Ganga Clean-Up
Ganga Pollution: Perception That ‘Nothing Significant’ Being Done To Clean Ganga Is Not Correct, 80% Ganga To Be Clean By March 2019, Says Nitin Gadkari
Allaying doubts that the ambitious Namami Gange project has failed to reduce the pollution in Ganga, Minister Gadkari said that the cleaning river Ganga is a difficult task but the government is fully committed towards cleaning the 2,525-km-long river
New Delhi: Tackling pollution in Ganga is going on in full swing, assured the Union Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation Minister Nitin Gadkari while speaking to NDTV during the Season 5 launch of the Banega Swachh India campaign on May 11. Seeking to change the general perception that “nothing significant” is being done on the Centre’s much publicised Rs. 20,000 crore Namami Gange programme, Mr Gadkari assured that cleaning Ganga is a difficult task but the government is fully committed towards cleaning the 2,525-km-long river and about 70-80 percent of the river will be clean by March 2019. About 1,662 gram panchayats and 4,465 villages in five Ganga basin states of Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal have become open defecation free (ODF). Now, the government is making efforts to convert the Ganga villages into ODF Plus by managing solid and liquid waste there, by planting trees which will ensure cleanliness and increase Ganga’s catchment area.
Here are 10 things what Mr Gadkari said about tackling Ganga pollution:
- Over 70 percent of sewage (polluted water) flowing into the river Ganga comes from ten cities (Kolkata, Kanpur, Patna, Varanasi, Allahabad, Howrah, Haridwar, Bhagalpur, Farrukhabad and Bally). And if we can completely stop untreated sewage from getting discharged into the river from these cities, most of the Ganga will be clean.
- Of the 210 liquid waste management projects to clean Ganga, 47 projects have already been completed.
- A total of 2,953 million litres of sewage is discharged daily into the Ganga, of which 2,300 million litres comes from the above mentioned ten cities. Presently, only 1,500 litres are treated by these cities together daily, and approximately 1,800 litres flows into the river daily, without any treatment.
- Real-time monitoring of pollution is being done in 938 industries and 211 main ‘nallas’ which are polluting the river have been identified. And besides cleaning the tributaries of Ganga and seasonal nullah, the ministry is working for cleaning the ghats along the river. Work on 151 ghats and 54 crematoriums, located along the river, will be completed this year.
- 251 Gross Polluting Industries (industries that discharge more than 1,00,000 litres of waste water and/or hazardous chemicals into the river) were closed and closure directions have been issued to non-complying GPIs.
- 150 bio-digesters have been installed in Ganga to extract methane and then convert it into CNG with the help of Indian Oil to run buses.
- To prevent the flow of garbage into the river, solid waste management plants being installed in cities situated on the banks of river Ganga. Solid waste and liquid waste management can be an economy of Rs 5 lakh crore.
- The government’s spending on cleaning the Ganga will jump from Rs. 4,200 crore to between Rs. 8,000 crore and Rs. 10,000 crore this fiscal as several projects under the flagship Namami Gange programme will be completed.
- The government’s spending on cleaning the Ganga will jump from Rs. 4,200 crore to between Rs. 8,000 crore and Rs. 10,000 crore this fiscal as several projects under the flagship Namami Gange programme will be completed.
- Regular review meetings with all the states government officials, contractors, consultants are being done for speedy completion of projects.