How to improve the self-purification process of river Ganga?
Published on by Dr.K.Mophin Kani, Instructor at Indian Institute of Science in Technology
We all know that self-purification of running water is a set of natural processes that are present in rivers and streams, enhanced by water turbulence that helps increase the amount of oxygen to dissolve in the water.
Most of the time the impurities in waste materials, that are disposed or discharged into the water bodies, get treated automatically by the self-purification process but it needs time, duration and less amount of pollutants.
I would like to know how we can best improve SPP for river Ganga?
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29 Answers
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It is almost like self- immunization or self-remediation of human body where the immune system of the body will gradually recover itself to its original healthy state to make the body disease free. Similarly, in case of rivers, here Ganga, the immunity can be maintained by the ecosystem of the river. Hence, if a serious effort can be given to restore the damaged ecosystem of the river, the aim of self-purification of the river can be achieved automatically. A study with a holistic view of ecosystem goods and services of river Ganga will help in this regard.
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I am encouraged to suggest that the vast flows of Ganges and the self purification process can take care of sluggish investments and lack of proper management of urban and rural infra on the vast habitats developed/ allowed to develop along the banks of the Ganges -- is possible thru a SIMPLE INTERMEDIATE AND LOW COST SOLUTION as under:
1. ALL MANMADE INFLUENT FLOWS into the RIVER SYSTEMS should at least be made to pass thru well designed Grated Filters to arrest big solids that do not decompose. These should be periodically removed from the Grill Filter sites and disposed off locally.
2. ALL MANMADE INFLUENT FLOWS into the RIVER SYSTEMS should be stopped near the terminal points and pumped into Geo Tubes to arrest major solid pollutants using low cost flocculation and clear water either with aeration should be discharged through fountains a little away from the banks so that quick dilution takes place or clear water should be discharged thru diffusers anchored at the bed much away from the banks so that quick dilution takes place.
The above measures should be considered as stop gap measures till U/G Sewerage System and STPs at design/ plan/ construction stage are completed and duly commissioned.
This recommendation is very relevant for Ganges, Yamuna, Saraswati and other major tributaries to the Ganges.
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Statutory control on Pollution by Pollution control officials.
If treated sewage/effluent water as per central Pollution control board (CPCB) norms enters in the river then chances of polluting river is nill.
But no body is following norms of treatment of waste.
For treatment of river first need to stop river polluting source by industries/local towns then only able to treat polluted river.
Or we will keep on cleaning river and otherside river will get Polluting.
State/central Pollution control board need to do their job. Or appoint Environmental specialist for short time who will identify source of pollution (air/water/soil from industries/township) and they will report to environmental ministry.
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Mission Ganga Knowledge Community starts with school children and teachers at early age. History of Gange River told to them by parents and grandparents is a start. Schools need to pick up and run with more education. Work up to annual field and boat trips. Older children need to have annual field and boat trips with Water Districts. Taking water samples and training by Laboratory Technicians and Water District Pollution Control Technicians. Funding for a project this size will always be a problem. Cost over runs will also be a problem. Because of size of project. This is why school children at early age may be the best answer in Gange River Rejuvenation.
1 Comment
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I like the comments made by Mr. Robert McColgan which seems to be a sustainable solution to clean Holy Ganga River.
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This is true that self-purification of running water is a set of natural processes that are present in rivers and streams, enhanced by water turbulence that helps increase the amount of oxygen to dissolve in the water. This cannot be achieved in short time hurriedly for such a big religious river Ganga. We need to enforce the laws for avoiding the dumping of solid and chemical waste from industries and other agents or give them other alternative ways to dispose their waste to safe natural drains. And for the religious followers without affecting their religious values create awareness among them for better practices.
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Apart from checking the inflow of industrial pollutants on vegetation end restoration of biodiversity across the catchment and bank of the river is required. Monocropping should be replaced with agro-climatic zone suitable crops. This will reduce the pest burden and there of chemical fertilizer and pesticide requirement. Runoff management is need of agriculture and it can be done by promoting use of organic carbon or government can make mandatory mixing of chemical fertilizer with organic carbon/ organic carbon coated chemical fertilizer.
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In addition to what you have covered for self-purification, it seems there is no other remedy but to pre-treat the waste inlet sources and avoid flooding irrigation in Ganges catchment area to minimise fertilizers and pesticide inflow to water. Self-purification is limited to organic pollutants for metals.pesticides and other inhibitive or prohibitive substances treatment prior to discharge is only way to clean Ganga
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The attached paper, that I wrote a dozen years ago, addresses different water purification and conservation methods.
Best,
Imon -
1. Pollution control mechanisms need to be developed in the mainland
2. Natural water flow systems for bio-titration need to be maintained properly
3. Forestation needs to be reinforced
4. River drainage and maintenance need to be in place.
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Solid Waste Leachate pollution. Incineration combustion at 850 C still needs 20% of solid waste for abandoned air conditioners, refrigerators, and other bulk. Solid Waste Compose plant using Hammermills to reduce solid waste size still need 20% for abandoned bulk. Leachate is high in SS, TDS, BOD,COD and you must be careful on taking samples it is so bad. Landfills can get out of hand is a short time adding to problem. Landfill Leachate Treatment cost is high and you can run out of money quick. It must be addressed because it is there and not going away. Design-Build-Operate firms will have their hands full. Process will take much longer than construction of Sewage Treatment Plants. Construction one day at a time until complete.
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Source control is the key. We should not fully rely on SPP as it will only encourage polluters to pollute more if they realize that the river can cleanse itself. I 100% agree with Peter Styles recommendations below - reduce the loading!
1 Comment
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Agree fully with Rodel the only solution to restrict and reduce pollution is at source reduction which also saves resources and money. EOP treatment is more of conversion from air to liquid to solid and dispose off which might come back to environment again.
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There appears, here, to be a reluctance to accept the obvious. For a river to become self-purifying you have to reduce the pollution loading to a point where the river can recover naturally. Whilst wetlands will work, there's one near me, the Ganges is too big for this. Aeration can be effective but has limited effect if it is not sufficient to address the underlying problem. To make self-purification work there are four basic things that have to be done:
1. reduce sewage loading through the construction and operation of municipal treatment plants;
2. control industrial waste discharges;
3. reduce the excessive use of agricultural fertilizers and pesticides;
4. address the problem of leachate from solid waste sites.1 Comment
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Aeration for a river of size and dimension of Ganges seems to be impractical and leading to another concern of high energy usage having potential global warming impact. Solving one should not lead to another problem of global nature, therefore, only workable solution is source reduction and treatment of residual waste (Including non-biodegradable which accumulate over a period before discharging into Ganges
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Improve Standard Operating Procedures at Sewage Treatment Plants during times of power outage. Engineering review of power systems into Sewage Treatment Plants. Power Plant, Transmission line and Sub-Stations MW/KW output. Cost control by using direct drive Engines
for sewage treatment plants and pump stations. Generators, switchgear, auto transfer all add to cost. Operating plan should be in effect as much as possible for any outage. 12hr on 12hr off or
18hr, 24hr or 36hr off. Engines at pump or lift stations in the direct drive are great. Also piping at pump stations that do not have pumps. Solar mixers are great for Sewage Treatment Plants with direct drive engines to pump sludge during power outages. Need to keep DO never less than 0.5 . BOD, SS will raise soon. Another emergency trick is to turn discharge of sludge discharges on the angle for better mixing. Keep sewage out of streets and homes. Keep up D.O and try to maintain
Proper MLSS. H2S should stop. Portable pumps of 6',8' and 12" on wheels should be in the plant.
1 Comment
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Biological Aeration instead of mechanical aeration is best solution, you need not worry about power outages. We have a process to grow Diatom Algae, even in sewage.
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There are many technologies available. I think the simple add-on process can be solar powered aeration fountains wherever possible along the river. This will help to rejuvenate the water quality in a great extent and reduce BOD & COD.
This will also increase an aesthetic look of the river.
1 Comment
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A self contained Float of HDPE housing a Solar Pump to discharge water at pressure enough to discharge water as fine mist to design heights can surely increase the DO level and also help reduce some bacteria and de-odour water as well be some removal of bad odour.
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Of the ideas proposed above, three self-purification processes stand out from their use around the world--increasing oxygenation through turbulence processes through the use of mixers or aerators (e.g. Chicago) and the diversion of the rivers through wetlands (e.g. Rhine River) to allow the settling of contaminants before returning flow back to the rivers. Besides settling, shallow wetland processes have also been shown to allow the photolysis of trace organic contaminants (e.g. wetlands bordering the Mississippi River to remove agricultural contaminants).
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Self-purification of large and deepriversprocess, such as the Gangesdaycan be restored and its support in the first place through the unloading of spentoxygen (COD. BOD.TKN), which was passing through sewage and industrial waste waterandagricultural drainage water and which is carried out to the river and can be done by raising the level of modernization of stations operatin on the river course oftreatment
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Dear Dr.Mophin.
Culture and religion can cause people to believe and say awfully silly things. The Ganges is highly revered and thought to have supernatural powers in traditional Indian and Hindu culture. However, in modern times, the river is extraordinarily polluted. "The overall rate of water-borne/enteric disease incidence, including acute gastrointestinal disease, cholera, dysentery, hepatitis-A, and typhoid, was estimated to be about 66% during the one-year period prior to the survey.
But that was a few years back. Now on the other hand, an eminent river expert and head of the Ganga Research Laboratory, Institute of Technology (IT-BHU), urges to save the Ganga, which he says is gradually losing its oxygen absorption and retention capacity, adding that the Ganga was the only river in the world which had 12 ppm of oxygen. "The Ganga was once known as the reservoir of oxygen. But, today, it's oxygen has reduced to 4-8 ppm," he said. The Ganges' purifying action has strong scientific evidence, but that power of Ganges is slowly giving up.
It is not entirely known what makes river Ganga so special and what exactly contributes to its self-cleaning properties, but one of the factor is, Bacteriophages they are Viruses that eat Bacteria, Phage means eating.
Process including the flora and fauna acting naturally could be a good solution, self scavenging velocity
In stagnation zone Diatom Algae any river is the best way to improve the SPP it produce extra oxygen, aeration and/or by a variety of aquatic plants aeration and/or by a variety of aquatic plants.
Regards,
Prem Baboo
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We all know the Ganga river is the icon of India people. When all the people have the sense of belonging to this river, that is the base of people around the river side, we will be able to prevent impurities or other external pollutants to entering the river. there are many way to use, for increase the people awareness, start from the kids or kindergarten class to campaign of clean the river and how to live health and clean untill the high education from campus or college
2 Comments
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Hi @ frywanto beny thanks for this nice suggestion.Adding to your comment i would like to say this awareness campaign should start from the 'Char Dham' area (Gangothri, Yamunothri, Kedar and Badri). Devotees are no civic minded, but I find locals are concerned about 'Ganga Mayya'
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I agree, it is always difficult to change people's concepts, therefore approaching and educating the children is your best way to influence change. Even in the form of adopting rivers, dams etc, you may also consider introducing play acting in the form of productions to carry the message across.
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It is true that self purification process including the flora and fauna acting naturally could be a good solution. But the oxygenation process could be enhanced by creating turbulence of water through installing series of water fountains along the river banks running by the flow of the river itself (does not require fuel or electricity to run the system) at the critical places which will be sustainable also.
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Dr KMK,
A few thoughts for more scrutiny by experts in subject matters:
1.Prevent unabashed dumping of Pollutants, difficult to self-treat metallic and chemical pollutants do not vitiate the self-cleansing process or that reduce DO levels by increasing BOD to very high levels.
2.Ensure minimum Flows so that self-scavenging velocity gets maintained by and large and Pollutant Solids get transported downstream
3.Try best to enhance the self-cleaning properties by additional surface contact with air (Fountains, Mist, bubbling, non-removal of rounded stones that cause turbulence,etc) , Bioremediation utilising space along Flood Plains, Rejuvenation of River Waters by the addition of good waters where possible cost-effectively.
4.Research to enhance as to which factors (Composition, flow characteristics, Bio-diversity, DO levels, etc.) act and can be improved...
5. Prevent any big changes in the catchment area and conserve the land and substrate in the upper reaches.
It is the interplay of atoms/ molecules and there is nothing holy and unholy about water except Natural setting.
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To have a self-purification process be working we must allow all natural processes including the flora and fauna to act naturally. The system is full proof if everything works together. But now to derive electricity starting from the flow to everything else is compromised in various states so unless the natural process is allowed I believe we must compromise one way or the other.
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Growing Diatom Algae any river is the best way to improve the SPP. Diatoms are present in all rivers ( and lakes ) and they are the natural food for most fish. Diatoms consume nutrients and CO2 and produce Oxygen. So water becomes very clean when they grow. Since Diatoms are consumed by Zooplankton and Fish, they do not accumulate in the water, unlike Blue Green Algae, BGA is not consumed by zooplankton and fish, that is why it accumulates.
Thus when Diatoms are grown the Carbon in sewage flowing into a river ( or lake ) is converted into fish biomass and the water becomes clean and well oxygenated.
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Self-purification and clean up of Ganga river has to start with many questions. Does all Water
Districts have same standards. Records are needed on flows,tests,goals. It may take five years to clean surface pollution and five years for Sewage Plants to even stop pollution from getting worst.
All records of river flows, river tests should go back to pre-WWII. Limited funds will always be a problem. U.N.E.P. funds have always been subject to change.
Workers need to be trained and goals set. It is too early to set standards. All Water Districts should have same standards. Progress on Ganga river clean will be very slow and take many workers and there may not be money to pay and keep all employees. Ganga River Clean Water Corps. should be formed. Made up of volunteers , school children and teachers. These volunteers would report to Water Districts. School children reporting to school teachers. Ganga river clean-up and monitoring will take many years to even start to make project.
1 Comment
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In addition to School children and teachers other important stakeholders like farmers community, agriculture scientists, Industry representatives shall be involved to address non -biodegradable waste entering the river.
In addition reliegious clerics preaching dumping of leftover from any religious ceremony, ashes from cremation ground shall be involved and make them aware of reality and absorption capacity of river rather than following what was done century back when discharge and absorbing capacity was matching.
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Simple - reduce the polluting load.
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Yes, but soil and water conservation and integrated nutrient management and recycling along the watershed will also help solv the problems at the source before sewage get so mixed up so it is hard to recycle safely. In addition to conventional methods, we developed reliable low-cost solutions for recycling ash nutrients, ensuring nitrogen-fixing plants germinated in time and fixed nitrogen (sometimes more manageable than N-fertilizer), direct seeded multipurpose hedges became more useful and effective for soil-and-water conservation etc. I discussed the innovations with many Indian scientists liking the ideas, and briefly presented them on Indian TV, but I think they have nit yet been used in india. I am interested in collaboration and am a flexible freelance agronomist.
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Natural self-purification of large rivers such as the Ganga river can be restored and supported primarily by unloading it from oxygen consuming organic and nitrogenous pollutants (BOD, COD, TKN) carried with insufficiently treated sewage and agro-industrial wastewaters. This can be achieved by retrofit upgrading existing sewage treatment plants (STP's) as to meet the new 10/10/10 (ppm BOD/TSS/TKN) standard applicable in India.
Further improvements will be achieved by aeration (adding air oxygen) and/or by a variety of aquatic plants (carried on floating structures with roots in the river water).