26. (SOCIAL-26) THE PICTURE OF GANGES RIVER.

           The Ganges is the most sacred river to Hindus. It is worshiped as Goddess Ganga in Hinduism. Ganges which is the life line of millions of people and great religious significance is being polluted by both Domestic sewage and Industrial pollutants that are being dumped in to the river untreated.  In Varanasi rivers "Varuna" and "Asi" have been polluted beyond recognition that now they flow not rivers but just torrents sewage and waste water mixing at the start and end of the city Varanasi. The Ganga action plan launched in 1986 by the Govt of India achieved any success despite expenditure of over Five billion rupees. This has been a major failure due to Corruption, lack of technical expertise good environmental planning and support from religious authorities.

        River Bhagirathi and river Alakananda originate in Garhwal Himalayas and join at Devaprayaga to form river Ganga. River Ganga travels through Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal there after enters Bangladesh and finally drains in to the Bay of Bengal. The important tributaries of Ganga are the Yamuna, the Kali, the Ramganga, the Garhwal, the Gandak, the Kosi and the Sone. The river Yamuna although a tributary of Ganga, is a river basin in itself. Its major tributaries are Chambal, Sind, Betwa and Ken.  

        The Ganga basin is bound in the North by the Himalayas and in the South by the Vindhyas. Main stem of river Ganga houses a  population with high destiny. In absence of proper sanitation, abstraction of surface and ground water irrigation  and drinking purposes and partially treated domestic and industrial effluent turn Ganga  in to a polluted river in the stretch from Kannauj to Tri Ghat in the state of Uttar Pradesh and also makes the water of river Ganga unfit for even bathing purposes. Major urban centres generating substantial volume of sewage are Kanpur, Allahabad, Varanasi, Patna, Bhagalpur and Kolkata. The assessment of sewage and development of treatment capacity indicates that there should be reduced to improve water quality of river Ganga. 

      Major tributaries of river Ganga namely Ramganga and East Kali need immediate attention as they carry industrial and domestic pollution load of Uttarakhand and Uttara Pradesh. The river Ganga suffers myriad problems, most significant ones being the lean flow during the dry season. It would be advisable to create more water storage facility for Ganga riverine  system and release water in the lean period to effectively  maintain minimum  flow in the river. 

   There is immediate need firm environmental surveillance in order to check their compliance with environmental standards. 

                     -----PENDYALA VASUDEVA RAO.

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