Project Report on

Pollution of the Ganges: A Detailed Case-study of

Human Over-exploitation

by

Yash Thakore (19677) – REEM

Yash.D.Thakore@Hochschule-stralsund.de

Submitted to

Prof. Wolfram Thiele

Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

Date: July 20th, 2022

1
 Table of Contents

Table of Contents.....................................................................................................................2
1. Executive Summary..........................................................................................................3
2. Background.......................................................................................................................4
3. Case Study Analysis..........................................................................................................5
3.1 Ganges Today..............................................................................................................5
3.2 Mitigation Efforts........................................................................................................6
3.2.1 Ganga Mahasabha................................................................................................6
3.2.2 Ganges Action Plan..............................................................................................6
3.2.3 National Ganga River Basin Authority................................................................6
3.2.4 2010 Government clean-up campaign.................................................................7
3.2.5 Namami Gange Programme.................................................................................7
3.2.6 Individual Efforts.................................................................................................8
4. Causes of consistent and multiple failures......................................................................9
4.1 Faulty Effluent Standards............................................................................................9
4.2 Lack of Priority or Wisdom for Drain Diversions.....................................................10
4.3 Non-judicious Use of Money....................................................................................11
4.4 Illiterate and Unconcerned Public.............................................................................11
4.5 The Right People Not Doing the Right Job...............................................................12
5. Conclusion.......................................................................................................................13
6. References........................................................................................................................14

2
 1. Executive Summary

Water is certainly the most important natural resource that exists on our planet and is vital for
the sustainability of all living organisms. One of the holiest rivers on earth, the Ganga, is
witnessing a major decline in water quality as a result of several anthropogenic activities. The
last two decades saw a deterioration in water quality as a result of an increase in the human
population, industrialization, urbanization, and intensive agricultural practices, which resulted
in the discharge of enormous levels of municipal and industrial wastewater into river systems.
This has culminated in the depletion of freshwater resources, which has impacted nearby
places such as the ecological damage in marine ecosystems as well as the supply of drinking
water.

For many decades, the Ganga has been under increasing pressure. By far the largest pollution
source, 50 cities along the Ganga River discharge 6 billion gallons of untreated sewage into
the river daily. This is attributed to the tripling of the country's population since 1950 and
rapid urbanization. Together with runoff from chemical fertilizers and pesticides, untreated
industrial wastewater aggravates the issue. Even for ritual bathing, the Ganga is unfit due to
the uncontrolled dumping of human and animal carcasses into it. Sixty percent of water from
the Ganga's stem and its tributaries is channelled by barriers and hydroelectric projects,
limiting the potential for mainstream flow, which accumulates contaminants in the river.

For several thousand years, the Indo Gangetic plains of northern India have served as the
cradle of culture along the Ganges river (or Ganga, as it is known in India). It currently
supports about 43% of India's population. With an average population density of 520 people
per square kilometre, the Ganges basin is among the most densely populated places on the
planet. The river is not only an essential resource for industry and agriculture but also has a
mythical role in India's cultural heritage. However, post-independence, the need to modernize
was accompanied by a massive increase in industry, urbanization, and a growing population.
This invaluable asset was turned into a convenient way of disposing of waste in the process.
Municipal sewage, industrial effluents, and agricultural runoff are really the main
perpetrators. Furthermore, people and animals indiscriminately bathe for religious purposes,
wash and feed their animals, and dispose of their deceased in the river. The Government of
India (GoI) has launched ambitious goals like the Ganga Action Plan to combat the escalating
pollution crisis (GAP). However, these programs weren't always as effective at achieving
their desired objective. The GAP has problems as a consequence of an overdependence on
conventional strategies that were designed and implemented by the national government
without the participation of local stakeholders.

3
 2. Background

Water pollution is one of the most severe concerns about climate change. Still, there is not
much consensus regarding awareness of this problem. Water pollution is affecting humans in
various ways, like scarcity of drinking water, droughts, and pollution due to human activities.
People dump raw sewage and garbage into India's rivers and lakes, contaminating nearly 80%
of the country's water. Himalayan glaciers provide drinking water to a total of 1.9 billion
people in adjoining countries. The Ganges river system is one of the largest rivers originating
in the Himalayan glaciers. The Ganges is the world's third largest river in terms of discharge.
During its course, it travels a distance of about 2,525 km and covers an area of around
8,61,404 sq km of its basin. The river runs through 29 cities with populations of over
100,000, 23 cities with populations ranging from 50,000 to 100,000, and about 48 towns.
Over 140 species of fish and 90 species of amphibians, reptiles, and mammals call the river
home, including critically endangered species such as gharial and the South Asian river
dolphin.

Historically, the Ganges has played a prominent role in the development of civilisation in
India as it is considered the holiest river in the Hindu faith. People from far across India come
to the banks of the River Ganges in search of peace and salvation. But rapid urbanisation and
over-exploitation of natural resources now pose a serious threat to the very existence of this
holy river.

Pollution in the Ganges is primarily caused by industrial waste. Several factories along the
river's banks, such as leather, textiles, rubber, and plastic, release their poisonous pollutants
into the river water without adequately treating them. The second major contributor to the
pollution of the Ganges River is the untreated sewage discharged from the drains of the cities
into the river. According to a recent survey, around 1 billion litres of untreated, raw sewage
are dumped into the river daily. If this figure is not checked immediately, it is going to
increase by 100% in the coming 20 years. At present, chemical toxins and other bacteria
found in Ganga water are 3000 times above the safe limit prescribed by the World Health
Organization (WHO). The level of coliform bacteria is around 2800 times greater than the
limit suggested by the WHO as safe. Chromium in the waters of the Ganges is now 70 times
higher than the maximum prescribed amount by the governmental agencies, even after many
corrective actions. Due to toxic contamination of the drinking water, people living on the
banks of the Ganges river system are more prone to diseases like dysentery, cholera,
hepatitis, and cancer.
Various governmental plans were launched to clean the Ganges and control the pollution it
contains by establishing various commissions and missions. The government of India has
officially spent over 70 billion Indian rupees in the last five years on its flagship "Namami
Gange Program," which is primarily aimed at cleaning the Ganges and controlling human and
industrial exploitation of the river system. But, for several reasons, ranging from political
unwillingness to an increment in industrialization of the country, the efforts have been

4
limited, and the river is getting more and more polluted. It is estimated that if this over-
exploitation is not stopped, over 500 million people will suffer from water scarcity and major
health-related problems.

5
 3. Case Study Analysis

3.1 Ganges Today

The primary cause of pollution in the Ganga is industrial effluents. Along the river's banks, a
number of factories, including those making leather, textiles, rubber, and plastic, release their
toxic waste into the water without properly treating it. Untreated sewage dumped into the
Ganga River via city drains is the second biggest cause of pollution in the river. A recent
survey found that every day, the river receives almost 1 billion litres of unprocessed, raw
sewage. If this situation is not addressed right away, it will increase by 100% in the next 20
years.

According to recent studies by the Central Pollution Control Board, the water pollution
hotspots along the 2,525 km course of the Ganga River are thought to be six key locations.
The places that are most badly polluted are Kanpur and Calcutta. The pollution levels are
somewhat lower in Varanasi and Kannauj. The cities of Allahabad and Patna are even less
polluted. According to studies conducted by the West Bengal Water Pollution Control Board,
the river water in the Howrah area between Diamond Harbour and Uluberia has disturbingly
high bacterial levels. Chemical toxins and other germs identified in Ganga water are currently
3000 times higher than the World Health Organization's safe limit (WHO). The level of
Coliform bacteria is around 2800 times more than the limit suggested by the WHO as safe.

The Ganges Basin's fertile soil is essential to Bangladesh's and India's agricultural economies.
The Ganges and its tributaries are a reliable source of water for a large area. Rice, sugarcane,
lentils, oil seeds, potatoes, and wheat are the major crops cultivated there.

Major fisheries are supported by the Ganges basin, but they have been declining recently.
Carp captures decreased from 424.91 metric tons in 1961-1968 to 38.58 metric tons in 2001-
2006 in the Allahabad region of the basin, while catfish catches decreased from 201.35 metric
tons in 1961-1968 to 40.56 metric tons in 2001-2006. Carp catches decreased from 383.2
metric tons to 118 in the Patna region of the basin's lower portion, and catfish catches
decreased from 373.8 metric tons to 194.48. The walking catfish (Clarias batrachus), catla,
rohu (Labeo rohita), and pangas catfish (Pangasius) are some of the fish that are commonly
caught.

About 30 fish species in the Ganges basin are classified as threatened; the main problems
being overfishing (sometimes illegally), pollution, water abstraction, siltation, and invasive
species. The highly endangered Ganges shark (Glyphis gangeticus) is one of the endangered
species. The construction of dams may restrict the migration of some fish species across
different river segments.

The Ganges river dolphin (Platanista gangetica gangetica), which has been designated as
India's national aquatic mammal, is the most famous member of the river's wildlife. The

6
Ganges and Brahmaputra rivers both once held huge populations of this dolphin, but dam
development and pollution pose a severe threat to their future survival. Their populations
have now dropped to one-quarter of what they were fifteen years ago, and they are now
extinct in the Ganges' main tributaries. Only 3,000 were still present, according to a recent
World Wildlife Fund assessment, in the water catchment of both river systems.

The Himalayan glaciers that feed the river are in threat of melting by 2035, according to the
Fourth Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), published in 2007.
The IPCC has recently removed its prediction, citing that the original source stated it was
speculative and that the cited source was not a peer-reviewed finding. The IPCC's statement
upholds its overall conclusions regarding the Himalayan glaciers' vulnerability to global
warming (with consequent risks to water flow into the Gangetic basin). Numerous studies
have predicted that the Ganges river basin's water resources will be impacted by climate
change, including higher summer (monsoon) flow and peak runoff that may increase the
danger of flooding.

In the Haridwar district of Uttarakhand, where the Ganges river reaches the plains for the first
time, illegal mining of the river's bed for stones and sand for construction projects has long
been an issue. despite the fact that quarrying is prohibited in the 140 km 2 Kumbh Mela
designated zone in Haridwar.

3.2 Mitigation Efforts

3.2.1 Ganga Mahasabha

In 1905, Madan Mohan Malaviya established the Ganga Mahasabha, an institution in India
dedicated to the Ganges. British India finally conceded, on November 5, 1914, that Hindu
devotees have a basic right to the Ganges' unhindered flow. In Indian history, the day is
referred to as "Aviral Ganga Samjhauta Divas" (Uninterrupted Ganga flow agreement day),
and the agreement came into being on December 19, 1916, which is known as the Agreement
of 1916. After India gained independence, the state and federal governments did not uphold
the agreement's sanctity, despite the fact that it is still a binding contract. River water is being
diverted for agricultural purposes at an increasing rate, turning the river into a contaminated
sewer.

3.2.2 Ganges Action Plan

The Ganges Action Plan (GAP), which covered 25 Class I towns (6 in Uttar Pradesh, 4 in
Bihar, and 15 in West Bengal), was introduced by Rajiv Gandhi, the country's then-prime
minister, in June 1986. A total of Rs 862.59 million was invested. Its main goals were to
prevent toxic and industrial chemical waste from entering the river and to improve the water
quality by intercepting, diverting, and treating domestic sewage.

7
3.2.3 National Ganga River Basin Authority

The National Ganga River Basin Authority (NGRBA), which is part of India's Jal Shakti
ministry, is responsible for funding, planning, executing, monitoring, and coordinating efforts
related to the Ganges River. The organization's goal is to preserve the drainage basin that
supplies water to the Ganges by guarding it against overuse or contamination. The Ministry
of Water Resources, River Development & Ganga Rejuvenation, previously the Ministry of
Water Resources, received the NGRBA in July 2014 from the Ministry of Environment and
Forests (India).

In accordance with the River Ganga (Rejuvenation, Protection and Management) Authorities
Order 2016, the Union government decided to establish the National Council for River Ganga
(Rejuvenation, Protection and Management) (NCRG) to assume the role of the NGRBA. The
new entity will take over total control of the river Ganga Basin's pollution prevention and
revitalization, succeeding the current National Ganga River Basin Authority.

The funding for the National Ganga River Basin Authority quadrupled to 500 crore in the
Indian Union budget for 2010.

3.2.4 2010 Government clean-up campaign

A $4 billion initiative to assure that by 2020 there would be no untreated municipal sewage or
industrial runoff into the 1,560-mile river was launched by the Indian government in 2010.
Earlier efforts to clean the Ganges focused on a few highly polluting towns and centers and
addressed "end-of-the-pipe" wastewater treatment there; Mission Clean Ganga builds on
lessons from the past and will look at the entire Gangetic basin while planning and
prioritizing investment instead of the earlier town-centric approach, according to a World
Bank spokesman who described the plan in 2011. To create a new sewage treatment system
for Varanasi, lobbying organization Sankat Mochan Foundation (SMF) "is collaborating with
GO2 Water Inc., a Berkeley, California, wastewater-technology business."

Many industrial plants, like Tulsi along the Ganges, have been under consideration for
closure by the Indian Supreme Court. The government designated the river section between
Gaumukh and Uttarkashi as an eco-sensitive zone in 2010.

3.2.5 Namami Gange Programme

Arun Jaitley, the Union Finance Minister, proposed an integrated Ganges development
project termed "Namami Gange" (which translates to "Obeisance to the Ganges river") and
allotted $2,037 crore for it in the budget that was presented to Parliament on July 10, 2014.
Effective pollution reduction, conservation, and Ganges revitalization were the goals. The
initiative includes coverage for 8 states. At a cost of Rs 1,700 crore, the Ministry of Drinking
Water Supply and Sanitation intends to make 1,674 gram panchayats by the Ganges open
defecation-free by 2022. (central share).An estimated Rs 2,958 Crores (US$460 million) have
been spent till July 2016 in various efforts in cleaning up of the river. As a part of the

8
program, government of India ordered the shut down of 48 industrial units around the
Ganges.

The program will cost Rs. 20,000 crore over the next five years. Over the previous 30 years,
this is a huge five-fold rise in spending (the government of India incurred an overall
expenditure of approximately Rs. 4000 crore on this task since 1985). The centre will now
fully fund all activities and initiatives included in this program. The centre now proposes to
provide for operation and maintenance of the assets for at least a 10-year period and
implement a PPP/SPV method for pollution hotspots, taking a page from the disappointing
outcomes of the prior Ganges Action Plans.

3.2.6 Individual Efforts

Swami Nigamananda Saraswati, a Hindu monk, starved himself to death in the early months
of 2011 in opposition to the Ganges riverbed quarrying that was taking place in the
Uttarakhand region of Haridwar. His ashram leader Swami Shivananda continued his
initiative after his passing in June 2011 by fasting for 11 days beginning on November 25,
2011. A prohibition on river bed mining in the Bhogpur and Bishanpur ghats was issued by
the Uttarakhand government on December 5, 2011. The environmental effects of quarrying in
the Ganges will now be examined by a special committee, according to administration
officials, who will determine how it would affect the river and the communities around it.

G. D. Agrawal was a supporter of Ganga Mahasabha, an organization Madan Mohan Malviya

created in 1905 to call for the dismantling of dams on the Ganges. Manmohan Singh, India's
then-prime minister, acceded to Agrawal's request thanks to assistance from other social
activists, including Anna Hazare. Thus, he requested a meeting of the National River Ganga
Basin Authority (NRGBA) and asked the administrators to use the 26 billion (US $522
million) approved "for developing sewer networks, sewage treatment facilities, sewage
pumping stations, electric crematoria, community toilets, and river fronts." Agrawal, who had
been on an extended fast since June 22nd, 2018 in protest at the government's failure to keep
its pledges to clean up and conserve the Ganges, passed away on October 11 of the same
year.

9
 4. Causes of consistent and multiple failures

Despite all of the government agencies' concerted efforts and the Central Ganga Authority's
"Ganga Action Plan," the Ganga has not been restored to a quality level that could be
regarded safe enough for religious bathing and drinking of Ganga Jal for religious rituals by
the millions of Hindus who nonetheless undertake such rites on a regular and concentrated
basis, such as the "Kumbh Melas" (mass bathing in the Holy Ganga every 6 or 12 years).
This is due to a number of significant technological and scientific errors as well as several
weaknesses in the methods and programs for managing the quality of the water.

The summary below outlines five sets of fundamental technological flaws that have stopped
the Ganga from being cleaned adequately despite all efforts.

4.1 Faulty Effluent Standards

The quality standards of the effluents (domestic and/or industrial) that are legally permitted
for disposal into the Ganga are specified in the "permission" orders to the various polluting
industries and local bodies in the Ganga basin. Thus, these acceptable effluent quality levels
are referred to as "effluent standards." The Indian Water (Prevention and Control of
Pollution) Act of 1974 gives the various pollution control boards—the regulatory
organizations—the authority to set their own criteria for effluents. The Indian Standard
Institution, currently known as the "Bureau of Indian Guidelines," has also established some
effluent standards for the release of wastewater into waterways and rivers. The regulating
agencies (i.e., the various pollution control boards) frequently adopted the ISI's arbitrarily
framed effluent standards for inclusion in the "consent" orders to avoid the mind-bending
exercise of developing their own effluent standards pertaining to each unique situation and
condition of the receptor river. Unfortunately, the ISI did not use scientific reasoning when
developing their effluent standards, and they are completely arbitrary because they do not
take into account the available dilution ratio in the rivers, the current quality status of the
effluent-receiving rivers, or the "river standards" required for the most exploited river use(s)
in the various stretches or locations in the river.

The critical (minimum) dilution ratio of the available river, the estimated waste-assimilating
capacity of the waste-receiving river, and the desired river standards (i.e., maintaining a
desired river water quality at a specified location) must all be taken into consideration for the
effluent standards to be effective in each specific situation. The river standards are initially
defined for the best-intended river usage at a specific site in the river when using the logical
technology of evolving effluent standards in a specific circumstance. The tonnage of any non-
conservative pollutant (such as any causing excessive biochemical oxygen demand) that can
be discharged at a known point into the river (without violating the pre-set river standard) can
then be calculated based on the assessed waste-assimilative capacity of the river and the
dilution ratio available in it. The many polluters receive an equitable distribution of this
calculated allowed tonnage of the pollutant. The "effluent standard" for the specified

10
pollutant is determined by adding the tonnage share of each polluter to the flow rate of the
effluent. The required pre-fixed river standards can never be satisfied at the designated site in
the river unless the effluent requirements are framed in accordance with the given reasonable
methodology.

Unfortunately, none of the regulating agencies in India has ever adopted any such
technological and rational methodology for evolving the effluent standards that are needed as
a basis for specifying their 'consent' orders which are issued to the various polluters. Such
regulating agencies had only been practising, as a routine, cut-short adoption of either the
illogical ISI-framed effluent standards or their own whimsically and arbitrarily- fixed effluent
standards. For scientifically evolving the effluent standards, the regulating agencies neither
cared for any objective-based planning for the assessment of the waste-assimilative capacities
of the Ganga in its various reaches, nor even utilized the already-published waste-
assimilation data for the Ganga (available in Indian journals, reports, and reputed
international refereed scientific journals The regulating agencies did not, unfortunately, care
to frame any river standards at any urban centre along the Ganga even where millions of
Hindus use the Ganga water for bathing, drinking at religious rites, etc. The regulating
agencies thus failed to control the river quality or river standards at any desired location. The
above discussions are a clear pointer to the fact that, despite treatment of municipal and
industrial wastewaters before their disposal into the Ganga, the Ganga could not be cleaned to
the needed levels.

4.2 Lack of Priority or Wisdom for Drain Diversions

Less than half of the urban residents living along the Ganges are sewered. As a result,
through a large number of unidentified and frequently overlooked small natural or man-made
drains, very large amounts of untreated domestic wastewater from urban centres like
Haridwar, Kanpur, Varanasi, Patna, Calcutta, and others find their way into the Ganga.
Numerous businesses in the Ganga watershed may also be dumping untreated effluents into
the river through unmarked drains that are occasionally found near to the river's bed. Such
hidden drains cannot be found without a thorough study, which should use recently
developed remote-sensing technology. In urban areas, even a casual visitor to the Ganga is
likely to discover a number of minor drains dumping untreated wastewater into the Ganga. In
Varanasi City along the Ganga, for instance, numerous small drains discharge untreated
domestic wastewater (originating from unsewered community areas of the city) on the
downstream side of numerous "bathing ghats," which are paved platforms built along a river
bank for performing religious rites and for bathing purposes. This results in an immediate
pollution of the Ganga water flowing along such bathing ghats, as well as a bothersome
annoyance for the frequent users of such ghats.

In the morning, when there are the most visitors and the most recently discharged residential
wastewater, the aesthetic irritation and health risk are at their worst. Nobody building such
tiny drains had any consideration for Hindu sensibilities or even the barest civic, artistic, or
common sense to put them at least on the downstream side of the bathing ghats, lessening

11
their negative impact Similar circumstances can be found in Haridwar, where "burning
ghats," or platforms where Hindus who have died are burned, were built upstream of "Har Ki
Pori," the principal bathing ghat on the Ganga canal and one of the holiest ghats on the
Ganga. It is clear that the planners of that era had little regard for Hindu sensitivities and
exhibited neither judgment nor hygiene. Such issues could have been easily avoided by
building a covered drain parallel to the river to catch all small and large drains and transport
the entire wastewaters thus collected for discharge (preferably after treatment) into the Ganga
beyond a distance of between 1 and 5 kilometres downstream of the city. This
straightforward approach may have made a major difference in the quality of the Ganga water
at the numerous bathing ghats. These debates point to yet another important reason why the
Holy Ganga hasn't been cleaned despite substantial investment in the treatment of sewage
water.

4.3 Non-judicious Use of Money

Any water pollution mitigation approach can be cost-effective if the river's capacity to absorb
garbage is fully utilized. Despite having excellent laboratory facilities and sizable teams of
technically qualified personnel, none of the regulatory agencies ever cared to even assess the
capacities of the Ganga (or at least to notice them from published technical literature that has
long been available in national and international refereed journals). Such assessments might
have been conducted very easily and cheaply with a little technological forethought. The
authorities concerned should have prioritized this type of assessment over the normal
monitoring that requires significant amounts of tax dollars. Therefore, instead of sewage,
public funds were flushed down the drain. Simply put, with a single focused effort, we can
project the water-quality profiles, conduct classification monitoring (including the
photographic very low-altitude remote-sensing technique), waste-assimilation capacities, etc.
of the Ganga, Yamuna, and Kali rivers, conduct water-quality surveys (summer and winter),
and do all of this for no more than about Rs 15,000 in total (vide the 1976 records at the
Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur). These factors, together with the careless use of
public funds, are still another reason why the Holy Ganga hasn't been cleansed to the required
standards of purity.

4.4 Illiterate and Unconcerned Public

For decades, Hindus in both rural and urban areas who live along the Ganga's flow have used
the water directly for drinking and other purposes. Thus, the majority of them develop
resistance to many waterborne infections. In addition, it appears possible that their internal
systems may be producing some potent secretions to quell the negative effects caused by
pathogens and some toxicants present in the polluted Ganga waters due to their strong and
immense conviction and faith in the Holy Ganga water (which they regard as nectar). Even
pathogens cannot survive in Ganga water for long. Many individuals (of all age groups) are
frequently seen drinking water directly from the Ganga's many heavily contaminated
portions. These facts have rendered the vast majority of illiterate Indians indifferent to the
Ganga's ongoing decline and unconcerned about it; as a result, little public opinion or demand

12
for improvement has developed. As a result, the regulatory bodies also do not take their
responsibility for a prompt and thorough clean-up of the Ganga very seriously and instead
tend to view the issue as usual. This can be yet another factor in the Ganga's uncleanliness.

4.5 The Right People Not Doing the Right Job

Many top managerial positions in India's regulatory organizations are held by employees,
many of whom were placed there against their will and some of whom lack the specialized
training required to possess the sound knowledge of scientific principles and technologies
related to the technology of water pollution control, research, and its implications. As a result,
the authorities frequently use hurried administrative procedures to complete their tasks,
showing a clear lack of ardour. The administration of pollution control technologies and
strategies has frequently been handled by non-environmental engineering and non-
engineering personnel, whose comprehension necessitates a civil engineering degree in
addition to a background in environmental engineering (postgraduate and preferably
doctoral). Additionally, some non-technical employees even engage in fraud techniques by
misrepresenting themselves as engineers in order to obtain pollution-control engineering
design advice. The Holy Ganga hasn't been cleaned, and this factor isn't the only one that has
played a key role in this.

13
 5. Conclusion

The Ganges has been accorded the status of a national river. It has held a special position in
the nation's spiritual environment for numerous millennia and will do so for a very long time
to come. However, over the years, the pressures of urbanization, accompanied by the growing
threat of pollution, have called for serious attention. Pollution control programs like GAP in
1985 and Namami Gange have attempted to clean the Ganges but have had little success.
Major cost overruns and severe schedule delays plagued projects funded by the GAP. While
these projects were clear in terms of their goals, they suffered from a top-down, technocratic
approach to problem solving, lacked resources and institutional capacity as well as public
participation. India has always limited its environmental policy-making to a highly
centralized planning strategy. State governments, local governments, and stakeholders
(NGOs, the commercial sector, and citizens) have not made a significant contribution to the
development of environmental legislation, and riparian urbanism has not been approached
from a culturally aware, place-based viewpoint on any level.

However, it is also crucial to draw attention to some of the more significant changes in the
policy landscape that have occurred over the past decade or so and are relevant to the
establishment of forums for citizen involvement in water governance. First, there is
decentralization, which aims to increase involvement and bring decision-making closer to the
people. As an outcome of all this, the traditional goal-oriented approach to environmental
planning could be replaced with a process-based one. NGOs in India have played a
significant role in applying pressure to the government through campaigning, monitoring, and
awareness-building. For instance, in Varanasi, the Sankat Mochan Foundation has been
particularly effective in drawing national and international attention to the flawed planning
and mismanagement of the ambitious programs. It is currently collaborating with the
California-based company GO2 Water to construct a trial system that will process 37 million
liters of sewage every day. The Advanced Integrated Wastewater Pond System is a collection
of ponds that aid in the decomposition of organic matter and the elimination of fecal bacteria.
In comparison to conventional wastewater treatment systems, it offers a relatively lower
operating cost and reduces the amount of sludge produced (easing the load of disposal).If it is
successful, similar systems will be installed in other cities along the Ganges. It is evident that
civil society actors may play a significant role in the implementation of participatory
environmental management systems. But promoting public involvement to affect
environmental decision-making needs to be a collaborative effort. It cannot be done by civil
society alone; it needs institutional and financial aid from the state. Achieving a clean-
flowing Ganges and rebuilding the riverine ecology is destined to be a herculean task given
the existing urbanization trends and population pressures in the Ganges basin.

14
 6. References

[1] L. Bharati, B. R. Sharma, V. Smakhtin “The Ganges River Basin,” 2016, ISBN :
978-1-138-90032-5.

[2] A. Tripathi and D. K. Chauhan, “Understanding Integrated Impacts of Climate Change

and Pollution on Ganges River System: A Mini Review on Biological Effects, Knowledge
Gaps and Research Needs,” 2017, Research Gate publication
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/320234785.

[3] A. A. Batabyal and H. Beladi, “A political economy model of the Ganges pollution
cleanup problem,” Natural Resource Modelling WILEY 2020; DOI:10.1111/nrm.12285

[4] P. Das and K. R. Tamminga, “The Ganges and the GAP: An Assessment of Efforts to
Clean a Sacred River,” mdpi journal: sustainability 2012, 4 ,1647-1668 ;
DOI:10.3390/su4081647

[5] A. Mariya, C. Kumar, M. Masood and N. Kumar, “The pristine nature of river Ganges: its
qualitative deterioration and suggestive restoration strategies,” Environ Monit Assess 2019;
DOI:10.1007/s10661-019-7625-7

[6] N. A. Zawahri and O. Hensengerth, “Domestic environmental activists and the

governance of the Ganges and Mekong Rivers in India and China,” Int Environ Agreements
(2012) 12:269-298; DOI:10.1007/s10781-012-9179-9.

[7] E. Tomalin, “ The limitation of religious environmentalism for India,” Koninklijke Brill
NV, Leiden, 2002.

[8] A. K. Chopra, G. Prasad and D. R. Khanna, “Ganges water pollution and its management
through religion,” Environment Conservation Journal 5(1-3) 35-40, 2004; ISSN 0972-3099.

[9] M. Troch, “Impact of urban activity on Ganges water quality and ecology: case study
Kanpur,” Master’s dissertation. Universiteit Gent. Academic Year: 2017-2018.

15