The Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister, duly gave its approval for the establishment of the Clean Ganga Fund (CGF).The broad activities financed by the Fund, (subbed down from its website statement) include:
a) Cleaning the river Ganga,
b) Control of pollution from agricultural runoff, human defecation, cattle wallowing, etc.
c) Setting up of waste treatment and disposal plants along the river around cities.
d) Conservation of the bio diversity of the river.
e) Community- based activities to reduce polluting human interface with the river.
f) Development of public amenities including activities such as Ghat redevelopment.
g) Research and Development projects and innovative projects for new technology and processes for cleaning the river.
i) Independent oversight through intensive monitoring and real time reporting.
So who is heading up the whole project for the Indian Government?
It’s Rajiv Ranjan Mishra, JS/ IAS , and The Asian Voice spoke to him recently.
Describing the project, he said, “The Ganga Project islooking at the cleaning of Ganga pollution from waste and water industrial waste. One part is the cleaning part, there is also improving the river front.”
He described Ghat purification; areas in holy river-side cities like Varanasi and Haridwar where stairs exist to reach the Ganges.
“Cleaning and putting public amenities at the river front are important. As you know, the Ganges is a very important river. So many people go and take bath in it so water quality is very important. We also want to develop a very good monitoring system of the water quality so are developing online water quality monitoring. Manual water quality monitoring is there.”
But sceptics ask if it is really possible to clean the Ganga. So many people have had the idea before. They ask how it is possible to clean moving water and keep it clean when you there is no system of sewage control.
“It’s a very good question because it is a very big task,” commented Mr Mishra. “You have to clean the cities and also the villages on the banks of the River Ganga because ultimately it is the cities that keep on coming to the river. It cannot be cleaned on its own.
One part is developing that kind of infrastructure and also looking at the drains which are bringing dirty water to the river. So I think so we are looking at treatment for drains- that’s another part.
Another important part is to maintain the flow of the river; it is such an important part of the whole challenge.
It is not impossible because many of the rivers have been rejuvenated. In time, if you look at all these things, it will be possible.”
In fact, just recently, Australian High Commissioner to India, Patrick Suckling, said his country will offer technical support and assistance to India’s mammoth undertaking of cleaning up the Ganga.
The Hindu newspaper reported Mr Suckling as saying,
“We have agreed to work with India. We have spent $350 million to develop river basin modelling technology to save one of our biggest rivers, the Murray-Darling river basin. We are sharing this technology with India. When Mr. Modi was in Australia, we also announced an intensification of our water partnership.”
But with a largely rural population, we wanted to know how it was going to be possible to stop people putting human waste into Indian rivers.
Mr Mishra said that that was not actually the main problem, though it is an issue.
“It’s a big challenge because there are thousands and thousands of people who have no access to sanitation and it is a major challenge on the banks of the Ganga. Now we are actually working with the Ministry and the State Government and they would cater for laws for toilets so we hope that will change.
But the real challenge is not so much organic waste. It is chemical and industrial waste that becomes very toxic.
You know with many of these things, the river has its own capacity to cleanse but when you take it beyond a certain point like chemical and industrial waste, then we have to do a lot of intervention to clean it up. The river cannot clean on its own.
It has to be done in a planned manner and certain things will take a longer time -but a few things can be done quickly.”
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“The river cannot clean on its own”
