Clean Ganga Mission

There is a universal reverence to water in almost all of the major religions of

the world. Most religious beliefs involve some ceremonial use of "holy" water.
The purity of such water, the belief in its known historical and unknown
mythological origins, and the inaccessibility of remote sources elevate its
importance even further. In India, the water of the river Ganga is treated with
such reverence. The river Ganga occupies a unique position in the cultural
ethos 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. From times immemorial, the Ganga has been
India's river of faith, devotion, and worship. Millions of Hindus accept its water
as sacred. Even today, people carry treasured Ganga water all over India and
abroad because it is "holy" water and known for its "curative" properties.
However, the river is not just a legend, it is also a life-support system for the
people of India. It is important because:

• The densely populated Ganga basin is inhabited by 47 percent of India's

population.
• The entire Ganga basin system effectively drains eight states of India.
• About 47 percent of the total irrigated area in India is located in the Ganga
basin alone.
• It has been a major source of navigation and communication since ancient
times.
• The Indo-Gangetic plain has witnessed the blossoming of India's great
creative talent.

The belief the Ganga river is "holy" has not, however, prevented over-use,
abuse, and pollution of the river. All the towns along its length contribute to
the pollution load. It has been assessed that more than 80 percent of the total
pollution load (in terms of organic pollution expressed as biochemical oxygen
demand (BOD)) arises from domestic sources, i.e. from the settlements along

 the river course. Due to the over-abstraction of water for irrigation in the upper
regions of the river, the dry weather flow has been reduced to a trickle.
Rampant deforestation in the last few decades, resulting in topsoil erosion in
the catchment area, has increased silt deposits which, in turn, raise the river
bed and lead to devastating floods in the rainy season and stagnant flow in the
dry season.
The principal sources of pollution of the Ganga river can be characterised as
follows:

• Domestic and industrial wastes. It has been estimated that about 1.4 × 10^6
m^3 d^-1 of domestic wastewater and 0.26 × 10^6 m^3 d^-1 of industrial
sewage are going into the river.
• Solid garbage is 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 on the banks by low-income people.
• Mass bathing and ritualistic practices.

The broad aim of the Ganga Action Plan (GAP) was to reduce pollution and to
clean the river and to restore water quality at least to Class B (i.e. bathing
quality: 3 mg/l BOD and 5 mg/l dissolved oxygen). This was considered as a
feasible objective and because a unique and distinguishing feature of the
Ganga was its widespread use for ritualistic mass bathing. The other
environmental benefits envisaged were improvements in, for example,
fisheries, aquatic flora, and fauna, aesthetic quality, health issues and levels of
contamination. The multi-pronged objectives were to improve the water
quality, as an immediate short-term measure, by controlling municipal and
industrial wastes. The long-term objectives were to improve the environmental
conditions along the river by suitably reducing all the polluting influences at
the source. These included not only the creation of waste treatment facilities

but also invoking remedial legislation to control such non-point sources as

agricultural run-off containing residues of fertilisers and pesticides, which are
harmful to the aquatic flora and fauna. Prior to the creation of the GAP, the
responsibilities for pollution of the river were not clearly demarcated between
the various government agencies. The pollutants reaching the Ganga from
most point sources did not mix well in the river, due to the sluggish water
currents, and as a result of such pollution often lingered along the
embankments where people bathed and took water for domestic use.

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 to give it utmost importance the Prime Minister was made the head of it.
This council replaced the National Ganga River Basin Authority (NGRBA). NGC
would have onboard 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.

The Water Resources, River Development, and Ganga Rejuvenation Ministry

signed Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs) with 10 other ministries to
synergise the activities under the Namami Gange. The government said it
would involve grassroots level institutions such as urban local bodies and
Panchayati raj institutions to implement the program.

 SEWAGE TREATMENT

Sewage treatment plants (STPs) have

been at the center of Ganga pollution
abatement. Regulating STPs faces
various challenges in various sectors.

• The new projects are delayed

because land acquisition and other
related activities were taking a lot of
time.
• Illegally mixed industrial wastes and
chemicals with the influents in the plants. Consider the STP at Kanpur, which
holds the dubious distinction of being home to the “most polluted stretch” of
the Ganga. The BOD and TSS levels of the effluents are higher than the
norms because industrial waste and chemicals are illegally mixed with the
influents in a plant not meant to treat industrial pollutants.
• Industries are not regulating the wastes they are releasing. Tanneries are
discharging their wastewater directly into drains and the water of drains has
mixed with groundwater which has become infected.
• Chromium treatment is a must before releasing, industries aren’t treating
them well when they should have compulsorily installed a treatment plant in
their factory or a cluster of factories should have a common plant.
• Besides cleaning the Ganga, the Namami Gange also talks about afforestation
as an important activity as it helps groundwater recharge. According to
NMCG, it has already spent Rs 114 crore on afforestation.

RESTORING THE FLOW

There is another fundamental problem that will ensure the holy river remains
dirty. 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. Even the fish die
in summer due to a lack of water.
People coming to ghats usually don’t
go for boat rides in summer because
water level goes below-knee length in
summers in various areas. Also if the
flow in the river is maintained it can solve the problem of 60-80 percent of
organic pollutants and we may not require such an elaborate program. The
Ganga has medicinal properties that can treat skin infections. These properties
come due to medicinal plants on the path of Ganga. Also, the Ganga is very
rich in minerals and has bacteriophages that kill the bacteria.

SLUDGE CONTROL

The river has another persistent

problem that is going to be more
pronounced. if proper fecal sludge
management is not in place, it would
invariably pollute the Ganga. What
should cause further concern is that
fecal sludge is a bigger pollutant than
sewerage. While the BOD of sewage is 150-300 mg/l, that of fecal sludge
would be 15,000-30,000 mg/l. The earliest recorded coliform bacteria count –
an indicator of sanitary quality – in every 100 ml of water measured
downstream of Varanasi was 14,300 in January 1988. This increased to
140,000 in January 2008 and to a whopping 2.4 million in January 2014. Open
defecation is a huge problem that must be solved as soon as possible because
the Clean Ganga Mission would simply fall apart, as the level of pollution is
rising exponentially due to solid wastes being dumped.

Toilets are constructed all over the basin under various programs run by the
government of India, but people don’t manage them well and then they clog
and overflow making their houses dirty and smelly. Avoiding this situation they
prefer open defecation.

Various areas across the basin are marked as Open Defecation Free zones
(ODFs) but people still don’t understand the seriousness of the issue and go on
with their daily chores without giving a thought about the environment,
pollution, and mother Ganga.
The river Ganga is slowly getting converted into a sludge, mainly due to the
fall in the water level. Higher water velocity, he stresses, would result in better
water quality. At present more than 95% water is withdrawn through these
barrages, which results in instantaneous fall in river stage, drastic reduction in
flow velocity, and fall in oxygen content, rise in biochemical oxygen demand
load downstream and fall in level of groundwater table in the basin and lack of
water quantity in the root zone, resulting in fall in crop yield, and increase in
salinity in the basin soil.
Sludge dewatering separates sludge into liquid and solid components for waste
minimisation. There are various technologies for sludge dewatering, including
plate & frame and belt filter presses, centrifuging, and geomembranes. In
addition to these, there are other options available.
It is important to note that dewatering is not intended to treat the sludge or
liquid, it only separates the solid and liquid components so that it is easier and
more cost-effective to handle the separate phases for final disposal. Once the
sludge has been dewatered, both the solid and liquid components may contain
contaminants that will need to be treated separately.

SCOPE

The solids that result from wastewater treatment may contain concentrated
levels of contaminants that were originally contained in the wastewater. A
great deal of concern must be directed to the proper disposal of these solids to
protect environmental considerations.

Failure to do this may result in a mere shifting of the original pollutants in the
waste stream to the final disposal site where they may again become free to
contaminate the environment.

All the sewage sludge produced at a treatment plant must be disposed of

ultimately. Treatment processes that may reduce its volume or change its
character as to facilitate its disposal, still leave a residue which in most cases
must be removed from the plant site.

About 180 MLD of sludge will be generated in the five Ganga Basin states
(Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal) when they
become Open Defecation Free (ODF), and this too seems difficult. If proper
sludge management is not done, this would invariably pollute the Ganga. What
should cause further concern is that fecal sludge is a bigger pollutant than
sewage – while BOD of sewage is 150-300 mg/litre, that of fecal sludge would
be 15,000-30,000 mg/litre.

This poses a big issue to the environment as the treated sludge is dumped or
sold to farmers to be used as manure. In many cases, farmers avoid the use of
this sludge as it is very stinky and is low in nutrients as compared to modern
fertilisers.

The purpose of sludge dewatering is for waste minimisation and to achieve

overall cost efficiency for disposal. But even after dewatering, about 80%
moisture content is present when dewatering is done through cost-efficient
methods. If this ratio gets balanced through some method, the amount of
sludge generation can be reduced.

The Ganga cannot run clean unless the sludge generated is managed
effectively.

 PROBLEM STATEMENT

• Process a complete model on how we can make the most out of this end
waste sludge so as to keep the surroundings and the people safe from this
hazardous material.

• Avoid generating energy from the sludge.

• The process must be economical and ready to go into action.

• Innovations are welcomed, but only if they are practically feasible.

NOTE-

• Any team can have only 5 team members.

• The last date for abstract submission is 21 October 2020.

Contact:

Aditya: +91 7409007097

Bhupesh: +91 9216271000