The ugly, unholy truth about Ganga

Its holy water is loaded with fecal bacteria, a reply to an RTI application from Governance Now reveals

swati

Swati Chandra | December 2, 2017 | New Delhi


#Fecal Coliform   #RTI   #UP Singh NMCG   #National Mission for Clean Ganga   #UP Singh   #Ganga Pollution   #Ganga   #Sewage  


Everyone knows that the Ganga is heavily polluted. Along the 2,525 km of the river, there are just 57 monitoring stations to assess water quality. Few as they are, they tell a horrific story if one only goes by the amount of fecal matter in the water that is considered holy. Sewage treatment plants, too, have a direct bearing on keeping the Ganga clean: because there are many more towns and cities along the Ganga, there ought to be more sewage treatment plants along the Ganga, but right now there are just 16. There are plans to have 41 more, which are at various stages of bidding/construction.

In reply to an RTI application from Governance Now, the Central Pollution Control Board revealed that Ganga water is contaminated in places with up to 3 lakh fecal coliform bacteria and 5 lakh total coliform bacteria per 100 ml. The values are given in mpn/100 ml, or most probable number per 100 ml, a statistical way of assessing one aspect of water quality, that is, how much human waste it contains.

River water is considered fit for bathing if faecal coliform bacteria count is between 500 mpn per 100 ml (the desirable limit) and 2,500 mpn per 100 ml (the maximum permissible limit). Excessive presence of high concentrations of bacteria is directly related to the release of untreated sewage into the river water. Consumption of water contaminated beyond permissible limits can cause a host of diseases, from gastroenteritis to virulent forms of hepatitis.

The river water has zero coliform bacteria from Gangotri onwards – till it arrives in Rishikesh, where the count goes up to 40 mpn/100 ml. Then, riverside town by riverside town, city by city, the values shoot up. In Kanpur, the fecal coliform count is 58,000 mpn/100 ml and the total coliform count 1.2 lakh mpn/100 ml. The data for fecal coliform and total coliform for Sangam, Allahabad, matches that of Malaviya Bridge, Varanasi: 33,000 and 63,000 mpn/100 ml respectively for both places. The river is slightly clear in Bihar with fecal coliform count ranging between 2,000 and 9,000 and total coliform up to 24,000. Fecal coliform contamination is the highest – 3 lakh mpn/100 ml – at Garden Reach, again near Kolkata.

 

Where does the money go?

Money (in crores of rupees) spent on cleaning up the Ganga from 2014 onwards, as revealed in an RTI response. It was also revealed that Rs. 215.08 crore has been collected (including interest) as part of the Clean Ganga Fund.

Year Actual Release Spending by NMCG
2014-15 326 170.99
2015-16 1,632 602.60
2016-17 1,675 1062.81
2017-18 (up to July) 0 244.84
Total 3,633 2081.24
(Rs in crore)
Too little 02

Seven places where levels of dissolved oxygen are lowest. The standard is there must be more than at least 5 mg of dissolved oxygen per litre of water.

Location Dissolved Oxygen
Uluberia 2.5
Garden Reach 3.1
Garden Reach 3.7
Dakshimeswar 3.8
Diamond Harbour 4.4
Kanpur 4.6
Haridwar 4.0
mg/ litre

 

Length of Ganga: 2,525 km
Catchment area: 8,61,404 sq km (26.4 percent of the country)
Average annual discharge: 4,93,400 million cubic metres of water
Population living on its banks: 43.78 crore

Comments

 

Other News

Green cities: A pathway to sustainability

As the world observes Earth Day on April 22, the imperative for sustainable urban development has never been more pressing. Urban areas contribute approximately 70% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (UN-Habitat Report, 2023). In India, the urban population is projected to reach 800 million by 2050 (

A unique way of looking at nature, at people, at life itself

Another Day in Landour: Looking Out from My Window By Ruskin Bond HarperCollins, 220 pages, Rs 399 Landour is a q

‘Better than the entire world’: Here’s the ‘India book’ for ages

The Undying Light: A Personal History of Independent India By Gopalkrishna Gandhi Aleph Books, 624 pages, Rs 999 Vet

Why the youth’s ‘affair’ with stock market is usually tragic

Nine out of 10 individual traders in the equity Futures and Options (F&O) segment have incurred net losses, according to a recent SEBI study. What’s even more striking is that a significant portion of these traders are young individuals – students, early professionals and first-time earners

Why recognizing unpaid work makes sense

Across the globe, unpaid domestic and caregiving work remains an unseen yet essential contributor to economic and social well-being. Women, in particular, dedicate significant hours to household tasks and caregiving, yet this labour remains excluded from Gross Domestic Product (GDP) calculations, leading t

News broadcast needs to reinvent, innovate: Sudhir Chaudhary

Popular news anchor and veteran journalist Sudhir Chaudhary says the news broadcast industry has not reinvented itself in the last 20 years, leading to news consumption gradually shifting to other platforms. Unlike social media influencers with millions of followers, there are no stars in the news industry

Visionary Talk: Amitabh Gupta, Pune Police Commissioner with Kailashnath Adhikari, MD, Governance Now



Archives

Current Issue

Opinion

Facebook Twitter Google Plus Linkedin Subscribe Newsletter

Twitter