The Ganga river - a lifeline to most of Northern India and a vital thread of its social life and economic viability - has been the subject of much debate, hand wringing and lofty ideas for the better part of independent India. Several plans were initiated and millions spent on improving things, but it has only gone from bad to worse. There is once again a strong buzz and movement in government circles to re-energise the project.

The Ganga is India’s longest river and supports a third of the country’s 1.2 billion people living on its floodplains. Despite its cultural importance, it is dying a slow death due to filth, untreated sewage and industrial spillage. Only 45 percent of the 11 billion litres of sewage from 181 towns along the river is treated.

Renewed efforts

Now, the first national discussion by the new government on the Ganga, which provides water to 40 per cent of India’s population, has been highlighted by the complexities involved in cleaning one of the world’s most toxic rivers. Earlier this year, India’s first summit on the revered national river, saw multiple stakeholders, including religious leaders, technical experts and environmentalists, help draw a roadmap to clean it up, or at least spell out a time frame and plan towards that all over again.

One of the first things the government did was to carve a separate department for Ganga rejuvenation under Water Resources Minister Uma Bharti. The central government also announced the setting up of a committee of secretaries to cobble together a blueprint to tackle pollution in the river. The committee, which has members from the ministries of shipping, environment and tourism, will also look into the development of inland waterways and tourism along the banks. Environmentalists, including priests and seers, have expressed anger and fear at pollution in the Ganga whose basin makes up almost 47 percent of India’s irrigated fertile land.

Environmentalists’ concern

At Ganga Manthan, the summit meeting for the river cleaning project, some environmentalists were irked by the plan to allow ‘new technology’ dams and minimum ecological flow to co-exist. According to a section of ecologists, this signals a new era of commercialisation of the river. According to certain leading Ganga activists, big dams are destroying the very character of the river. It’s just not possible to ensure uninterrupted flow in any river if dams are being built on it. They argue about why the government does not tap eco-friendly initiatives like wind turbines and solar energy for power generation rather than ruin rivers. The jury is still out on this.

There is a clear indication that the authorities plan to take on board all stakeholders in the river-cleaning exercise. Religious reverence for rivers is intuitive for most Indians and they plan to work on this. Experts believe that factoring in faith as well into the environmental movement in India can help catalyze change. Some steps seem to have been initiated already. The central government will, over the coming months, install high-tech sensors at critical points along the Ganga to monitor industrial runoff from about 700 units — the first steps towards the long and daunting task of cleaning the 2,510-km river.

The sensors will self-monitor the levels and nature of effluents and pollutants. They will send real-time data on discharges from factories to a central server and will automatically send alerts when effluents breach permissible limits. Non-compliant industries will face action.

Not only Ganga, but its largest sister river, Yamuna is also set for a change. The Union Water Resources minister, promising to cleanse the polluted Yamuna river said she would pro-actively work to get clearances from various ministries for developing the crucial source of water for Delhi. She had a meeting with Delhi Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung and discussed the cleaning of the Yamuna, which flows through the national capital. A wing has been set up with Delhi Development Authority for the purpose. Close on the heels of a secretaries-level group to rejuvenate the Ganga river, the Water Resources Ministry had already setup a separate committee for cleansing the polluted Yamuna river in Delhi.

Varanasi, a test case

Plans are afoot for 2015-16 to be observed as the year of 'Water Conservation', while emphasising on the need for interlinking of rivers in the country. However, the nerve centre, at least in the public eye, will be the holy city of Varanasi. Not only is it the heritage city and has a massive significance for lovers of Ganga, it is also the constituency of the Prime Minster who has thrown his weight behind the Ganga cleaning plan. The city of Varanasi will therefore become a focal point in this endeavor.

Varanasi is getting ready for a facelift. With proposals for AIIMS, a ring road, new flyovers, Ganga cleaning, Varanasi is in for a drastic change. A Rs. 1,000 crore ring road scheme has been approved, 5-6 flyovers have been sanctioned, but locals aver that Varanasi is still the same as it was. Yet, there is a willingness to give some more time on how things might be different this time.

One of the biggest promises made by Prime Minister Modi when he came to power was cleaning the Ganga. His constituency is also part of the Rs. 2,037 crore project to develop the riverfront and the Ganga conservation mission. But it's not going to be an easy task. Three hundred million litres of liquid waste is dumped into the Ganga every day. The three existing waste treatment plants cater to only 110 million litres a day. Two cremation ghats in the city release 800 tonnes of ash per day, while waste from more than 1,000 small scale cottage industries is directly discharged into Ganga.

The purifying factor of Ganga has been affected. Now, this holy river is no more capable of digesting the sewage or waste water released in it. Waste disposal has been a huge problem for the Ganga as well as for Varanasi. Open defecation along the river has reduced, but solid waste management still remains to a concern. About 450-520 metric tonnes of solid waste are generated in Varanasi every day, but there is no management to dispel it. A solid waste management plant was established in 2009 but was shut in 2012. Since then, reopening the plant has been in the pipeline and garbage dumps are visible across the city.

Varanasi is often called a city with no roads, which is yet another challenge for the government. Ninety five per cent of the city's roads are made of concrete. But despite that, they are incapable of handling the needs of the 35 lakh population. The reason Varanasi is important is because it represents all that is not right with the cleaning, upkeep and management of the river. This gigantic problem and its resolution will be watched keenly by India and the world. Already suggestions and international help are coming in.

Planning

The government has formed a ‘committee of experts’ for evaluation and selection of various technologies for ensuring maintenance of ecological flow in Ganga. Besides, a consortium of IITs have been entrusted with the task of finalising holistic Ganga River Basin Management, but their report is likely to be available only be end of December 2014, as stated in the affidavit. A proposal regarding setting up of an integrated Ganga Conservation Mission, 'Namami Ganga' in 2014-15, apart from budgetary allocations for ghat cleanliness and beautification of river Ganga, is also set to take off in right earnest.

The will seems visible, but ultimately the implementation will hold the key.