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 4th 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.
