We are making rivers dirty to an extent that they are starting to fight back, to throw back pollutants at us. Latest pollution monitoring reports suggest, even bathing in the river could be fatal with the concentration of Faecal Coliform (FC) shooting up to 13 times the permitted limits in many stations
We Indians have considered our rivers to be holy entities, Ganga being the holiest. However, the way we have treated our rivers, especially in our urban limits, gives a completely opposite picture from these conventional perceptions. We are making them dirty to an extent that they are starting to fight back, to throw back pollutants at us. Take for example the Ganga. Latest pollution monitoring reports suggest, even bathing in the river could be fatal with the concentration of Faecal Coliform (FC) shooting up to 13 times the permitted limits in many stations.
We have already written in this column in Urban Update that pollution of our rivers has been growing over the years, and our cities are the major culprits for that. In fact, a comparison of two reports of the Central Pollution Control Board (CBCB) has confirmed that the number of polluted stretches of our rivers has doubled in just five years. While in 2008, a total of 150 river stretches were polluted, that increased to 302 by 2012.
The latest report of 2017 by the Central Water Commission (CWC) that analyses water quality data from 222 of the 429 stations it monitors across major river basins of the country, found that water quality at 67 locations is beyond the permissible limit. Out of 67 sites, 14 sites fall into a category I that means the river there is severely polluted. 12 sites fall under Category II, meaning the rivers are facing substantial pollution at those stations. This report does not cover Ganga and its tributaries, Brahmaputra and Barak basins. In Indus basin, CWC says, it does not have adequate water quality monitoring stations to be able to conclude anything substantial.
Ganga: major focus, huge lapses
A recent report for the Ganga, as quoted in the Hindustan Times, gives a much scary picture. This report, that claims to have obtained current statistics from Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), informs that “in Uttar Pradesh, 50% of the 16 stations for which latest FC data is available for 2018, did not meet desired standards. For Bihar, 88% of the stations did not meet standards”.
This despite the fact that the current government’s major focus has shifted – from all other rivers of the country – to the holiest river of India. In one of its latest audits, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India, found that there has been serious underspending on the National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG). The government in 2015 had committed an amount of 3 billion USD for a five-year project to clean the 2525 kilometer long river. An amount of 1.05 billion USD was earmarked for cleaning the Ganga between April 2015 and March 2017. However, the government could only spend about 260 million of this during this two-year period.
Plans to treat sewer generated from cities have been one of the major interventions to check pollution of our rivers. However, the pace of projects aimed at this has been very slow. Data available on this are also not reliable at the moment. The Minister of Water for State said to the Lok Sabha in March 2017 that under the Namami Gange programme 145 Sewerage Treatment Projects (STPs) had been sanctioned at an estimated cost of 10,730 Crore rupees. Out of these 72 projects are sanctioned for the creation of 932.84 million liters per day (MLD) new STP and rehabilitation of 1091.00 MLD of STP and laying/rehabilitation of 4031.41 km sewer network for abatement of pollution in River Ganga and Yamuna.
Only 13 projects had been completed till then which has created 198.13 MLD STP capacity (153.1 MLD for River Ganga and 45 MLD for Yamuna River) and laid 1147.75 km of sewerage network. Then, the Minister informed, under Ganga Action Plan (GAP-I) and GAP-II, 1098.31 MLD sewage treatment capacity has been created. 261 projects were approved at an estimated cost of 462.04 Crore rupees. GAP-I was completed in 2000 at a total expenditure of 455.73 Crore rupees. All schemes under GAP-I have been completed, according to him. Under GAP-II, 314 projects were approved at an estimated cost of 591.05 Crore rupees. Total fund released by Government of India was 522.11 Crore rupees.
The data given above do not give a complete picture of the progress in creating sewerage treatment capacity and their actual operation. However, the very slow progress of the STPs is evident. While 1098.31 MLD capacity has been built under GAP I & II, the same under Namami Gange has been 153.1 MLD for the Ganga as against a target of 2023.48 MLD.
As of February 2018, as per a report of the Delhi based Centre for Science and Environment, “the target was to process around 2769.38 million litre waste per day. However, only 299.13 million litres waste has been processed per day. Bihar, Jharkhand, and Delhi score a nil on this front. Of the 4,762 km of sewer network targeted, not even half has been achieved so far”. A report of the National Mission for Clean Ganga says that out of the 28 projects sanctioned for UP, not even a single project launched after 2014 was near completion.
The CAG report referred above in this article finds, “As per the target dates, an award for the work of all the Sewage Treatment Plants was to be completed by September 2016. National Mission for Clean Ganga is yet to finalise and approve Detailed Project Reports for projects totaling 1,397 MLD capacity as of August 2017.”
STPs not the panacea
The STPs are not only taking time but the way these are being built also needs to be discussed. These are centralised treatment plants and involve a lot of construction activities. Most of our cities along Ganga as well as on other rivers are having areas which are difficult to lay sewer lines, install pumping stations and build other infrastructure. Our major reliance on STPs, therefore, would not help us much in ending all the pollution woes of our rivers.
Going by the latest report of CWC on water quality hotspots in rivers other than Ganga, Indus and Brahmaputra basins, one could get a glimpse of how slow the progress is on building STPs. The 67 severely polluted spots the CWC has marked fall in 12 states and the cities need STP capacity to treat 4477 MLD of sewer generated. However, the existing capacity available in these stations is only for treating 298 MLD. That’s a mere 6.7 percent! The following table shows state wise pollution hotspots identified by CWC and the gap that exists in their capacity to treat sewer. 
Huge Gap: Cities catch up very slow
| State | Number of Pollution Hotspots studied | Sewer Treatment capacity needed (MLD) | Sewer Treatment capacity existing (MLD) |
| Andhra Pradesh | 2 | 18 | 0 |
| Chhattisgarh | 9 | 177 | 0 |
| Gujarat | 8 | 1362 | 232 |
| Jharkhand | 3 | 329 | 0 |
| Karnataka | 4 | 1146 | 0 |
| Madhya Pradesh | 12 | 285 | 2 |
| Maharashtra | 10 | 692 | 0 |
| Odisha | 4 | 82 | 0 |
| Tamil Nadu | 8 | 311 | 64 |
| Telangana | 3 | 25 | 0 |
| Rajasthan | 3 | 46 | 0 |
| Kerala | 1 | 4 | 0 |
| Total | 67 | 4477 | 298 |
(Tip for designing: This table may not go as a table but a graph showing the percentage of gap between capacity needed and capacity created)