Background:-

According to a map of Ganga river water quality presented by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) to National Green Tribunal (NGT) in August 2018, only five out of 70-odd monitoring stations had water that was fit for drinking and seven for bathing.
After three decades of efforts to clean the national river, it is a sad state of affairs that the river is not even fit for bathing

Namami Ganga:-

• It is the biggest-ever initiative with financial support of over Rs 20,000 crore allotted to this scheme to clean Ganga by 2019 and it has now been extended to 2020.
• Namami Gange is being implemented by the National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG), and its state counterparts State Programme Management Groups.
• NMCG would establish field offices wherever necessary. The National Ganga Council (NGC) was created and the Prime Minister was made the head of it.
• This council replaced the National Ganga River Basin Authority (NGRBA).
• NGC would have on board the chief ministers of five Ganga basin states Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh (UP), Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal besides several Union ministers and it was supposed to meet once every year.

Focus on biodiversity:-

• Apart from modernisation and redevelopment of Ghats and crematoriums, the programme involves development of sewage infrastructure and treatment, afforestation, deployment of trash skimmers and conservation of biodiversity.
• Eight biodiversity centres will be developed along the Ganga for conservation of dolphins, turtles and different varieties of fish. These centres will be developed at Rishikesh, Narora, Dehradun, Allahabad, Bhagalpur, Varanasi, Sahibganj and Barrackpore.
• NMCG has initiated a project, ‘Biodiversity Conservation and Ganga Rejuvenation’ in collaboration with the Wildlife Institute of India (WII), to restore the dwindling aquatic wildlife of the river. By stopping dumping of waste in the river and maintaining a continuous flow of water, the aquatic life can survive and revive, including a variety of fish which can clean the river.
• A massive initiative under the Ganga tree plantation drive was also initiated. Under the drive, the government will plant 10 crore trees along the banks of the river from Haridwar to Kolkata.

Adverse impact on biodiversity:-

Gangetic dophin:-

Population of the Gangetic Dolphin, which was declared national aquatic animal in 2009, is on the verge of extinction due to construction of dams and barrages.
Continuous disturbance from movement of large vessels in the river may cause unprecedented decline in dolphin population and modification of the river habitat for navigation, such as dredging, river training and canalisation may damage its habitat.

Other species are also affected:-

• Population of several other aquatic species along the Ganga is continuously going down.
• The number of otters, various species of birds both resident and migratory crocodiles, turtles and amphibians are declining due to construction of large-scale hydroelectric projects, reclamation of wetlands for human settlement and poaching and contamination of waterways.
• A recent survey revealed that aquatic life in 49% stretch of Ganga had recorded high biodiversity but the rest of the stretch may have been adversely affected due to sewage and pollution from industries and water being diverted for agricultural activities like irrigation.

Turtles:-
Survey report said that most of the freshwater turtle populations were declining in Ganga due to toxic chemical substances from agricultural fields and industries and altered natural flow regime by dams and barrages which can cause nest inundation among other factors.

Golden Mahaseer:-

• Like the freshwater turtle, golden mahaseer is declining rapidly from its natural habitat due to urbanisation, chemical and physical alterations of their natural habitats due to the growing number of hydroelectric and irrigation projects, the report stated.
• The report cited that Tehri Dam had acted as a barrier to migration of golden mahaseer, leading to a decline in its population.

Other issues :-

• CAG in its report claimed that the NMCG neither circulated Ganga Rejuvenation Basin Management Programme (GRBMP) to different ministries/departments for consultation and seeking their opinion, nor finalised the Ganga Rejuvenation Basin Management Programme (GRBMP) for initiating the long-term intervention on the Ganga.
• There have been issues regarding untreated waste that flows into the river, restoring the flow of the river, sludge management in Ganga basin towns, cost overruns in execution of projects and governance glitches.

Sewage treatment:-

• As far as sewage infrastructure projects are concerned, 68 projects were sanctioned after the Namami Gange was approved by the cabinet and only six were completed till August.
• New projects are delayed because land acquisition and other related activities were taking a lot of time.
• A river is a self-purifying system only when water flows through it. The Ganga fails this basic test except during monsoons. So it’s not just about unclean Ganga. It is about the existence of Ganga.
• The water resources ministry signed MOUS with 10 ministries for better implementation of Namami Gange. However, till date no detail is available as to how these ministries are functioning for better convergence.

Way forward:-

• There is an urgent need to create public awareness, at macro and micro levels, to help people see the severity of the situation.
• Government should focus on promoting crop rotation and removing water-intensive crops in the belt to stop groundwater depletion.