Seven cities and towns in India along the Ganga river have been identified by the NatGeo expedition as hotspots generating most plastic waste that goes into the Ganga and onward into the ocean
That Ganga is one of the ten big rivers that dump most plastic waste into world oceans was known last year. But exactly which places in the basin generate this waste was not clear.
At a time when the Central government is making repeated claims of a clean Ganga – and focusing mostly on functional and non-functional sewage treatment plants and cosmetic ghat cleaning – an all-women team of explorers has travelled from Gangotri till Sundarbans in Bangladesh to cover the entire stretch of Ganga to first-hand know the plastic menace.
The team, led by National Geographic Explorer Heather Koldwey, has identified 10 hotspots – seven in India, three in Bangladesh – which generate most plastic that goes into the Ganga. National Geographic, as a part of its multi-year global initiative ‘Planet or Plastic?’, has been working to better understand the impact and scope of plastic pollution in our waterways.
Earlier on August 15, in his Independence Day address, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had appealed to eliminate single-use plastic in India, beginning on October 2, Gandhi Jayanti day. Several states – including those in the Gangetic basin – have banned single-use plastic, polythene bags and embarked on a massive awareness drive. India generates about 26,000 tonnes of plastic waste out of which 10,000 tonnes remain uncollected. Almost 90 % of this waste is mismanaged and a staggering amount of this is dumped into rivers and then flows into the oceans, polluting the waters and harming the marine ecosystem, studies have established.
This NatGeo’s all-women expedition’s first round of travel was from ‘sea to source’ i.e. from Sunderbans in Bangladesh where the Ganga meets the Bay of Bengal till Gangotri, near the Gaumukh glacier. As they conducted a rapid assessment of locations across the riverbank, they focused on spreading awareness as to how plastic is impacting people and planet and then, also discussing with multiple stakeholders, about providing solutions.
The first round happened before monsoon and there would be another one post-monsoon.
Initially, the team had all women only but at a later stage, some men got involved post the expedition stage. “That study that said Ganga was one of the ten big rivers to dump humongous amounts of plastic into the ocean was our starting point. But there were huge scientific knowledge gaps that needed empirical data. We needed scientific observations as to how and what roles do the rivers play in bringing plastic to the oceans,” Koldwey told this correspondent.
The team has social scientists and community workers. “We were looking at populations and waste management infrastructures and making estimates, which are really significant in ascertaining the levels of plastic going into the oceans.”
But even when Ganga is not the top-ranking river amongst the top ten to dump plastic into the oceans, Koldwey could not explain why they did not choose other rivers, including those in China. “There are patchy bits done … for instance, in Thailand they are looking at micro-plastics only in Mekong river. But this is going to be a comprehensive study.
We are hoping to develop a methodology here and take it to other rivers.” China has permission issues, she said.
Seven towns and cities in India
The seven places identified in India are Harsil and Rishikesh (Uttarakhand); Sahibganj, Kannauj, Anupshahar, District Bulandshahar and Varanasi (Uttar Pradesh) and Patna (Bihar).
This is the first kind of project on Ganga (among the top 10 most polluting rivers) which has a comprehensive study looking at land, looking at the river, looking at people, looking at wildlife, a four-dimensional study. The broad outcomes that are expected: 1. Fill knowledge gaps by collecting data. 2. Identify the key intervention points so that there is a solution and 3. Education and communication.
Lack of understanding how plastic persists in the environment is the main hindrance and talking to the community about it would be the focal point and then mobilising solutions around behaviour change, be it how the communities manage their waste or how they reduce their plastic consumption. “Challenge is to make behaviour ‘easy to change’,” she said.
On the one hand, she and her team met with the communities along the Ganga banks, and on the other, she also met business community and addressed them at the World Economic Forum here earlier on October. Koldwey said she and her team are reaching out to businesses and engaging with them. It is important as it is easy putting a ban on usage, consumption of single-use plastic, but what about the industry that manufactures it? What about the producers of these plastics?
“Big brands are slowly waking up to the problem. Also, there are other businesses … the alternatives. This is not to say, it is the environment versus business. It is actually saying, there is a new way of doing business.”
What gives confidence to Koldwey is her previous experience. Currently, as Head of Marine and Freshwater Conservation, Koldewey’s approach includes finding solutions through interdisciplinary research and conservation action at the interface between communities and the environment. The project ‘Net-Works’, that won multiple awards, has developed a novel community-based supply chain for discarded fishing nets that are recycled into carpet tiles addressing issues of marine debris and poverty alleviation in coastal communities. It has removed more than 160 tonnes of waste nets benefiting 62,000 people. Heather says she uses collaborative approaches to communicate and engage people in marine conservation. For instance, in the ‘One Less’ campaign aimed at building a more ocean-friendly society, she has been working to make London the first capital city to stop using single-use plastic bottles.