Figure 6 . Pollutants of the Ganga River
Given the high costs of land inundation, human displacement, ecological
damage, and the operation, transportation, and evaporation losses of
large in-stream reservoirs, any plan to rejuvenate the Ganga must
emphasize distributed water storage in the basin’s groundwater, lakes,
tanks, and ponds, as well as the promotion of wetlands and forests.
The revered soil scientist Dr. Rattan Lal, an Indian-American, won the
2020 World Food Prize for inventing and mainstreaming a soil-centric
approach to increase food production that restores and conserves natural
resources while mitigating climate change. Over the course of his
five-decade career, he has promoted innovative soil-saving techniques
that have benefited the livelihoods of over 500 million smallholder
farmers, improved the food and nutritional security of over two billion
people, and saved hundreds of millions of hectares of natural tropical
ecosystems. Dr. Lal contends that soil health is a dynamic notion that
evolves with each generation, and that we must adapt our techniques to
meet the changing needs. While commenting on the notification on E-flow
for Ganga which recognizes the right of river to perform her ecological
tasks, he indicated that in a similar sense, we need to reflect on the
right of soil for protection against flood in order to mitigate soil
erosion and improve soil health.
Wetland conservation, according to Mr. Ranjan (Ex-DG, NMCG), is an
important component in river rejuvenation. Wetlands are separate
ecosystems that are permanently or seasonally inundated by water.
Floodplains and surrounding wetlands are especially important because
they can directly contribute to improved river flows. The ‘Namami Gange’
mission has collaborated with a number of partners, including WWF, WII,
and state wetland authorities, to produce a good inventory, ground
verification, integrated management plans (IMP), and their
implementation for conservation and protection. A special Namami Gange
project is ongoing in Uttar Pradesh, creating IMPs of 226 wetlands
within 10 kms of the Ganga spanning over 1,000km length as a
one-of-a-kind endeavor to scale up wetland conservation to river and
basin level .
Dr. Tripathi, reproaches the existing administration, to which he says
that, in spite of forming a separate ministry, and after investing a
large sum, only a little has been done, and the results are far from
satisfactory. The results of Ganga cleaning are not exactly reflecting
what is being claimed, and the flow of ganga is still tipping, reducing
her diluting capacity, he elaborates. There are dead zones leading from
industrial waste dumps that may be up to 2 kilometers long. Every year,
about 700 tons of ash from the burning of around 33,000 dead corpses are
thrown into the river, along with the remnants of those deceased bodies.
These are some of the things he describes as impeding efforts to clean
Ganga .
Pilot Projects and
studies
According to the article, the Indian government initiated a pilot
afforestation project along the Ganga’s banks in 2015. According to the
NMCG website, this refers to a project financed by NMCG that the state
forest departments of Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, and
West Bengal have been undertaking since 2016. The entire amount allotted
was Rs 2,293 crore. However, after five years, many people consider that
this endeavor is a colossal failure. Some experts have even commented
that planting new trees can reduce the streamflow 70% of the time,
particularly during the dry season. As per this report, Mr. Krishnaswamy
stated that providing a mix of trees, grasses, and shrubs in ”suitable
densities” and species composition, consistent with the river’s flow
regime and the area’s temperature, will be critical to ensuring that
tree-planting itself does not drain water .
For the first time, the mission received and began implementing a
scientific plan for afforestation along the full length of the Ganga
produced by the Forest Research Institute. This design addresses
natural, urban, and agricultural riverscapes. Using it as a model, the
MoEF&CC is presently applying a similar technique to 13 additional
rivers around the country . However, the DG, NMCG recently informed the
empowered task force (ETF) that repeated efforts have been made in the
past for allocation of funds from Central CAMPA for scaling up
afforestation activities under the NGP, which have not resulted in any
specific results, and as a result, the comprehensive DPR developed by
FRI, Dehradun has not been fully implemented. Participating in the
discussions, Hon’ble Minister for Jal Shakti (MoWR) emphasized the
importance of conducting a Third Part Appraisal of the Afforestation
Project under the NGP to assess the impact of such large-scale
intervention and going beyond simply reporting on the number of hectares
and number of plants planted in the region. To which DG, NMCG responded
that IIFM, Bhopal has been engaged for this sole purpose .
In light of the expired deadline of the NGP which was initially supposed
to be in March 2019, was again extended to 2020 by then minister Sh.
Nitin Gadkari, one report cites a study conducted by the Sankat Mochan
Foundation (SMF), a Varanasi-based NGO, which revealed a significant
increase in coliform bacteria and biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) over
these years. SMF has developed its own laboratory to analyze Ganga water
samples on a regular basis. According to these statistics, the coliform
level increased from 5.2 crores in 2016 to 14.4 crores in 2019.
Similarly, between January 2016 and February 2019, BOD levels increased
from 46.8-54mg/l to 66-78mg/l. During the period, however, there was a
minor improvement in sewage flow into the Ganga .
Nonetheless, despite all of the criticism and skepticism, there are a
number of excellent developments related to the NGP’s basic aim of river
rejuvenation. One such pilot case study is from Uttarakhand, where
Mothugad, a rain-fed river in the Chamoli district, began to dry up over
time, forcing the district administration to begin work on renewing
Mothugad River in particular and cleaning rivers in general as part of
the Namami Gange Project. Ms. Swati (District DM) applauded the region’s
degree of public collaboration and social awareness, noting that they
were able to create an Anthem for the River in their native Gadwali
language. She claimed that the effort had a direct and indirect impact
on 80,000 people. In terms of the project’s implementation, according to
NMCG, harvesting structures were built and plantation was carried out
with the support of locals, all while utilizing already available money
from MNREGA and CAMPA, making it cost-effective. GIS mapping and
tracking for all actions were intended for transparency, and the project
was reported to be extremely scalable and practical with the deployment
of geo-tagging and drone surveillance .
Another success story is of establishment of Bio Gas (CNG) Generation
plant from 18 MLD Jagjeetpur STP at Haridwar. It started with
Uttarakhand Jal Sansthan (UJS) recommendation for generating biogas (Bio
CNG) by mandating relevant improvements in the digestor and building an
Upgrade to the plant in PPP (Public-Private partnership) mode on a
revenue sharing basis to address the problem of sludge disposal created
at the STP plant. The NMCG supplied funds for the STP’s foundation
upgrades, while the DST provided Rs. 431 lakhs in funding through its
Technology Development Board for the processing unit’s technology
installation. This project was said to help a number of government
projects, including Namami Gange, Atmnirbhar Bharat, Swadeshi, Swachta,
and others .
In a study published in 2021, Mr. Singh, collected data from field
visits, household surveys, and focus group discussions (FGDs) on the
ancient practice of flood recession farming (FRF). FRF refers to farmers
using moisture and nutrient rich soil of the floodplains for growing
crops after water levels recede and harvest them before flooding in the
river. The study concludes that true potentials of FRF can only be
assessed through comprehensive research about its different aspects and
mainstreaming this practice in policy-making for sustainable food
production .
Yet, in another very interesting and recent study, Mr. Dey who is
currently a research affiliate with Nature Conservation Foundation,
presented a new challenge which has hurdled as a side-effect of the push
to the water ways economic model (Arth Ganga). He says that “The Ganga,
as we know, already experiences an immense load in terms of motorized
vessel traffic,”. The most obvious fear is that any increase in vessel
traffic could result in more harm than good to the Gangetic Dolphins.
Not only will the number of vessels traversing the river rise, but they
will largely be on a regular schedule, resulting in a more chronic noise
environment than a vessel that passes by only once. Study concludes that
maintaining the ecological flows (E-Flows), downscaling of vessel
traffic, and propeller modifications to reduce cavitation noise, could
help mitigate noise impacts on Ganga River dolphins .