Saving River Ganga at Patna

Cleanliness at Ghats (River Banks)

There are various river Ghats in Patna. Patna, being an ancient
historical city has many of its historical aspects attached to this holy
river. The rural people living outside the city have a habit of bathing in
the river. The Bihar Regiment is also located in Danapur the banks of
this river.
The washer men and the poor people living near the banks of the river
are directly dependent on the river for bathing and sanitation
purposes. All the detergents, the waste matter go directly into the
river.
All the residential colonies throw their waste near the banks of the
rivers.
The Hindu families (even I am a Hindu, but I consider it illogical) throw
the holy waste (old calendars with pictures of god, old earthen lamps,
old idols) directly into the river because its considered holy.
The Muslims living near the Ghats have hens and goats s pet animals
and all their waste is directly thrown into the river banks.
The milk men living near the river banks directly throw the cow dung
into the river, or transfer it into the drain which is again sent into the
river by the municipality.
The whole river belt near Patna is a protected site for Gangetic
Dolphins (An endangered species). In my childhood, we could see them
playing in the rivers. But today, we cant see any of them. Either they
died, or just disappeared because of the pollution.
The idol visarjan done during Dussehra is directly done into the river,
which further pollutes the river.
Several municipalities in Patna handling the urban and rural waste
transfer their sewage waste directly into the river without any
processing of the waste.

Change in Physical Geography of River

The city of Patna is at the confluence of three rivers.
a. River Son
b. River Ganga
c. River Punpun
Upstream from this River Gandak meets at Hajipur/Sonpur.
The River Ganga divides the state into two parts, and in this process,
its stream itself gets divided into two parts.
The southern side of the River Ganga is heavily embanked to stop the
floods from entering into the city. The northern side of the river, a
simple plain land faces the wrath of the floods. Since the river doesnt
flows into full flow because of the sudden change in its direction and its

own splitting; all the silt gets deposited into the river beds which form
small islands for some months during summer season. These small
islands are inhabited and a safe place for illegal activities. Also, since
the lands the river has covered are of private properties, Heavy
disputes between the village crop up as soon as the river bed starts
giving up small chunks of islands.
The local police is unable to handle these situations. Also, with the
nexus of local authorities, small goons thriving on extortion from local
businesses and auto drivers settle down their businesses in these
islands.

Development Plans are just Announcements

Some of the beautification plans announced, till now it seems have
been a waste of time. From the free express way, acting as a
bypass to the traffic struck city, to the marine drive like
infrastructure to beautify the city, all have just been
announcements. If these plans are done successfully, the
beautification and the tourist inflow will automatically start
increasing.

Suggestions

Develop religiously acceptable places near the rivers so as to accept the

worship materials thrown into the river. This will stop people throwing the
idols, calendars, metal objects into the river.
Develop proper infrastructure and provide people jobs to act as vigilantes to
see that the river is not getting polluted into their area. They should have
sufficient power to interfere in any matters leading to pollution of the river.
Security to be beefed up on Ghats, Always ready NDRF teams so as to stop
drowning deaths into the river. The river drowning creates a huge stir in the
city where only two important roads are leading to the city and any drowning
incident leads to a blockage, severe traffic jams and property damages.
CCTV cameras on ghats and small bridges leading to the islands so as to
monitor any crime happening in the river.
Instructing municipalities to treat the waste before discharging the flow into
the river.
Heavy fines to those caught throwing the waste into the rivers. Officers
catching these people to be suitably rewarded, so as to stop corruption.
De-silting of River beds so as to bring the river back into its previous channel.
The lands which used to be river beds are now islands. The river in the main

city of Patna has shifted its course some 4-5 kilometres away, and only comes
into its old channel during monsoons.
Moral instructions to people so as to help in the beautification of the river
banks.

I am attaching some pictures which will show the current plight of the river at Patna.
These images are authentic and have been taken by myself.
IMAGES
1. The River at its Grandeur in monsoon.(Time - Sunset)

2. The River during Chatth Puja. This is the crowd scenario even after
the danger sign board.

3. The Danger Sign Board warning the people. The muddy river bank
sometimes capsizes and many people drown. The river has seen
many deaths during this festival, mainly due to the marshy river
bank which does not dry up after the monsoon. This can be avoided
by building concrete floor into the river upto a certain point. The
point can act as a boundary for those venturing deep into the river.
The boundary can be netted so as to stop the sediments from
covering the concrete floor during the monsoon.

4. The River bank had to be cordoned where it capsized. Also depicting

the state of the river ghat during one of the most important festivals
of the state.

5. The strong river embankments of Patna push the river to flow in the
north unprotected side of the state. The river starts depositing silt
and small islands like the one shown in this picture are formed. It
also leads to splitting up of the river into streams.

6. Finally one of the pictures during Visarjan. This is the first idol of the
year being immersed into the river and this much waste has been
discarded. Almost 1000 idols are washed away into the rivers in
Dussehra in this city alone.

Save our River. Give chance to us, the unemployed technical graduates
(with proper salary) to do this. And we shall show the true power of youth. Jai
Hind.
Report preapred by:Atul Kumar.
Email atul.kumar.gpt@gmail.com