Once a river, Ganga is now a nullah in UP

The Ganga water quality report dated June 22 revealed shocking story about the river. SGRL collected water samples from four prominent ghats and the reults were shocking.

According to the report, faecal coliform count (the amount of bacteria present) which should not be more than 500 in 100ml of river water was around 140,000 at the Assi Ghat, 88,000 at the Tulsi Ghat, 40,000 at Dashashwamedh and around 34,000 at Rajghat.

The biochemical oxygen demand ( BOD) which should not be more than 5 mg in a litre of water was 12.8 at Assi, 9.6 at Tulsi, 6.0 at Dashashwamedh and 7 at Rajghat .

VK Mishra who runs the SGRL said: "There is no proper planning done for cleaning the Ganga and its ghats. And the river can never be clean till the drains continue to flow into it."

The main problem in Varanasi are drains flowing into the river and ghats converted into a garbage dump.

KANPUR IS NO DIFFERENT

The city once known as 'Manchester of Asia' is now known for all the wrong reasons. In Kanpur, both the air and water quality have deteriorated in the past many years.

The river pollution in Kanpur has largely been blamed on discharge from the city's tanneries.

In the past few years, authorities have closed a number of unauthorised leather factories at Kanpur's Jajmau area.

Many leather units have also been shifted out, but many others still continue to operate in the city.

Drains still dispense lakhs of litre of waste and garbage from the tanneries into the Ganga. The water remains contaminated and a major portion of the ghat continues to be a safe place for dumping garbage.

According to municipal commissioner Santosh Kumar Sharma, industrial waste from the tanneries as well as domestic garbage are flowing into the river.

"The process of separating both the waste has been started by us so that it can be treated accordingly," Sharma said.

It's quite unfortunate that even after spending hundreds of crores of rupees in Kanpur for cleaning Ganga and its ghats there seems to be no improvement including separate sewage plants for treating industrial and domestic waste.

Like Varanasi, the Ganga water in Kanpur looked pathetic and there was itching in the palm when it was touched.

Full report from India Today on the state of the Ganga River

Media

5 Comments

1. Nice article Trudi;  Although I am not familiar with certain terms or nomenclatures the basic concerns is quite common and easily remedied.  I still have some of the Reports by Dr Oppenheimer when he was a board member of the UN Environment policy. To his credit the 2,500 environmental cleanups had a closing Oxygen content higher than ever recorded.  I am quite serious the Ganges river cleanup is at max 30 days. This is nothing new. An established protocol used in many industries. Instead of ignoring science an well established facts please do your own experiment.  This is being taught in American high schools. 1. bright white crucible 2. one teaspoon of crude oil unrefined 3. add one teaspoon of OF1.(Oppenheimer formula #1) 4. Stir with any small lab instrument for about 30 seconds (pencil, pen, tongue depressor etc.).  You have just cleaned 10 miles of the Ganges river. Now for safety's sake. have a 10 gallon fish tank with 6 to 12 goldfish. (do not feed before experiment). Drop the ball of oil and archaea into the tank. Usually fish move away from oils and toxic messes. But nature has the RNA microbes that change surfactants into fatty acids. building block of all food substances. They will consume the fatty acid compound quickly. Piranha style. There will be zero residue, extremely high oxygen content and the fish will increase in population, size, and nutrient density. For some videos look up you tube Mega-Borg oil spill, Galapagos island cleanup, 735 destroyed and put afire oil wells in Kuwait, and of course the great Coast of Spain oil spill. Your sites info attachment system does not work or is just disconnected for my account

    

2. The SBT  (Soil Bio Technology) of Prof H S Shankar of IIT Bombay may be a good technology to employ in case of Ganga cleaning. You can have it in dewats form or all along the course on the banks of Ganga. The waste water can be used for developing recreation parks or golf courses (there are many star properties along the  river ?

3. For Mr. VK Mishra.. At best have large dug outs at all channel inlets to main river. A road or lane also neede in those spots to dredge sludge accumulations periodically .. when dried can be co composted as manure for agri farms. All this works without el. Power and naturally .. More deep the pond it is better.. have due safety cordons and barricades etc.. w wshs .. 

4. In continuation. All that is to be done thatcthe waste water remedied and reused.. then it will sustain with community participation etc.. w wshs .. 

5. Dear River Researchers.  In 2000.at IIT D CRDT centre for rural devlpmnt & tchnlgy a conference was conducted titled Nallah A Blessing in disguise. This led to great deliberations and one phyto plnt on 5000 lits per day flow done as Lab.. At same time a Nallah at nearby colony Vasant Vihar was surveyed and a pilot DEWATS plant on 20 kl per day done.. this was up graded in years.. Noe nearly 80 kl per day remedied and rrgtng all parks 15 - 20 acres of green belt.. covrring 20 minor and 10 major parks .. at Vasant Vihar.. The plant can be seen at A Block MCD Nursery. Vasant Vihar off Outer Ring Road. south of Malai Mandir.. can be seen on Google maps.. w wshs ..