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tackling river pollution in india

CARE - a four point sustainable solution

Ramaa Ramesh | XLRI

 RIVER POLLUTION: The situation thus far

Sources
•India is home to 14 major rivers, which today share the
dubious commonality of being among the most polluted in
Asia
Causes
•Over time, these once clean rivers have fallen prey to a
variety of polluters, lack of public concern and failed
government machinery and planning

Government Role •The GOI’s efforts in the manner of the Ganga Action Plan
and the Yamuna Action plan, to state a few, have been
uniformly unsuccessful due to a plethora of reasons

CARE – a solution •This presentation examines the sources of river pollution in

India, efforts undertaken, and the reasons for their failure,
and proposes a simple, relatively inexpensive five-pronged
sustainable strategy for the cleaning and maintenance of
river systems across the country
References
 Major sources of river pollution in India

POINT SOURCES OF NON POINT SOURCES OF POLLUTION

POLLUTION
Runoff from Carcass Open defecation
Municipal Sewage wastes disposal & cattle wallow
•75% of all point source •Disposal of
•Runoff from solid
pollution hundreds of burnt •100000 tons of
wastes from waste
•Consists of untreated or poorly and half burnt human excrement a
dumps; leakage from
treated sewage and overflow human bodies on a day polluting Indian
landfill sites
from under-capacity sewage daily basis in major rivers, causing great
•Runoff from medical
treatment facilities rivers including the difficulty to those
wastes, including
Ganges, leading to using the river water
runoff from hospitals,
Industrial Pollution health care centers
infection and for drinking and
pollution of water bathing, as well as
•25% of PSP and from medical
•Disposal of bodies of holy dips etc
•Hazardous solid and liquid laboratories
dead animals •Cattle wallowing
wastes from factories •Runoff from
including diseased also contributes
•Consists of solvents, heavy agricultural fields and
and untreated significantly to
metals and radioactive farmland containing
livestock by framers dirtying and polluting
materials a high level of
and animal breeders, rivers
•Frequently enters groundwater pesticides and
leading to infected
supplies chemical fertilizers
water
 Why does pollution occur?
In order to tackle river pollution, it is important to understand why it happens in the first place

Free Water – Use it, Abuse it!

In India, water is a free commodity, and our rivers are
too often treated as everyone’s right, but no one’s
responsibility. Usage is indiscriminate and pollution
unchecked

Polluting is Inexpensive
Despite much ado about water pollution and norms,
the sad fact of the matter is that people and
companies alike know it is easy to flout the rules;
hence, they flout them with scant regard for laws

No Accountability
1200 crores and not 1 cusec of cleaned water to show
for it from the Yamuna Action Plan. Our government
is as irresponsible and unaccountable as industrial
polluters.
 Key Governmental initiatives

•Launched in 1986 by GOI with the broad aim of abating pollution and
improving water quality
•Lack of prior experience in implementing a project of this scale, inordinate
Ganga Action delays, bureaucratic red tape, inefficiency and local body unconcern as well
as non-release of funds by state governments have been described as some of
Plan (GAP) the causes for the failure of the GAP

Status: failure

•A flagship scheme of Govt. of India, Ministry of Environment & Forest for

National River abatement of pollution and conservation of rivers in the country
Conservation •Currently projects for cleaning two rivers in MP are in progress
•While the scheme is a step in the right direction, too often governmental
Plan (NCRP) inefficiencies and delay as well as public unconcern and lack of participation
hinder serious progress
Status: in limbo

•The largest river conservation plan of its kind in India, it is also deemed a
failure thus far with the government officially that it will be unable to clean up
Yamuna Action the Yamuna before the Commonwealth Games and that another 7-8 are
Plan needed
•Under failure for not being able to clean even one cusec of water despite over
Rs. 1200 crore in expenditure Status: failure
 CARE- A four point solution

WHAT IS CARE?
CARE is a four point solution that focuses on a localized citizens’ movement initiative
involving the use of low cost technology to combat river pollution and work in tandem with
government bodies. The four interrelated aspects of CARE are Citizenship(C). Available
Technology (A) and Riverkeepers (R) and Enforcing Norms(E).

WHY CARE?
The idea behind CARE is that in a country the size of India, it is near impossible to bring about
any large scale change without citizen awareness support. The central theme is the usage of
available low cost technologies to effectively reduce pollution and revive clogged rivers; while
at the same time enforcing the Polluter Pays principle where upstream users are excessively
fined to compensate downstream users in case of excessive pollution.
Citizens Available
HOW DOES CARE WORK? Initiative Technology
CARE works as a integrated process where each step
complements the next. Together, the four steps CARE
take care of both cleaning and maintaining clean river
Enforcing
Riverkeepers
Accountability
1. Citizen’s Initiatives
WHAT DOES IT INVOLVE?
•In each locality along a river or using a river, the river is divided into stretches of
approximately 20 km, and citizen’s rights groups are formed consisting of people those who
use the river for drinking water, bathing, or other purposes.
•These people will now be responsible for systematically ensuring the cleaning up of the
river in small batches, and ensuring that waste is not dumped into the river at its source.
One simple way is to collect and dispose the waste that is dumped on river banks before it
enters the water.
WHY WILL THIS WORK?
A citizen’s initiative is not only a powerful tool that collectivizes interested parties and
harnesses the power of the people; considering the enormity of the task of cleaning long
stretches of rivers, it becomes necessary that huge numbers of people engage themselves in
the movement.
WHAT DOES IT REQUIRE?
•Awareness: Much of the pollution happening comes from households and open defecation
as well as discarding carcasses. To prevent these instances from occurring or at least to
narrow down their frequency, awareness needs to be built into the system. The best way to
do this would be by involving citizens themselves into the movement.
•Reward: The Government for its part should encourage such citizens’ activist groups from
time to time with tangible monetary and other awards. Given such encouragement, there is
a high chance that the level of pollution in rivers can be brought down with concerted effort.
 2. Available , low cost Technology

WHAT DOES IT INVOLVE?

•Simple technology that we use in our daily lives can be a very powerful tool to tackle the
issue of river pollution, and reduce the dependence on tradition water-harming chemical
treatment.
•One idea suggested here, inspired by NRI scientist Subijoy Dutta, is that air diffusers and
simple floating or stationary aerosols be immersed in rivers along these 20 km stretches,
which can be operated using pumps or generators. This regenerates the oxygen content in
the water and improve levels of Biological Oxygen Demand.
HOW COST EFFECTIVE IS IT?
•According to Dutta, a simple diffuser would cost around Rs. 20000 and could be
immersed in rivers from point to point.
•Even taking into account the highly polluted stretches of major rivers, the cost would
not exceed or even equal that of the various river plans, which have failed to yield any
result whatsoever.
WHAT DOES IT REQUIRE?
•Minimal investment in available technologies
•Government funding and encouragement of organizations like CSIR and private bodies
 Riverkeepers

•Riverkeepers are ordinary citizens who assume the role of ‘river-keepers’ – literally,
they will patrol and guard the river to ensure that people and industries are not
polluting the river or releasing toxic material and substances into the river. It is a
hugely successful concept in the West, but a relatively new idea to India.
•These river-keepers are educated well regarding the do’s and don’ts of river usage.
The moment they spot any discrepancy, they alert the authorities. They can also be
legally given the right to take certain actions against those caught polluting.

Enforcing Norms

•The Polluter Pays principle states that people pay for what they use; and those who
pollute must pay for it- not the rest of society. Usage of water in general must be taxed
higher; and upstream users, especially large-scale industrial polluters need to be taxed
accordingly and fined at an increasing rate for higher levels for what they pollute in
order to compensate downstream users.
•This policy reduces pollution, supplements the CAR strategies and completes the four
stage CARE model.
 Select References

•http://www.ecofriends.org/main/eganga/images/Critical%20analysis%20of%20GAP.pdf

•http://sify.com/news/nri-scientist-offers-solution-to-clean-yamuna-news-national-
jegmvIejcji.html

•http://sankatmochan.tripod.com/GAPFailure.htm

•http://www.cleanganga.com/articles/4.php

•http://www.indianexpress.com/news/cant-clean-up-yamuna-before-the-games-says-
sheila/480493/0

•http://www.potomacriverkeeper.org/what-we-do?task=blogsection