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Ganga River Pollution Control - Save Ganga-Mission- in 50 years - 2016-2066
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Ganga River Pollution Control - Save Ganga-Mission- in 50 years - 2016-2066 - Destination Overview
Ganga River Pollution Control- Save Ganga Mission in 50 years - 2016 to 2066- A 50 years Mission
HT Initiative :-
Reader is requested to report to authorities if they find any unlawful activities contributing to Ganga Pollution (Companies having Illegal industrial drains, Illegal Butchers, Sqatters, Illegal colonies.enchrochment on banks of Ganga, Others) . Reader can also send an email to us, The information will be shared with relavant authorities and identity of the informer will be kept secret.Holiday Travel has taken a 50 year misson to save Ganga. We will track & map the progress Month by Month from August-2016 onwards
Novermber - 2017 Latest Update - Centre turns to ‘sewage-eating’ microbes to treat Ganga water at 54 new sites
Under bioremediation technique, activated microbes eat up contaminants such as oil and organic matter, The bacteria play a vital role in treatment of sewage without causing any release of foul odour, Pollutants like heavy metals and toxic chemicals are reduced
Read More
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/environment/pollution/centre-turns-to-sewage-eating-microbes-to-treat-ganga-water-at-54-new-sites/articleshow/61336579.cms
The Ganga, the most sacred and worshipped river of the Hindus, is now one of the most polluted rivers of the country. Twenty-five big cities located along its bank generated 1,340 mid sewage over 95 per cent of the same entered the river without being treated prior to the Ganga Action Plan (GAP). Out of the total length of the river (2,525 km) for Gangotri to Gangasagar about 600 km long stretch is highly polluted.
This pollution is due to the dumping of city garbage, industrial effluents, human and animal excreta, agricultural wastes, pesticides, burning of human bodies, community bathing and faulty social and religious practices. According to an estimate about 19,659 tons of polluted matters enter the river every year of which 55.4 per cent is contributed by Uttar Pradesh and 18.8 per cent by West Bengal (Lakshmi & Srivastava, Vijyart, Jan-March 1986).
Amazing Self Healing Properties of Ganga
According to a study of the Central Board for Preservation and Control of Water Pollution the long stretches of the Ganga near Kanpur and Varanasi are unsuitable for any beneficial human use. The water quality is generally good ('B' type) up to Bithoor, except near the city of Kannauj where polluted water from the Kali river and city sewage combine to exceed the assimilation capacity of the river.
At Kanpur due to heavy influx of industrial waste and city sewage the quality drops down to 'D' and 'E', so as to reach 'B' (November-March) and 'C' (April- October) category near Allahabad. Again as the Ganga-reaches Varanasi it almost recovers its deficiency to reach 'B', but heavy pollution through city drains reduces the quality to 'D' and 'E' categories making it unfit for human use (Northern India Patrika, Feb. 1, 1982).
Pollutions Starts from Gangotri and Worsens in Haridwar/Rishikesh
At Haridwar although the Ganga is considered to be the least polluted but the pollution starts from Rishikesh itself where industrial wastes from Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) have polluted the water. The disposal of industrial wastes from the Indian Drug Production Ltd. (IDPL) adds to the problem. About 15 large and small sewage drains discharge about 42 mid municipal sewage into the river. Community bathing discharges milk pots bunches of flowers and leaves etc. into the river.
Pollution gets accentuated sharply during Kumbh (every 12 years) when up to 5 million devotees descend on the small town to bathe in the holy river. Most of the river water is drained out to irrigation canals at Haridwar which also reduces the pollution absorbing capacity of the river.
Kanpur Worse Pollutant for River Ganga
At Kanpur the story of the Ganga becomes more pathetic. Here more than 200 million liters of waste water is discharged daily into the river through 16 major drains. Chromium-rich from about 300 tanneries pose a serious problem. Besides tanneries, industrial wastes from cotton and woolen textile mills, jute mills, distilleries, sugar mills, paper and pulp mills and factories manufacturing synthetic chemicals like D.D.T., pesticides etc. are discharged into the Ganga.
According to Kumra (1982) per liter of Ganga water near Kanpur contains 66.3 to 173.0 mg of solids, 9.33 to 17.37 mg of chloride concentration, 3.05 to 5.5 mg of dissolved oxygen (DO), 2.86 to 30.33 mg of biological oxygen demand (BOD), and 0.66 to 89.14 mg of chemical oxygen demand (COD). Adding to the woes is the low volume of water in the river during the eight non-monsoon months due to large scale transfer of water into irrigation canals at Haridwar and Narora. Power shortage and power failure impede the work of sewer treatment plants.
Dead Bodies Floating in Ganga
Allahabad also not Behind in Polluting Ganga
At Allahabad, the famous centre of Hindu pilgrimage, 13 drains discharge 112 mid of sewage into Ganga and its tributary Yamuna which contains 32,164 kg of polluted material. According to the chemical analysis made by Ganga Pollution Control Unit, Allahabad per liter of river water contains 155 to 469 mg of suspended solids, 56 to 156 mg of volatile solids, 740 to 1145 mg of dissolved solids, 14 to 18 mg of sulphates, 4 to 6 mg of phosphate, 208 to 480 mg of COD, 136 to 340 mg of BOD and 428 to 688 of CaC03. Besides, the civic wastes from the city industrial effluents from Naini industrial area and Phulpur fertilizer factory are also discharged into the river.
The annual Magli Mela and its 6-year and 12-year Kumbha Mela bring millions of devotees to the sacred confluence for holy bath many of which reside for a month in temporary Kumbha city. The community bathing not only degrades the water quality but the temporary camps produce large quantity of human excreta (about 250 tons/day on normal days and about 10,800 tons/day on main bathing days) which is dumped into the sand to be washed away during rainy season. The existing sewage treatment plants at Gaughat and Rajapur are not able to cope with the situation.
Varanasi - the main Polluter of Ganga
At Yaranasi the Ganga water becomes highly polluted where 71 large and small sewer drains discharge about 15 million gallons of effluents per day into the river. A problem peculiar to the city arises from the Hindu belief that the dead cremated here attain moksha (salvation). This results into cremation of about 40,000 dead bodies (50% brought from outside) at Manikarnika and Harishchandra burning ghats every year utilising about 15,000 tons of fire wood and throwing out huge quantity of ash, unburnt wood and flesh into the river.
The wood requirement alone leads to the depletion of 1 15 hectares of forests every year besides raising water temperature by 30 to 50°C and reducing the dissolved oxygen by 30 to 50 per cent. This causes deaths of about 134 children every year (Singh 2004, p.445). A number of dead bodies of human beings and animals are straight way thrown into the river.
The community bathing, practice of offering flowers and milk, burying human remains and washing clothes aggravate the problem. Consequently the city of Varanasi contributes about one-fourth of the State's pollutants to the Ganga. Its 400-km sewage system has remained chocked since 1920.
Bihar - Again the Offender of Ganga River
In Bihar the capital city of Patna throws out 100 mid of waste water into the Ganga. The Bata Shoe factory and Mc Dowel Distillery at Mokama discharge 250,000 liters of toxic effluents/every day into Ganga which have adverse effect on the marine life. Fishes die within 5 hours at the site of outfall of drains of Mc Dowel factory. The chemical wastes from the oil refinery of Barauni further worsen the situation. It has led to worse fire killing a number of aquatic organisms.
Kolkata - Not behind in Polluting Ganga
At Kolkata more than 100 million gallons of urban industrial polluted water is discharged into the Hugli or Bhagirathi River. A 5-km stretch of the river between Bicholi Ghat and Garden Reach has become the worst polluted section. People often complain stomach trouble, kidney damage, skin diseases, and polio, typhoid, jaundice owing to the drinking of polluted water. About 1,500 human deaths were reported from the city due to the use of polluted water.
The Hugli has a peculiar river mechanism under which tide reaches 290 km away from the river mouth upto Nabadwip. This phenomenon adversely affects the dilution process of the pollutants. Most of the towns along the Hugli River neither have proper drainage system nor sewage treatment plants, and those that do, have outdated
equipment (The Citizens' Fifth Report, Part I, 1999, p. 100).
Ref:- http://gangapedia.iitk.ac.in/?q=content/short-essay-ganga-river-pollution-kraja
Hence three major Ganges pollution problems:
- Domestic waste & Untreated Sewage
- Untreated industrial effluent including toxic and heavy metals
- cremation grounds (two in Varanasi alone).
The river Ganga runs for some 2,500 kilometers (1,550 miles), with more than two dozen major urban centers located on its banks. With many factories and business dumping toxic chemicals into the river, human sewage compounds the situation.
An estimated 3 billion liters (800,000 gallons) of sewage is released into the Ganges each day, of which only a third - according official figures - is processed by treatment plants.
If pollution in the Ganges remains unchecked, the river faces a potentially terminal decline. With this billion plus people depending on Riven Ganga will also be impacted.
Ganga river which receives 3,000 million litre of sewerage daily - right from Uttarakhand to West Bengal.12,000 million litre sewerage goes into the Ganga river basin daily and only 4,000 million is treated.
Ganga originates from Gaumukh in Uttarakhand and travels 2,525km till Bay of Bengal. In fact, the number of human settlements, hotels and industries located along the river play a big role in polluting Ganga.
Real Ganga Pollution Starts from Rishikesh & Haridwar
The hundreds of hotels, ashrams and yoga centres erected near Ganga in the twin cities of Rishikesh-Haridwar give a true picture. The sewerage generated in these two cities from several commercial and non-commercial establishments could be seen directly flowing into the river.
Ganga Pollution Problem compounds in Ganga Basin
Ganga river basin cover 43% population in the 11 states, including Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Bihar, West Bengal and Haryana
"The industrial pockets in the catchments of Ramganga, Kali rivers and Kanpur city are significant source of industrial pollution," reads the NGRBA findings.
Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) has identified 764 grossly polluting industries in five states on the main stem of the river and its tributaries.764 industries identified as grossly polluting by CPCB are located in Uttarakhand, UP, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal.
Untreated effluents drained by a couple of industries into the Simbhaoli drain in Ghaziabad, which ultimately empties into the Ganga, is polluting river waters.The sugar industry and the dairy products' manufacturing unit, alleged to be releasing untreated and toxic effluents into the Ganga via the Simbhaoli drain, figure among the 764 grossly polluting industries identified by the CPCB.