Nirmal Ganges

Few days back I had a discussion with a friend about religion. We discussed about its presence in today’s post-modern multicultural world and about its essence and consequences, some favourable and some not so favourable for maintaining a peaceful social order. We came to a realization that regardless of everything else, religion is an outstanding psychological construct made by us to conveniently tackle the unseen, unheard and complex gaps of life. However this construct comes with its own set of vulnerabilities which have time and again been exploited and used against us. Today, so many issues have arisen out of mere interpretational differences of religions such as IS and jihad, Israel-Palestinian conflict, self-acclaimed Godmen like Rampal, Muslim and Christian beheadings by Bodu Bala Sena~Buddhists (sic). When religion teaches the world about morality, it also takes its fee in the form of lives that is has consumed.

At a personal level I maintain that religion contains several internal conflicts. However it also has a brilliant psychological tool which can tackle all these conflicts very easily. [Whoever created religion, knew about the insecurity and the sense of loneliness with which people live in this huge dark cosmos. This source who created religion removed this loneliness by giving humans what they were looking for; God and his adobe of light. One who cares about humans, one who won’t let them be alone and most importantly, one who’ll be waiting to embrace them in his arms after they die and give them salvation]. This tool is called faith. It works by making you ignore empirical (and logical facts) and believe in a divine external agency working for a higher purpose in their stead. An example of this is “Nirmal Ganga”.

Friedrich Nietzsche, in Beyond Good and Evil said that it’s hard to be understood, especially when one thinks and lives like Gangastrotogati (the mighty currents of river Ganga) among those who think and live like frogs. Here it should be noted that a man as critical in views as Nietzsche uses river Ganga as a simile to define the life of his Ubermacht (The Superman), who lives outside the herd (of blind sheep) and creates his own meaning in life. Surely Ganga reflected the might of the Ubermacht way back in 1886. The things have changed since then. These days we hardly find men like Nietzsche or mighty rivers like the Ganges of 1886…

“The Holy River, Ganga mata, as it is called colloquially is dying” says B.D.Tripathi, Ganga Basin Authority. Over the last 2 decades, the river flow has receded to such an alarming level that it has caused enormous amount of siltation. Excessive siltation increases silt deposits due to improper drainage, the river shrinks and disappears slowly. Most importantly its carrying capacity decreases leading to an automatic increase in pollutants and industrial residues. In my opinion there are at least 3 major sources of pollution in Ganga, namely religious leftovers (such as coconuts, immersed ashes, flowers, lamps, used clothes etc.), industrial residue (chemicals, detergents causing white froth, also washed pesticides from farms) and untreated sewage discharge (literally human and animal faeces). I do not have to be a scientist to notice that there is something abnormal going on if we choose to blind eye excreta discharges into a river and still call it holy.

In the light of continuous depreciating condition of the holy river, it is important to look at the steps taken by the government to address and contain these 3 issues.

In 2009, the Honorable Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh established the National Ganga River Basin Authority (NGRBA). It included the PM himself as the chairperson along with the ministers of concerned departments (such as Environment and Forest, Water Resources, Science and Technology etc.) and Chief Ministers of those states through which the river flows (namely Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and W.Bengal). State Ganga River Basin Authorities (SGRBA) were also established in these states. NGRBA was created after a detailed study and evaluation of the existing Ganga Action Plan on which Rs. 900 crore had already been spent. It then decided to implement a new plan called “Mission Clean Ganga 2009-2014”. MCG’s main objective was to stop all untreated sewage and industrial waste to be released in Ganga by 2020.

MCG was broadly classified in two goals:

·         Nirmal Dhara (Clean flow)

·         Aviral Dhara (Continuous flow)

To fulfil these objectives, NGRBA took 5 steps:

1.        Sanctioned Rs. 6,400 crore for 81 sewage control projects and treatment plants in UP (Rs. 2,700 crore), Bihar (Rs. 1,400 crore), W. Bengal (Rs. 1,200 crore), Uttarakhand (Rs. 250 crore) and Jharkhand (Rs. 100 crore). Created 3,600km of sewage network and treatment capacity of 700 million litres/day.

2.       Prepared a consortium of IITs lead by IIT Kanpur to prepare a Ganga River Basin Management Plan (GRBMP) and enabled legislations to give effect to the provisions of plan.

3.        Declared Ganga Dolphin as the national aquatic animal ~ a symbol for restoration of river’s cleanliness.

4.       Issued notices from Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) to 704 out of 764 heavily polluting industries draining in Ganga, in the critically polluted 730km stretch from Kannauj to Varanasi.

5.        Abandoned 3 hydel projects on upper reaches of Bhagirathi on ecological considerations.

As per these steps taken certain changes have been seen. Now at least Sewage Treatment Infrastructurehas become a priority because 70-75% pollution of Ganga is cause by discharge of untreated Municipal waste. The IIT consortium has already submitted 37 reports and has given to the country the first basin wide approach to river management. Plans have been made to extend such action plans to Yamuna, Sutlej and Musi. At the end of it, implementation and careful study of improving standards will show whether the government has really been successful in containing the degradation or not. But it’s a matter of time.

More importantly, the new Government at centre has been more vocal and active about this issue, which makes it necessary to have a look at their actions.

·         Recently “Namami Ganga” project was announced in this year’s Budget Speech with a fresh allocation of Rs. 2,037 crore.

v  In the recently held 4^th meeting of NGRBA it was decided that the following actions would be implemented right away:

§  Henceforth no sewage drainage system would be allowed to have an outlet into the river at any point of its flow.

§  Existing 144 open drains carrying sewage and industrial effluents would be cleaned.

§  Immersion of cremation ashes will not be allowed at the shallow end of the riverbanks.

§  Flower and coconut offerings will be trapped through a mesh and recycled for making holi colours.

v  Ganga Vahini – ex-servicemen and NGO led vigil groups organised on the lines of Red Cross.

v  River Front management for development and beautification of ghats at Kedarnath, Haridwar, Kanpur, Varanasi, Allahabad, Patna and Delhi.

v  Programmes for afforestation, conservation of flora and aquatic lives have also being initiated.

Prima Facie it appears that the new government is more committed to solve the pathetic condition of Ganga. Their commitment to utilise the initiatives of previous government and at the same time giving effect to innovative implementation does carry a promise to improve conditions of the ailing river. They should be consistent in these efforts and a community led will to contain the present levels of pollution must be shown by the public, which if happens we will surely be able to reignite the mighty flow of this holy rive.