rom Mother

To Martyr
Pollution Of The Ganga

Ganga River Of India

The river Ganga (Ganges) occupies

a unique position in the cultural
segment of
India.

Legend says that the river has

descended from Heaven on earth
as a result of the
long and arduous
prayers of King Bhagirathi for the
salvation of his deceased ancestors.

Ganga River Of India

From times immemorial, the Ganga

has been India's river of faith,
devotion and worship. Millions of
Hindus accept its water as sacred.
Hindu Religion involves ceremonial
use of this holy water Even today,
people carry treasured Ganga water
all over India and abroad because it
is holy water and known for its
"curative (medicine or therapy)
properties.

Ganga - Facts

The Ganga (Ganges) basin extends over more than 1 million

km2and encompasses parts of India (about 80% of the total basin
area), Nepal, China and Bangladesh.

The length of the main channel is some 2,525km, while altitude

ranges from 8,848m in the high Himalayas, to sea level in the
coastal deltas of India and Bangladesh. The basin occupies a
quarter of Indias land mass.

Flow pattern is for a low-flow dry season from January to May and
a wet season from July to November, with peak flows usually
occurring in August.

The waters of the Ganga carry one of the highest sediment loads
anywhere in the world, with a mean annual total of 1.6 billion
tonnes, compared to 0.4 billion tonnes for the Amazon.

Ganga - Facts

Ganga - Problems
Apart of high religious and cultural
significance Ganga in modern times has
been known for being very polluted.
Ganga, has been enlisted on the list of 10
most endangered rivers of the world. The
sand bed in the Ganga is increasing slowly
and the increase is clearly distinguishable
each year.
The extreme pollution of the Ganges affects
400 million people who live close to the river

Ganga - Problems

Principal Sources of Pollution

Domestic
Solid

and industrial wastes.

garbage thrown directly into the river.

Non-point

sources of pollution from agricultural run-off

containing residues of harmful pesticides and fertilisers.

Animal

carcasses and half-burned and unburned human

corpses thrown into the river.

Defecation
Mass

on the banks by the low-income people.

bathing and ritualistic practices.

Mass Bathing

The most sacred and the basic ritual in Hinduism is taking

the bath in the holy water of river Ganga . As it is
compulsory for every Hindu to take a dip in Ganges once in
a life time, many devotees travel to these ghats to wash
away their sins in the holy water of Ganga.

Recently, Kumbh Mela (largest religious gathering on the

planet) in 2010 at Haridwar witnessed around 80 million
devotees travelling from different parts of India to take a
holy dip in Ganga.

There are many auspicious days like Baisakhi, Amavasyas

on which mass bathing takes place in Ganga. The main holy
sites are Allahabad, Mathura, Haridwar and Varanasi.

Mass Bathing

Water quality is severely affected by mass bathing. Deterioration of river water

quality may injure health of the people taking the dip and also the population
downstream which use the river as a source of water for drinking and bathing

Idol Immersion in Ganga

The annual ritual of immersing idols of
Goddess Durgaand other Hindu deities in
the Ganga river has threaten the survival of
the endangered river dolphin and other
aquatic creatures but also increases pollution
in thealready polluted river.
Thousands of idols are immersed in the
Ganga in Kolkata, Patna and other cites
situated on the banks of river last year to
mark the end of the Durga Puja festival.

Idol Immersion in Ganga

Studies conducted by the Central Pollution Control Board show that idol immersion
during festive occasions like Durga Puja is putting "significant stress" on rivers, lakes
and local ponds. Plaster of Paris does not get dissolved fast. Moreover, the chemical
dyes and colours being used to colour the idols contain poisonous elements. Particularly
red, blue, orange and green colours contain mercury, zinc oxide, chromium and lead,
the potential causes of cancer.

Cremation Activities Ganga

The river is the final resting place for thousands of Hindus,

whose cremated ashes or partially burnt corpses are placed in
the river for spiritual rebirth.

In Varanasi, Maha samashanam' (or 'Great cremation

ground'), some 40,000 cremations are performed each year,
most on wood pyres that do not completely consume the
body.

Along with the remains of these traditional funerals, there are

thousands more who cannot afford cremation and whose
bodies are simply thrown into the Ganga.

In addition, the carcasses of thousands of dead cattle, which

are sacred to Hindus, go into the river each year.

Cremation Activities Ganga

After the cremation of the deceased at Varanasi's ghats the bones

and ashes are thrown into the Ganges. However, in the past,
thousands of uncremated bodies were thrown into the Ganges
during cholera epidemics, spreading the disease

Industrial Waste
A systematic classification done by Uttarakhand Environment Protection and Pollution Control
Boards (UEPPCB) on river waters into the categories A: safe for drinking, B: safe for bathing,
C: safe for agriculture, and D: excessive pollution, put the Ganga in D.

Countless tanneries, chemical plants, textile mills, distilleries,

slaughterhouses, and hospitals contribute to the pollution of the Ganges
by dumping untreated waste into it.

Industrial effluents are about 12% of the total volume of effluent reaching
the Ganges. Although a relatively low proportion, they are a cause for
major concern because they are often toxic and non-biodegradable

The leather industry in Kanpur which employs around 50,000 people in

more than 400 tanneries uses chemicals such as toxic chromium
compounds. Effectively, chromium levels have not decreased in the
Ganges even after a common treatment plant was established in 1995. It
now stands at more than 70 times the recommended maximum level.

Industrial Waste

The Department of Atomic Energy's National Centre for

Compositional Characterization of Materials in Hyderabad has
tested water samples from the Ganga and found the river water
contained carcinogens and Chromium 6 nearly 50 times the
permissible limit.

Agricultural Waste
Fertilizer
35% of fertilization takes place in the Ganges basin (Sampat, 1996).
Improper application, such as applying before a rainstorm can lead
to fertilizer runoff. The main risk from fertilizer runoff is the over
production of algae which deoxygenates the water. Leaving less
oxygen for the inhabitants of the water system, crippling the
environmental system.

agricultural Waste
Pesticides
India still uses DDT as an effective and potent pesticide that kills
malaria mosquitoes. A maximum of 10,000 tons of DDT is allowed
to be applied yearly (Abhilash, 2009). Once in the environment it is
nearly impossible to remove, which leads too bioaccumulation as it
is fat soluble. People consuming the ganges water with DDT in it are
at risk for rashes, liver disease, disruption of the endocrine system
and cancer.

Domestic Waste and Sewage

Most of the main pollution issues with the Ganges deals with improper sewage
management. New Delhi alone produces 3.6 million liters of sewage daily, with only
half being treated effectively.

80% of the waste in the Ganges basin is sewage (Vass, 2010). Of the
115 facilities studied across India, 45 failed to meet the minimum
treatment required (CPCB, 2005). This means 40% of sewage
treatment plants are operating below requirements

Fifty cities located along the more than 2,500-km river discharge
2,723.3 million litres a day (MLD) of wastewater into it, according to the
latest assessment report of the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB).

Kolkata is the highest producer of municipal sewage in West Bengal at

618.4 MLD, but has the capacity to treat a mere 27 per cent of the
waste at 172 MLD.

Domestic Waste and Sewage

Coliform bacterialevels in the Ganges have also been tested

to be at 5,500, a level too high to be safe for agricultural use
let alone drinking and bathing

Measures Taken by
Government
National Ganga River Basin Project
(NGRB)

NGRB wants to create a municipal sewage system to stop point

source pollution such as untreated sewage. This would include a
clean water supply, sewage systems and solid waste disposal in
all the cities in the Ganges basin. Through partnership and
transfer of knowledge, NGRB wants to change the ideology of the
populous living along the Ganges basin to stop second source
pollution. This means changing the way people interpret the
purity of the Ganges basin verse its actual cleanliness
.

Measures Taken by
Government

The NGRB Project Stakeholders

Measures Taken by
Government
Advanced Integrated Wastewater Pond
System (AIWPS)

Through AIWPS, tanneries will be able to remove the chromium

and raw sewage will be treated, allowing clean effluents. This is
done through a series of ponds that help break down organic
matter and remove fecal bacteria and chromium. The pH level of
the effluents will dropfrom 11.2-12 down to 8-8.4, which allows
for appropriate discharge into the Ganges basin. AIWPS can clean
37 million litres of waste water daily.

Measures Taken by
Government

The inner workings of a AIWPS

Bibliography
http://www.gits4u.com/water/ganga.htm
http://wwf.panda.org/about_our_earth/about_fres

hwater/rivers/irbm/cases/ganges_river_case_stud
y/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pollution_of_the_Gan
ges
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ganges
http://www.shubhyatra.com/uttar-pradesh/ritualperformances.html
PDF : Water Resources of the Ganga under a
Changing Climate Interaction between Glaciers
and Monsoon in the Himalaya_ Siderius and
Moors
http://vgopalan.blogspot.com/2010/04/ganges-hol

Bibliography

http://
economictimes.indiatimes.com/environment/pollution
/a-dip-in-ganga-may-cause-cancer/articleshow/37154
295.cms
http://
www.all-about-india.com/Ganges-River-Pollution.html
PDF : Kartha, D.K.M. 2009. THE DESCENT OF THE
RIVER GANGES
PDF : Purifying the Earthly Body of God ; Religion and
Ecology in Hindu India
PDF : WATER QUALITY ISSUES IN INDIA, Dr. R.C.
Trivedi,CPCB
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-21175890

Thank You