Part of Ganga as a Sewage Drain?

The Ganges or River Ganga is a trans-boundary river that flows through India and Bangladesh. It eventually forms a huge delta with Brahmaputra and Meghna Rivers, emptying into the Bay of Bengal. The crystal clear river emerges from the western Himalayas in the Indian State of Uttarakhand. It then flows through the Gangetic plain of North India. The Brahmaputra-Ganga-Meghna system is the third largest river in the world by discharge.

The Ganga reaches West Bengal after passing through the Rajmahal, and around 120 kilometres after entering the state, the river splits at Mithipur. The primary branch travels east and enters Bangladesh at Jalangi in Murshidabad, while the western branch travels south and meets the Bay of Bengal near Gangasagar. The western branch (Bhagirathi-Hooghly), often known as the "Ganga," flows across the state for 500 kilometres (from Jangipur to Diamond Harbour) before meeting the Bay of Bengal at Gangasagar.

The river is the lifeline for more than 50 million people of our state. The principal causes of the Ganga water quality deterioration is three fold; 

(1) Discharge of untreated industrial wastewater 

(2) Discharge of untreated municipal wastewater and 

(3) Pollution from nonpoint sources. 

Ganga: A Toxic River

To comprehend the magnitude of the Kolkata administration's rejuvenation process of converting a portion of the Ganga into a sewage drain, we must traverse each degree of toxicity produced by numerous Indian states before reaching West Bengal and jointly producing a dead end for the environment. 

With each passing city, the beautifully pure water transforms into a poisonous and thick coating of froth. According to the National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG), more than three-quarters of sewage generated in India's northern plains flows untreated into the Ganges. The densely populated northern plain encompasses Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and, farther east, West Bengal.

Within the identified polluted river stretch in West Bengal, the major town located on the side of the river are - 29 Ganga Towns :1) Diamond Harbour, 2) Budge Budge, 3) Maheshtala, 4) Kolkata MC, 5) Howrah MC, 6) Rishra, 7) Uttarpara-Kotrung, 8) Chandannagar, 9) Baranagar, 10) Kamarhati, 11) Panihati, 12) Khardaha, 13) Barrackpore, 14)Bhatpara, 15)North Barrackpore, 16)Garulia, 17) Titagarh, 18) Kanchrapara, 19) Halisahar, 20) Naihati, 21) Kalyani, 22) Gayeshpur, 23) Konnagar, 24) Champdani, 25) Serampore, 26) Baidyabati, 27) Bhadreswar, 28) Bansberia, 29) Hooghly-Chinsurah. 

Every day, homes and enterprises dump massive volumes of waste water into the river. The following table shows how much wastewater is released into the Ganga in various states and cities before it reaches West Bengal, as well as the total litres produced in a day across all Indian cities.

Figures are based on a report by Reuters Graphics.

Note

*Pandu River skirts around the edges of Kanpur. It brings an enormous amount of wastewater i.e. 1.4 billion per day. Thus the total amount of wastewater exceeds the 3 billion litre mark after leaving Prayagraj, formally known as Allahabad.

Hence, the enormous amount of untreated wastewater released into the Ganges even before it reaches West Bengal is 4 Billion Litres per day. Whereas the total release of the day after flowing through West Bengal is 6.07 Billion Litres. According to a devastating 2019’s report by Reuters Graphics on saving Ganga from getting polluted, “If just one day’s wastewater was pumped into the river was packed into half litre soda bottles; they would stretch to the moon and back nearly four times. If it was formed into a cube, it would be twice the height of the Statue of Liberty.”  The quantity of sewage in the water is indicated by faecal coliform levels. According to the most recent yearly information available, water from 41 of 45 sampling stations that recorded coliform data in 2016 contained more than 500 faecal coliform per 100 millilitres, the permitted level established by India's Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB). The average level measured at Howrah-Shibpur, West Bengal, has exceeded the Indian government's legal limit by more than 300 times. 

Polluting Sources of River Ganga in West Bengal

• Municipal solid waste management: 

The contamination of the river length has been linked to solid waste created by a portion of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation and eighteen municipal towns in the North 24-Pargana District. The total population served is 89 lakhs, with 704 municipal wards.

• Hazardous waste management

Haldia is the only Common Hazardous Waste Treatment, Storage, and Disposal Facility (CHWTSDF) in West Bengal. The facility can handle any hazardous waste generated in the state. All hazardous waste producing enterprises dispose of their hazardous wastes at these (CHWTSDF).

• Bio-medical waste management 

There are six Common Bio-medical Waste Treatment, Storage, and Disposal Facilities in West Bengal. All health care facilities within the river's catchment region dispose of their bio-medical wastes at the Haldia Common Bio-medical Waste Treatment, Storage, and Disposal Facility. Waste Management in Construction and Demolition:

There is currently no accurate inventory of construction and demolition trash production. The West Bengal Pollution Control Board (WBPCB) and Urban Development and Municipal Affairs Department, Government of West Bengal, have asked the local Urban Local Body (ULB) to take the appropriate steps in accordance with the Construction and Demolition Waste Management Rules, 2016.

• Ecological/Environmental Flow (E-Flow) 

The Ganga River has freshwater upstream flow from the Himalayas, but it has been impeded by a large number of dams and barrages. It cannot be determined if the river has a continuous flow, i.e., whether water from the source (GOMUKH in the Himalayas) ever reaches the Bay of Bengal. Throughout the monsoon, it gets massive runoff, and the base flow is maintained by a ground water pool during the dry months. Afforestation, rainfall collecting, and reduced groundwater extraction from flood plains might maintain the river's biological flow. The river is a year-round stream. Throughout the year, the environmental flow is maintained by the discharge from the Farakka Barrage in the Murshidabad district of the Indian state of West Bengal.

Ganga’s Rejuvenation: A loss-loss Situation

In the pretext of renewal, the Kolkata administration plans to convert a section of the Ganga into a sewage drain. According to a DownToEarth article, Adi Ganga, the Ganga canal that flows through Kolkata, was turned into sewage by default a long time ago. Now, the West Bengal government, in collaboration with the West Bengal Housing Infrastructure Development Cooperation HIDCO, has chosen to designate a portion of the tidal river as a drain. They intend to convert a 1 km section of Adi Ganga from Kalighat Bridge to Alipore Bridge into a drain with concrete barriers on both sides. The government sought approval on March 9, 2022, to continue the terrible job. “The main emphasis will be to guide dry weather flow (Adi Ganga) through a rectangular reinforced cement concrete (RCC) u-trough (channel). There will be an immediate RCC floor at the top of the U-Trough,” the tender document read. 

Experts quoted by DownToEarth say that this can be a suicidal attempt. Environmentalist Subhas Dutta asked, “Should we consider turning the national river into a drain as rejuvenation?” He asked this because a huge amount of funds is used in reviving Ganga under the National Mission of Cleaning Ganga (NMCG). As part of the Alipore Area Development Project, the corporation intends to direct the route of dry weather flow (sewage flow outside of monsoon months) by creating concrete channels. According to experts, the whole Adi Ganga stretch has changed into a dry weather flow over the years, with sewage deposited throughout the year. "Concealing the Adi Ganga and converting it into an underground drain, building a promenade and walkways over it, Nilina Deb Lal, a conservation architect from Calcutta, noticed. This scheme seems to be nothing short of a land grab, and at enormous environmental and ecological cost, she added.