• 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.

Recent developments :-

• The draft National River Ganga Bill 2018 has proposed the setting up of an armed ‘Ganga Protection Corps’, with the powers to arrest offenders who pollute it, to keep the river clean and help in its rejuvenation.
  1. The bill aims to rejuvenate Ganga to its pristine stage and ensure its uninterrupted flow.
  2. The bill says the Centre will take control of management, regulation and development of the Ganga, and gives it the status of a national river.
• Jal Marg Vikas Project (JMVP)
  1. The Jal Marg Vikas Project (JMVP) on National Waterway-1 is being implemented with the financial and technical support of the World Bank.
  2. The Project entails development of fairway between Varanasi and Haldia (Phase-I)
  3. The project will contribute in bringing down the logistics cost in the country.
  4. The project involves channelising the braided river, massive dredging, frequent desilting, and barraging to increase its depth artificially.
  5. Significant pollution risks are being ignored.
  6. Also ignored is the destruction of the habitats of the aquatic life and livelihoods of the fisherfolk and boatmen.
  7. Endangered species like the Ganges river dolphins are being pushed towards extinction.
• PepsiCo consignment in Varanasi
  1. PepsiCo moved containers from Kolkata to Varanasi on river Ganga.
  2. Ganga does not have the carrying capacity for the navigation of 1,500 tonne vessels.
• Ganga Hariteema Yojana
  1. Uttar Pradesh Government has launched Ganga Hariteema Yojana (also known as Ganga Greenery scheme) in 27 districts of the state located on the bank of river Ganga.
  2. The scheme aims at enhancing green cover in catchment areas of river Ganga and control land erosion.

Where is government failing :-

• Unsustainable sand mining, encroachments into the river and extraction of groundwater and other resources at increasing rates continues.
• Sand mining and hydropower development in the Ganga has reduced its flow at most places.
• The source of the Ganga’s perenniality, the Himalayas, are increasingly becoming dry, hollowed out, and made fragile.
• Under Namami Gange programme, maintaining an ecological flow is not abided by the project owners.
• Building barrages and diverting flow of the river.
• Dredging to make way for inland water ways.
• Hydroelectric projects that impact the flow.
• Massive deforestation destroying the overall ecology.
• No proper assessment of impacts of the above interventions on the river. This has resulted in further deterioration of the Ganga.
• The state of deteriorating Ganga is also mentioned by CAG, Parliamentary Committee on Ministry of Water Resources, the World Bank, the Central Pollution Control Board, and National Green Tribunal.

Way forward :-

• The Indian government should come out with credible road map, set up pilots, ensure that existing sewage and industrial effluent treatment plants worked as per design, set up decentralised STPs and opt for eco-friendly treatment options. These steps would facilitate reuse of treated waste water.
• Government should take steps to reduce sugarcane cultivation, go for water-saving and yield-enhancing SRI, a method applicable for crops other than rice. All these efforts could have also helped improve the state of flow in the river.
• Government should set up an independent committee to assess the continued usefulness of Farakka barrage. It should make river governance democratic, with clearly defined norms of transparency, participation and accountability.