Click to play videoNew Delhi: India's most sacred river, River Ganga, has been reduced to a sewage drain. In this special series, CNN-IBN's special investigation team traversed through the river starting right at its source, moving down to Kanpur and Varanasi. The team found that at every step, the river is choked with pollution.
On the occasion of World Water Day, CNN-IBN investigates just why the River Ganga ranks in the top five most polluted rivers of the world. The Ganga today is more polluted than when than when the Ganga Action Plan was first initiated by the late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1986. It's a shocking tale of official apathy and corruption and the failure of India's most ambitious river cleaning programme.
Ganga Action Plan is full of gaps
New Delhi: India's most ambitious river cleaning project, the Ganga Action Plan (GAP), is a colossal failure. The project is 13 years behind schedule.
In a startling admission to CNN-IBN's Special Investigation Team, the legal counsel to the Central Pollution Control Board, Vijay Panjwani, has revealed that despite spending Rs 20,000 crore to clean the Ganga, the river remains polluted.
This indictment of the Ganga Action Plan comes from the very man who is supposed to defend it in the Supreme Court.
"It is 2006 and we find that the Ganga waters remain as dirty as ever. Today the position is that all the thousands of crores that have been spent on the cleaning the river have literally gone down the drain," he says.
Panjwani also alleges widespread corruption in the handling of the Ganga Action Plan.
"Implementation of GAP is being used for personal gain. It seems that the money for the wastewater treatment is going into the pockets of contractors, bureaucrats and politicians," he alleges.
At Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh's industrial hub, the failure is most evident. Tanneries here regularly contaminate the Ganga with chrome, and yet strangely, chrome treatment plants set up by the Government lie unused.
Says environmentalist Rakesh Jaiswal, "This plant cannot be used till the tannery owners install pits to separate the chrome discharge. It's a waste and it should have been operational 10 years ago."
Also, a pumping station at the tannery Jaiswal is talking about - meant to filter out solid sewage and pump water into effluents before they flow into Ganga - is not in operation.
When asked since when has the machine not been working, a worker at the plant gives an ambiguous answer, "Abhi thik kar rahe hai." (It is being repaired now).
Scientists from IIT Kanpur tested the Ganga water for CNN-IBN and this is what they found.
Says one of the scientists, Dr Padma Vankar, "When we tested the water, we saw that the test tube had turned blue, which indicates the presence of chrome. Chrome cause all kinds of diseases."
And not just chrome. These colourful test tubes also indicate the presence of iron along with chrome in the Ganga waters.
The 2006 official audit of the Ganga Action Plan describes how Rs 900 crore of tax payers money has been misused.
A HISTORY OF FAILURE | |
 | The 2006 official audit of the Ganga Action Plan says the Plan has met only 39 per cent of its target of sewage treatment. |
| It also shows that Phase I of the Plan is behind schedule by over 13 years. |
| It further says that every state government involved has grossly misused GAP funds to the tune of more than Rs 36 crore. |
Even the River Conservation Authority that oversees the Plan and is headed by the Prime Minister has not met since 1997.
If you thought the Ganga is holy you may want to think again. The banks of the river are covered with sludge and animal carcasses and the stench is unbearable.
(With inputs from Bahar Dutt)
Kanpur's Ganga is an unholy mess
Kanpur: India's most sacred river, the Ganga is being poisoned and quite literally. CNN-IBN's Special Investigation Team travelled to Kanpur and found illegal industries operating on the banks of the river.
The multi-crore Ganga Action Plan has failed and toxic effluents of industries are spreading fatal diseases.
People near the river bank have developed yellow spots all over their bodies. "It’s because of the water. I don’t know what to do now,” a farmer, Ram says.
“I work in the fields. We cannot go near the Ganga. The water from the tannery is filthy,” another farmer says.
CNN-IBN found that an entire cocktail of toxic waste like arsenic, chrome and mercury is being dumped into the Ganga.
It was also found that several illegal soap factories on the river bank thrive on the waste from over a 100 tanneries, which flows unchecked into the Ganga.
All this waste from the tanneries is being mixed ironically to make soap, which is supplied to cities such as Delhi and Mumbai.
When factory owners were questioned they, too, were not bothered about the laws of the land.
“I don’t have a No Objection Certificate. I should have got it from the Pollution Control Board but I didn't bother,” a factory owner, Altaf says.
The law says that industries must state what chemicals will be used by them. But it was found that all boards on the factories regarding this norm were blank.
Even government-run sewage treatment plants are flouting all norms as effluents are being discharged into fields without testing for chrome.
Drinking water, too, is contaminated in this area and the Government has declared the water unfit for human consumption. Yet the people continue to drink and use this water as they have no choice.
A Government ordered report shows how UP government fell short of its targets in implementing the Ganga Action Plan.
- The Ganga Action Plan started in 1986 with an allocation of Rs 900 crore. Yet pollution levels are higher today.
- For instance, against a target of treating 1400 MLD (million litres/day) of polluted water, UP could create capacity only of 388 MLD.
- Electric crematoria at Allahabad and Hardwar, commissioned at a total cost of Rs 97 lakh are non-functional.
- Capacity for treating polluted water worth only 380 MLD, target was 1400 MLD.
- Against the target of 103 pumping sets, only 70 sets procured.
- Electric crematoria at Allahabad and Hardwar worth Rs 97 lakh is non-functional.
(With inputs from Bahar Dutt)
The Gangotri glacier is shrinking
Gangotri: The Gangotri glacier is shrinking - faster than ever before, faster every year.
Glaciers throughout the world are in melt mode. Considered as the thermometer of global warming, world's best known ice masses are fast disappearing. And India's very own Gangotri glacier is one of them.
Studies conducted by WWF, available exclusively with CNN-IBN reveal that the Gangotri glacier is receding at an alarming average rate of 23 meters every year.
Gangotri dham - a temple - is a pilgrim site for most Hindus in India. Devotees believe that hundreds of years ago, Ganga originated from this point, which is why the temple was built in the lap of the Himalayas. However, now things have changed.
THE GREAT MELTDOWN
*1935: The Gangotri was melting by seven meters per year
*1990: The meltdown had increased to 18 meters
*2006: Key Himalayan glaciers have shrunk by almost 21 pc
Says a devotee Baba Prayag Giri, "I have seen the holy River Ganga receeding by over 500 meters in the last 20 years."
CNN-IBN's Special Investigation Team we trekked with a team of scientists to the current source of the holy river, Gaumukh. They crossed valleys and moraines that were once covered by the Gangotri Glacier.
The snout position of the Gangotri dham is now 19 kms upstream from Gangotri, at Gaumukh.
Scientists have rung the alarm bell. With the 27km long Gangotri glacier shrinking, there is now less water downstream to dissolve the chemical wastes of over a 100 industries that pour into the river.
With less water, the density of pollutants in the Ganga keeps increasing, making multicrore projects like the Ganga Action Plan, totally ineffective.
Says Scientific Officer, Birla Institute of Technology, Dr Rajesh Kumar, "Earlier, there were no crevices on the glacier. But as more portions are exposed to the sun, crevices will form and huge blocks of the glacier will break away."
So how does the rapid retreat of the glacier affect those who live in the plains? For one, these glaciers are a primary source of water for 30 to 50 per cent of the major rivers in the Gangetic plain.
Says Senior Coordinator, WWF Dr Prakash Rao, "The average citizen does not really understand that the drinking water he gets comes from sources like this. In the coming years, we're probably going to have a water shortage due to melting of the glaciers."
Ganga is dying from both ends - the double impact of climate change and pollution will sooner, rather than later, kill India's most sacred river.
(With inputs from Divya Iyer)
No moksha for Ganga in Varanasi
Varanasi: The Ganga Action Plan in Varanasi has failed to clean up the holy river. Inspite of a grassroots plan to save the river in this region, the Ganga at Varanasi continues to choke to death.
Confluences of rivers are sacred in Hinduism but not in Varanasi it seems, where the Asi river now known as Nagwa Nala meets the Ganga.
“It’s so dirty that you can't even stand here. It stinks all the time,” a boatman says.
Today, the Ganga is in a living hell because there are 30 sewers that dump sewage into the river just a half-a-kilometer upstream of Varanasi.
The water treatment plants, set up under the Ganga Action Plan in the 80's, are supposed to divert Varanasi's sewage for cleansing but daily power cuts make them ineffective.
And while these plants have a daily capacity of 100 million litres a day, Varanasi today generates 250 million litres of sewage daily, so most of it simply flows into the river.
But the faithful still use the river to cleanse their sins. “People say the Ganga is pure. The sewage comes but it still stays pure,” a devotee says.
It is not just the sewers that are polluting the river, there are people searching for valuables, sifting through ashes from the pyres of the Manikarnika cremation ghat while dead bodies are thrown straight into the river.
“If a man dies of snakebite we put the body into the river as it is, in the hope that is cured,” a curator says.
But there are people in Varanasi who have solutions to these problems like Veer Bhadra Mishra, mahant of Sankatmochan Temple, who is an engineer by training and has given the UP government an alternate plan to treat Varanasi's sewage. Nine years later, he's still to hear from the authorities.
“In other cities I think the municipal authorities have not done that much amount of work. But in Varanasi we know the solutions then why can't they implement it?” Mishra asks.
Mishra runs a lab and has countered official claims that the Ganga Action Plan has been successful in Varanasi.
The water is tested regularly for levels of organic pollution and his comments on the Ganga Action Plan are scathing.
“We have failed in conceptualisation, planning and execution. Without diagnosing the disease, medicines were prescribed,” Mishra says.
The Ganga waits for deliverance at Varanasi as sewage is dumped into it. However, the question that arises now is will the river of salvation ever find its own deliverance in Varanasi?
(With inputs from Sandeep Bannerjee)
The world's mightiest rivers are dying
New Delhi: It's a crisis sweeping all major rivers in the world. As the world observes Water Day, experts from World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF) warn that the world's mightiest rivers are dying, threatening the livelihoods of millions of people.
The report suggests that the people engaged in water-based livelihoods are the ones who will suffer the most.
The River Ganga is among the five most threatened rivers of the world. China's River Yangtze tops the list, followed by River Salween in Burma, and River Indus that flows through India and Pakistan. The Ganga is at a fragile number four, followed by River Mekong, which that feeds most of South-East Asia.
The report makes it clear that water extraction, dams, and climate change are the top three threats faced by the world's rivers.
The shrinking of the Ganga will lead to a loss of water-based livelihoods. The Sunderbans or the Ganga delta located mainly in Bangladesh and parts of Bengal, is the most affected because 60 per cent of the water there is now diverted through dams for farming.
Say a resident, Lata Rani Mandal, "My father in law's house had 20 bighas of land, but we lost them to the river. Then we had no option but to start collecting prawn seeds."
The statistics are staggering. With dams altering their natural flow, industrial effluents polluting their waters, 20 per cent of the world's 10,000 freshwater species have become extinct and over 40 per cent of the world's population that depend on rivers will be affected.
Says WWF CEO, Ravi Singh, "It's going to affect agriculture in a huge way. It's going to affect bio-diversity and the circle of life will be broken."
Experts are wary of predicting when these rivers could become extinct, but the gradual loss of water and livelihoods is a warning that time may not be far away.
(With inputs from Shuchi Yadav)
Dolphins die as the Ganga chokes
Narora (Uttar Pradesh): The Gangetic dolphin is today as endangered as the tiger. CNN-IBN's Special Investigation found that toxic effluents from industries are poisoning both the Ganga and the dolphin.
Over a 100 factories in this UP belt empty toxic effluents into the Ganga, one of them being the Simbhaoli Sugarmill, which releases dirty black water full of toxic substances into the holy river everyday.
Local people complain that factories like Simbhaoli Sugarmill are operating in contravention of the Water Act, 1974.
"The water from handpump is salty and dirty. All comes from Simbhaoli and Goapljee," a villager says.
However, the sugar mill owners refuse to take the blame. "That black water is all sewage from the 20 villages located along the drain," Director, Simbhaoli Sugar Mill, Dr Rao says.
Effluents once released into the Ganga choke all life forms gradually. Reports available with CNN-IBN show high levels of the pesticide DDT found in the carcasses of dead dolphins.
And there's more trouble for the dolphins.
Over 50 dams and barrages have been built all along the Ganga and water has been diverted for agriculture. Dams create physical barriers that prevent migration of the dolphins leading to inbreeding.
The river is only three feet deep in this region and so the water level is too little making the dolphins isolated in shallow pools.
"They are so many threats. The dolphin needs as much protection as the tiger. It is a flagship species for the river. If the dolphin is gone tomorrow the river will also be dead," a scientist at WWF, Dr Sandeep Behera says.
If the dolphin is to be saved it's the river Ganga, which must be protected. And if the Ministry of Environment and Forests does not step in soon the only form in which you may see this magnificent creature will be a carcass.
(With inputs from Bahar Dutt)
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