ganga River, to
ensure effective abatement of
pollution and conservation of the
river Ganga by adopting a holistic
approach with the river basin as
the unit of planning .The Authority
will perform its function under the
Chairmanship of the Prime
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Minister. It has as its members,

the Union Ministers concerned,
the Chief Ministers of the States
through which Ganga flows viz.,
Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh,
Bihar, Jharkhand and West
Bengal, among others.
The Authority may co-opt one or
more Chief Ministers from any of
the States having major tributaries
of the river Ganga. The objective
of the NGRBA is to ensure
effective abatement of pollution
and conservation of the river
Ganga by adopting a river basin
approach for comprehensive
planning and management; and to
maintain minimum ecological flows
in the river Ganga with the aim of
ensuring water quality and
environmentally sustainable
development.
Key Functions of the
NGRBA
The NGRBA
would be
responsible for addressing the
problem of pollution in Ganga in
a bolistic and comprehensive
manner. This will include water
quality, minimum ecological flows,
sustainable access and other issues
relevant to river ecology and
management. The NGRBA will
not only be regulatory body but
will also have developmental role
in terms of planning & monitoring
of the river conservation activities
and ensuring that necessary
resources are available. The
NGRBA would work for
maintaining the water quality of
the river Ganga upto the
acceptable standards. The
pollution abatement activities will
be taken up through the existing
implementation mechanisms in the
States and also through Special
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Purpose Vehicles (SPVs) at the

pollution hotspots. The NGRBA
will ensure minimum ecological
flow in the Ganga by regulating
water abstraction and by
promoting water storage projects.
The NGRBA will plan and monitor
programmes for cleaning of Ganga
and its tributaries. To begin with
, it will concentrate on Gangamain
stem. The NGRBA would draw
upon professional expertise within
and outside the Government for
advice on techno-economic
issues. The technical and
administrative support to
NGRBA shall be provided by the
Ministry of Environment &
Forests.
Role of State Government
under NGRBA
The State government will be at
the forefront. Implementation will
be at the level of State
Government/ ULBs. The States
may take up steps for
comprehensive management of
the river in the State through their
respective
State
River
Conservation Authorities. The
State Government/ ULBs are
expected to generate resources
through taxes, levies, cess, user
charges, etc., for abatement of
pollution in the rivers and for
proper O&M of the assets
created. Funds thus raised may be
utilized for infrastructure
development including sewage
works. During the finalization of
the respective State Plans, the
States should make adequate
provisions in their budgets for
meeting O&M expenditure.
Compliance of the environmental
norms by industries discharging

wastewater directly into the river

is under the purview of the State
Pollution Control Boards. The
Boards will need to be
strengthened
for
better
enforcement and surveillance of
polluting industries located on the
banks of the rivers. The public
funds for the capital and recurring
costs may not be sufficient to
meet the demand. The States will
therefore have to introduce
policies which may attract private
sector investments, including from
the financial institutions.
Salient Features of the New
Approach
River Basin will be the unit of
planning and management. This is
an internationally accepted
strategy
for
integrated
management
of
rivers.
Accordingly, a new institutional
mechanism in the form of National
Ganga River Basin Authority
(NGRBA) will spearhead river
conservation efforts at the
national level. Implementation will
be by the State Agencies and
Urban Local Bodies. The minimum
ecological flows for the entire
Ganga will be determined through
modeling exercises. NGRBA will
take appropriate measures in
cooperation with the States to
regulate water abstraction for
maintaining minimum ecological
flows in the river. Attention
would also be paid to the
restoration of living parts of the
river ecosystem for its holistic
treatment to enable conservation
of species like dolphin , turtles,
fishes and other native and
endangered species in the river.

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Measures Taken

Impact so far

To restore the ecological health

and biological wealth of the river,
projects on biomonitoring and bioconservation by having indicator
species approach were initiated in
the Himalayan segment, mahaseer
followed by otters and crocodiles
from Hardwar to Kanpur, major
carps from Kanpur to Varanasi
and dolphins in the stretch of
Bihar have been identified as
indicator species for these
studies. Scientists of Hemvati
Nandan Bahuguna University,
Garhwal, Jivaji University,
Gwalior, Central Inland Capture
Fisheries research Institute,
Barrackpur and Patna University
are involved in carrying out the
bio-monitoring
and
bioconservation studies.

Under GAP I, only about 35% of

the total sewage generated
presently in towns along the river
has been tackled. On the other
hand, the facilities created to
tackle the targeted pollution load
are not being maintained properly
in States like UP and Bihar.
Therefore, the impact of the
completed works is not fully
visible. However, with the
implementation of GAP, the
water quality of Ganga has shown
improvement over the pre-GAP
period quality in terms of both
BOD & DO, two important
parameters to assess the river
water quality. Despite the
problems of O&M in UP and
Bihar, the improvement in river
water quality can be attributed to
diversion of large quantities of
sewage in towns like Kanpur,
Allahabad and Varanasi for
irrigating the farmlands. Although
the river water quality along
Kanpur and Varanasi has
improved significantly, it still does
not meet the prescribed standard
of BOD of 3 mg/l. This is mainly
because:

In order to evaluate the results of

implementation of the pollution
abatement schemes under GAP,
water quality monitoring in the
state of UP, Bihar and WB is
being carried out regularly at 27
monitoring stations with the help
of reputed research institutes and
universities. The selection of
monitoring stations and the results
are reviewed by experts from time
to time. Amendments in WQM
are provided by incorporating
need based modifications.

8 Only 160 out of 425 mld at

Kanpur and about 100 out of
160 mld of sewage at
Varanasi has been taken up

for interception and diversion

under GAP I.
8 The river stretch from
Farrukhabad to Varanasi in
general and Kanpur in
particular is critical in terms
of the availability of the
desired minimum flow for
dilution purpose. The quality
of river water quality
monitoring leaves much to
be desired. There is lack of
transparency and professionalism in this effort.
Dolphin Conservation
Dolphin is considered to be one
of the major bio-indicators of the
ecological health of Ganga.
Accordingly it has been declared
as a national aquatic animal. A
working group for preparing on
action plan for Dolphin
conservation
has
been
constituted. Resultantly, as we all
know that we Indians treat river
Ganges as Goddess & mother,
we have to make sure that
government take all the corrective
& preventive measures to make
Ganga clean and pure, and for this
we all should also make valiant
efforts as a sincere citizen,
otherwise our next generation
seldom get a chance to see the
river Ganga and they will get to
know about this only in stories
and text books.

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