Indian Journal of Engineering & Materials SciencesVol. 5, August 1998, pp. 162-166

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Foolproof pollution control of Indian rivers

D S Bhargava

Department of Civil Engineering, University of Roorkee, Roorkee 247 667 India

Received 21 October 1997

The Indian rivers have become polluted and unfit for many of their beneficial uses. The qualitymanagement programs could not be success for most Indian rivers, and the failure of the Ganga ActionPlan is well documented. India has many special problems which adversely affect the various pollutioncontrol strategies. The author has carried out a genesis of all such problems and suggested a foolproofstrategy which alone can restore the Indian rivers to their pristine pollution free quality status.

Rivers in India have not only been used foragriculture, recreation, industries, drinking watersource, pisci-culture, etc., but also used, unlike inmost other countries of the world, for directdrinking mainly for religious rites ef the Hindus.This last use in particular, demands themaintenance of high quality of the river waters inrespect of its wholesomeness as well asaestheticity. This is more particularly true for thelargest Indian river Ganga (the Ganges) which isregarded as the holiest ef all the rivers and isdesignated as "Ganga Mata" (the mother Ganges)by the millions of Hindus who have immensereligious and non-religious belief and convictionregarding the various properties of the "Ganga Jal"(Ganga water) despite its polluted status'. Some ofthe major Indian cities such as Hardwar,Allahabad, Varanasi, Patna, Calcutta, etc. havedeveloped along the Ganga. The names of some ofthese cities have even become synonymous withthe Ganga. Culture of cities like Varanasi,Allahabad and Hardwar dwells around the Ganga.As a result, tourists, religious or non-religious,local or foreign, men or women, young or old, sickor healthy, all take opportunity to visit these citiesfor various purposes including a look at the riversite and the culture and customs practiced on thevarious "ghats" (platforms built along the riverbank for bathing purposes and also for carrying outthe religious rites) of the river. This scene is mostmagnificiently manifested at Varanasi city whichis very popular amongst not only the Hindus butalso the foreign tourists. The Ganga also has

international implications particularly in respect ofthe sharing of its water with BangIa Desh.

The ever increasing pressures of urbanisationand industrialisation in India together withinadequate sewerage, the Indian people's habits ofopen defecation along the river banks and ofthrowing away of unburnt dead bodies in the river(mainly for economic reasons), a poor solid wastecollection and management system, and people'sunawareness of the implications of their age-oldunhygienic living attitudes, are some major factorsthat have been instrumental in degrading thequality status of Indian rivers. The variousidentified as well as non-identified sources ofpollution have continuously been polluting theIndian rivers. In the present times, none of theIndian rivers are pollution free and this had been acause of great concern to the Indian Government'.Unfortunately, despite the best efforts of the IndianGovernment, the rivers in India (particularly theGanga) are yet to attain satisfactory quality levels".

This paper presents an account of some specialproblems associated with the Indian scenario dueto which the Indian rivers can never be cleaneddespite all possible governmental efforts, and theauthor brings out a 'foolproof strategy which alonecan ensure the restoration of pristine pollution freeriver conditions.

Efforts in Quality Management of Rivers inIndia

The Government of India established a CentralGanga Authority! for cleaning the Ganga and

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BHARGA VA: FOOLPROOF POLLUTION CONTROL OF INDIAN RIVERS

Yamuna rivers, and is planning to set up somemore such authorities to clean other significantrivers. Earlier, a Central and various State levelBoards for the Prevention and Control of WaterPollution were created as per the requirements ofthe "Water (Prevention and Control) Act", 1974,for exercising control and vigilance over thevarious Municipal and industrial units that were tobe held responsible for causing pollution in therivers. Apart from this, the various Central andState level departments and Municipal Corpo-rations are responsible for the safe collection anddisposal of municipal wastes. The variousindustrial units were required to treat theireffluents to satisfactory levels. The quality levelsof such treated effluents were specified by theregulating agencies, that is, by the various Boardsestablished under the 'Water Act'. Huge sums ofmoney were allocated to the various Boards/Authorities/ Departments/ Corporations, etc. forcontrolling the pollution in rivers.

In addition, various governmental and non-governmental organisations had been involved increating public awareness for the pollutional statusof Indian rivers. Some 'Public Interest Litigations'were also taken up by the Supreme Court of Indiato initiate directives regarding the cleaning ofrivers and also to issue notice to the variouspolluting industrial units.

With the above stated efforts, that too, going oncontinuously for the last several decades on a war-footing basis, what more one can expect? But thebig question regarding the satisfactory qualitystatus in the rivers, is still answered in negative.

Problem Associated with River QualityManagement in India

Despite massive efforts at all levels and hugesums of money allocated for the cleaning of rivers,no river could attain a quality level that could evenbe termed satisfactory for the millions of Hinduswho use the rivers for religious rites including adirect drinking of river water and its transport andstorage for religious rites,

The author' has analysed the entire situation inIndia and comprehensively brought out numeroustechnical faults that were made and mistakes thatwere commited in the planning and execution ofthe various projects associated with the cleaning ofthe rivers in general but of Ganga in particular. In

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the author's opinion, the Ganga river could haveeasily been restored to its pristine pollution freestatus with only a part of the amount of money andmanpower that was allocated for the purpose.

Apart from the numerous technical faults', theIndian scenario (both, in regard to the river qualityexpectations and in context of Indian culture,tradition, habits, moral values, conditions, system,economy, etc.,) manifests many special problems(demanding serious remedial considerations) asfollows, due to which the Indian rivers could notand can never be cleaned despite the best efforts ofthe Indian Government:

I. Almost all Indian cities have about 50% areacovered by the sewerage system. There had alwaysbeen a very haphazard development of coloniesand houses where laying of sewers is sometimesno easy a problem. Many ancient but large citieshad developed without any provision for anorganised system of wastewater collection. As anexample, the religious city of Varanasi (this nameis synonymous with Ganga) has maximumpopulation concentration along the Ganga's leftbank. This city is famous for its numerous highlycongested but extremely narrow lanes which areless than a meter wide at many places, although the"havelis" (the mansion or mini-fort type buildingshaving high walls all around with their main gatesopening on the narrow lanes) built on both sides ofsuch narrow lanes are magnificiently spacious andopen inside. Perhaps, in those ancient times whenthe city was built, there were no bye lawsregarding the spaces to be maintained betweenhouses or the minimum widths of the lanes, andthe haveli owners used their whims to leave thespaces for the lanes. May be that it was done sopurposefully for possible security related reasons.Naturally, in such a situation, who can dare to laysewers deep enough to threaten the safety ofbuilding structures. Therefore, the easiest outlet forthe domestic wastewaters was through drains(often hidden) falling directly into the Ganga.Many such drain are on the upstream side of the'ghats'. From the unsewered parts of the urbancenters, the wastewaters had to flow through opennaturally created drains towards and directly intothe rivers. To intercept such wayward flow ofwastewaters through the numerous defined and

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164 INDIAN 1. ENG. MATER. SCL, AUGUST 1998

undefined drains, and to prevent its entry into theriver. is no mean a task.

2. During camps and "melas" (gathering ofpeople. particularly on religious occasions) onsome festival days including during the "Kumbhs"(a religious gathering along rivers, mainly alongGanga at Allahabad and Hardwar, occurring everysix or twelve years) along the rivers, a large andtemporary camping of the people is invariablyarranged along the banks of the rivers. This causesa severe non-point pollution of the river al1 alongthe stretch where people perform their religiousrites. It is a pity that on an occasion like this whenbest quality of the river is most needed for thelargest and maximum number of people all bathingand performing religious rites at a time, the riverattains its worst possible quality.

3. Most Indian cities including the metropols(New Delhi, Calcutta, Bombay, Madras, etc.) havea signi ficant population living in "jhuggis-jhoprees" (cluster of temporary hut like structures)and slums where no provision exists for thecollection of wastewaters. As a result, al1 theirgenerated domestic wastewaters find a direct entryinto the nearby rivers only. Since a large part ofthe wastewaters generate in Indian cities flows innatural (or man-made) open drains (most oftenwithout any lining), a significant part of suchwastewaters percolates continuously into theground. As a result, the groundwater in such citieshad continuously been polluted for ages and thispolluted groundwater infilters into the rivers. Thiskind of river pollution becomes more severeduring the lean periods when the flow in the riversis at its minimum. Indian cities have a very poormanagement of solid waste collection anddisposal. This problem is more magnified due tothe casual unhygienic and whimsical habits of theIndian people who never desist themselves fromthrowing any rubbish any where any time. All suchrubbish naturally gets washed down into the rivers.In India, for economic reasons and for quest forhigher standards of living, many families carry onsmall activities such as plating in their privateresidences. In a thickly populated country likeIndia, it is most difficult to identify al1 suchpeople. These people throwaway the spent butuntreated electrolytes in street open drains to becarried into the nearby rivers. As a result, the

rivers as well as the groundwater get polluted withtoxicants. The finances of smal1 industrial units donot permit even a partial treatment of theireffluents. Many of them may prefer to close downtheir industries when they are forced to treat theireffluents to some level, by the regulating agencies.This can retard the national development. TheGovernment has no provision to help them orsubsidize their effluent treatment costs.

4. Numerous technical faults are made rightfrom the planning to completion stage of thevanous environmental quality managementprojects because of the recruitment andinvolvement of the 'not-right' type of people 2

(pseudo-environmentalists) who easily and alwaysagree with the many unscientific/irrational admini-strative decisions. Such pseudo environmentalistsenter into the administration, decision makingforums, teaching and highly remunerative designoriented consultancy services to government!industries, etc., and misguide the variousorganizations by concealing their real qualifica-tions and/or by misdesignating themselves to looklike environmental engineers. The pseudoenvironmentalists with some mass-media supportalso build bogus public opinions for opposingnational developmental projects to acquire politicalpopularity and/or lime-light. Public pressure forriver cleanings is not built up as also the Indianpublic is yet to get educated about the fact that theriver cleanings have to be done by them and forthem alone. Further, only 15% of the allocatedmoney reaches for actual execution of theenvironmental projects in India. These factorsensure negligible success of the environmentalcontrol projects apart from a severe wastage ofhuge public funds.

5. The quality goals for the Indian rivers at theirvarious 'ghats' along the urban/city stretches of therivers have to be very different simply becausemillions of Hindus transport, collect and consumethe river waters directly and instantly.

Thus, it can be apparent that in view of theabove stated special situations in India, despite anynumber of action plans or remedial measures, theIndian rivers cannot be cleaned to any satisfactorylevels.

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BHARGA VA: FOOLPROOF POLLUTION CONTROL OF INDIAN RIVERS 165

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Foolproof Management Stretegy to RestoreIndian Rivers to Their Pristine Pollution FreeStatus

In view of the above explained special problemsin context of Indian conditions and situations, afoolproof strategy is needed such that not even a

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drop of wastewater (treated if the economy of citycorporation is sound, or untreated, from point ornon-point sources) or of polluted groundwater maygain entry into the river. This will ensure a totalsafe-guard of the river's water quality and enablethe millions of Hindus to find a water worth direct

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166 INDIAN 1. ENG. MATER. SCI., AUGUST 1998

consuming for their religious rites. This kind ofstrategy alone can restore the rivers to theirpristine pollution free status.

In the author's opinion, the foolproof strategywould involve the construction of a parallel butcovered canal along the desired stretch of the riverat an urban center. Such a canal would interceptevery drop of wastewater flowing towards theriver. The rivers receiving some non-point sourcesof pollution between any two urban centers shallpurify themselves'? through the naturalregeneration processes. The parallel canal (Fig. 1)would run along either or both banks of the riverdepending on the development of the city. Thecanal can be created by raising wall between theriver and its bank, and bridging the wall with the

river bank. The canal would carry all flows fromsewers, all non-point flows, all infiltrations of thepolluted groundwaters, etc. This varying flow typeof canal design (capacity and canal bed-slope)would be a no difficult problem and would costonly a small fraction of money already spent forriver c1eanings.

ReferencesBhargava D S, Environ Consvn, Switzerland, 14 (1987)307.

2 Bhargava D S, Environ Consvn, Switzerland, 19 (1992)170.

3 Bhargava D S, J Environ Eng, ASCE, 109 (1983) 174.4 Bhargava D S, J Environ Eng, ASCE, 112 (1986a) 572.5 Bhargava D S, J Civil Engg Trans. Instn Eng, Australia,

CE 26 (1986b) 222

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