GST Project

NAME: NAMIT KUMAR

CLASS: XI
Section: ‘A’

Topic: River Cleaning

Drive in India
 Acknowledgement

I would like to express my special thanks of gratitude

to my teacher Mr. V.K. Tiwary as well as our principal
who gave me the golden opportunity to do this
wonderful project on the topic River Cleaning Drive in
India .
This also helped me in doing a lot of Research and I
came to know about so many new things. I am really
thankful to them. Secondly I would also like to thank
my parents and friends who helped me a lot in
finishing this project within the limited time. I am
making this project not only for marks but to also
increase my knowledge.

“THANKS AGAIN TO ALL WHO HELPED ME”

 INDEX

1. Acknowledgement
2. Introduction
3. Content
4. Bibliography
 Introduction

 Rivers are ancient and older than the flow of human blood — a ‘mini cosmos’
spawning history, tales, spirituality and technological incursions. Flowing
rivers are the largest renewable water resource for humans and a crucible
of aquatic ecosystem. Rivers also have a habit of moving on and on from the
source where they gush with gay abandon to their mouth where they quietly
disappears into the surroundings. That journey is now being interrupted.
Since the age of industrialisation, humans have increasingly exerted a
pervasive influence on water resources. Rivers in particular have drawn
humans to monumental engineering interventions such as dams and barrages
often as chest-thumping dominance and seldom as an enduring bond between
man and nature.

 Just a few decades ago, Indians across the nation would walk down
to the local stream or river to collect drinking water, wash their
clothes, take a bath or just swim and enjoy themselves. Today,
doing anything of this sort is out of the question and can have
serious health consequences. Like many other rivers around the
world, India’s rivers – which have always been given a position of
sanctity in the culture – have become polluted bodies of water. And
yet, Indians cannot turn away from these rivers. They are the
lifelines of the nation, and the future of India is in many ways tied
to the health of our rivers.

 But this is not an insurmountable problem. It can be addressed in a

short period and with technologies that already exist. What is
 needed are stringent laws and the necessary determination to
implement them. We do not have to go and clean the rivers; if we
stop polluting them, they will clean themselves in one flood season.

CONTENT

More than 38,000 million litres of waste water enters the major rivers, water bodies and
even percolates into the ground every day

A Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) report of 2015 brought out the fact that 61,948
million litres of urban sewage is generated on a daily basis in India. But the cities have an
installed sewage treatment capacity of only 38 per cent of this. In reality more than this
amount goes untreated into the rivers or water bodies as the treatment capacity of major
sewage treatment plants (STPs) in the country is around 66 per cent of the installed
capacity as per CPCB findings of 2013. As a result, more than 38,000 million litres of waste
water goes into the major rivers, water bodies and even percolates into the ground every
day. Over and above this there is industrial effluent. The data on the raw sewage from rural
areas is not available.

River Development & Ganga Rejuvenation

Possibly one of the most modernising policy approaches of the Narendra Modi Government
has been to raise the profile of rivers. For the current Government, water is indispensable to
governance and development plans, livelihood and healthy life, expressed as sujalam sufalam
(water for prosperity) and Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan. The earlier Ministry of Water
Resources has now expanded to include River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation. Likewise,
Drinking Water and Sanitation, which was a department under the Ministry of Rural
Development is now a full-fledged ministry with a Cabinet rank minister. These are early
indicators, hopefully, to a more serious rethinking, readjustment and enhancement on water
approaches and technologies as various water projects are witnessing widespread negative
ecological and livelihood impacts.

Crores of rupees have been pumped in for cleaning rivers under the Centre’s National River
Conservation Plan (NRCP), Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation
(AMRUT), Smart Cities Mission programmes of the Ministry of Urban Development and the
“Namami Gange” under Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga
Rejuvenation (MOWR). Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation (MDWS) is taking care of
the sanitation projects for villages near Ganga along with MOWR and many more.

A stable supply of quality water is an essential requirement for guaranteeing socio-economic-

political stability. Ganga becomes central to river conceptualisation, cleaning and planning in
India. With a length of 2,525-km, Ganga is the longest river of India and the second largest
river in the world in amounts of water discharge. But with a fecal coliform count, at some
stretches, drastically overshooting the quality limits, the water is lethal for drinking, bathing
and even irrigation. Ganga is the fifth most polluted river in the world. While this remains a
shameful reality, it is important to continuously reinstate the symbolism of Ganga — as the
river of faith, devotion and worship. Rabindranath Tagore expressed it beautifully as the
sacred thread of Indian yajna — connecting years of wisdom, religion and meditation. There
is Ganga in every part of India and the emblematic interpretations can be a collective force
of change.

The table below shows the amount of money spent on rivers:

River wise details of expenditure under National River Conservation Plan, including
National Ganga River Basin Authority programme

S.No. Name of River Name of State Rs. In crore

1,2 Adyar, Cooum, Tamil Nadu 386.42

 3,4 Beas & Satluj Punjab 424.17
5 Beehar Madhya Pradesh 1.69
6 Betwa Madhya Pradesh 5.63
7 Bhadra Karnataka 4.14
8 Brahmini Orissa 2.51
9 Cauvery Karnataka and Tamil Nadu 262.39
10 Chambal Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan 25.98
11 Damodar Jharkhand and West Bengal 4.29
12 Diphu & Dhansiri Nagaland 0.00
13 Ganga Uttrakhand, Uttar Pradeh, Bihar, 1302.89
Jharkhand and West Bengal
14 Godavari Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra 112.61
15 Gomti Uttar Pradesh 468.40
16 Khan Madhya Pradesh 39.56
17 Krishna Maharashtra 21.95
18 Kshipra Madhya Pradesh 17.32
19 Mahanadi Orissa 8.04
20 Mahananda West Bengal 44.32
21 Mandakini Madhya Pradesh 0.00
22 Mandovi Goa 13.50
23 Musi Andhra Pradesh 336.85
24 Narmada Madhya Pradesh 3.31
25 Pamba Kerala 1.47
26 Ranmgqanga Uttar Pradesh 30.92
27 Panchganga Maharashtra 0.00
28 Pennar Karnataka 35.94
29 Rani Chu Sikkim 67.47
30 Sabarmati Gujarat 95.08
31 Subarnrekha Jharkhand 0.98
32 Tamrabarani Tamil Nadu 54.26
33 Tapi Maharashtra 0.00
34 Tapti Madhya Pradesh 3.88
35 Tunga Karnataka 2.60
36 Tungabhadra Karnataka 6.22
37 Vaigai Tamil Nadu 111.84
38 Vennar Tamil Nadu 63.31
39 Wainganga Madhya Pradesh 0.94
40 Yamuna Haryana, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh 1341.50
Coastal Area (Puri) Orissa 40.68
Grand Total 5343.06

Pollution levels: Still pollution level in rivers of India has not shown any sign of improvement.
Around 302 polluted stretches on 275 rivers have been reported recently (See ‘Extent of
contamination’,). The top five states showing maximum number of polluted stretches are
Maharashtra, Assam, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and West Bengal. Estimated polluted riverine
length is 12,363 km, which is almost five times the length of Ganga main stem.

Quality of river still poor

Between 2006 and 2016, if the quality of Ganga is analysed for two major hotspots— Kanpur
and Varanasi during the monsoon period when there is dissolution of contaminants—it is
found that quality of river never dropped below 3 mg/l (CPCB standard for outdoor bathing)
for Kanpur whereas there has been slight improvement in the quality of river at Varanasi.
But at the same time the entry of raw sewage in the river at Varanasi did not stop between
2006 and 2016; this is indicated by high faecal colliform levels in the river water (higher
than 2,500 mpn/100 ml).

Yamuna also did not show any improvement during the monsoon. The quality of river is not
even fit for outdoor bathing. The quality of river is poorer in 2017 in comparison to 2014 and
2016. Since 1993, the cleaning of Yamuna is being done under the Yamuna Action Plan
(YAP).The Central government is supplementing the efforts of the states to reduce pollution
in Yamuna by providing financial assistance to Haryana, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh in a phased
manner.
The results of all these projects to clean Ganga and its tributaries were not satisfactory according
to the experts and in September 2017, the Prime Minister handed over the gigantic task of cleaning
Ganga to the Minister for Road Transport & Highways, Shipping and Water Resources, River
Development & Ganga Rejuvenation Nitin Gadkari. Soon after Gadkari was entrusted with the
Ministry, two STPs—one in Haridwar and another in Varanasi—were approved in a public private
partnership (PPP) mode at a combined cost of Rs 325 crore. These were the first two agreements
with private sector companies to build STPs under an innovative PPP called hybrid-annuity payment
model that the government formulated with the help of the International Finance Corporation. Few
more constructions of STPs in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal were announced under hybrid
annuity.
Rivers aren’t polluted, our actions are
Half of the world’s major rivers are badly polluted or depleted. Pollution caused by runoff
from agricultural chemicals, poorly managed industrial processes, and lack of adequate
treatment for sewage and other urban waste is the most serious threat to rivers and
remains a challenging issue. Food is grown in ways that send pollution into the water,
products are manufactured using more water than needed and forests are cleared without
considering the dangers of erosion. It is rightly said that humans and ecosystem suffer when
rivers are badly managed. Globally some great works have been achieved in improving the
state of the rivers. Some remain sadly uncared for and some have sunk due to bad
approaches and forced solutions.

Need of the hour

Only having a large number of sewerage projects and STPs will not clean the rivers. We as
human beings should also put forward some of the efforts to do so. Some steps can be:-

 Eliminating agricultural pollution:-

Agricultural runoff is harmful to rivers because of the use of chemicals for cultivation, which has
become the norm today. This can be rectified if farmers are supported to move to organic
cultivation. This is not only good for the river; it is also good for the soil, the farmer’s income and
public health.

If our farmers are to get good yields and make a living out of agriculture, the soil does not need
chemical inputs, it needs organic content. Soil will be healthy only if we can put leaves from the trees
and animal waste back into it. To call soil as soil, it has to have a minimum of 2% organic content.

Incentivizing farmers to shift to organic cultivation is therefore not just a necessity for our rivers;
it is also essential to ensure the food security of the nation and the well-being of hundreds of
millions of farmers.

 Treating industrial and chemical waste :-

Point source pollution is generally chemical and industrial waste from industries or domestic
sewage from towns and cities. One important aspect in towns and cities is that just as
electricity, water and gas are metered, sewage should be too, with households and industries
paying according to the meter.

Right now the way chemical and industrial waste is handled in India is that the polluting
industry itself is expected to clean its effluent before letting it out into the river. In
effect, this just leads to many industries treating their effluent only when the inspectors
are present. When there is no one overseeing them, many industries release untreated
effluent into the rivers. If we want this treatment process to be effective, it is important
that effluent treatment itself be made into a lucrative business proposition. If your effluent
is my business, I will not let you release your untreated waste into the river. I will make it my
business to get your effluent and treat it. The government, in this case, will only have to set
the norm on the water quality being released into the river

 Filth to Wealth:-
There is no such thing as waste. It is just earth we have turned into filth. It is our
responsibility to put it back into the earth as earth. This can be a journey from filth to
wealth. It is just a question of whether we know how to use something or not. A time has come
when we have to learn to use everything for our wellbeing. The necessary technologies are
already available.

SOURCE:- INTERNET

Websites:

 https://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/cleaning-
india-s-polluted-rivers-59877

 http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=8
7252
 https://www.dailypioneer.com/sunday-
edition/agenda/cover-story/cleaning-rivers-
cleansing-policies.html

 https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/cleaning-
the-ganga-step-by-step/article6105068.ece

 https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/03/the-
clean-sweep-cleaning-up-india-s-rivers/