Ganga Cleaning Projects under Namami Ganga Programme are to start soon following the appraisal of the first list of 14 projects by the Empowered Steering Committee (ESC). These include four projects from Uttarakhand, two from Bihar, two from Uttar Pradesh one from West Bengal amongst others.
In another move, the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) has inventorised 764 grossly polluting industries discharging 501 million litres per day (MlD) of trade effluent directly or indirectly into the drains reaching the river Ganga and its tributaries.
The first goal is to stop all kinds of pollutants from entering the river, be it industrial effluents, domestic sewage or religious offerings, said the sources in the Ministry of Water Resources, river development and Ganga rejuvenation. While the focus is presently on pollution abatement it has however been decided that work related to urban sewerage network will not be taken up at this stage.
Elaborating further, on the Sewage Treatment Project (STP) in Varanasi , sources informed that it will be based in Ramna near the Benaras Hindu University. At present one 100 MlD STP is operational and three will constructed by 2017 in collaboration with JICA. Varanasi’s total sewage generation is 400 MlD and the project that ESC appraised will firm up the STP network, added the sources.
The sources in the Ministry further pointed out that 118 urban local bodies across the five Ganga basin States of Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal and Jharkhand generated 3,636 million litres of sewage per day as against the existing capacity of only 1,027 MlD of sewerage plants.
The empowered steering committee, set up in 2009, is headed by the Secretary, Ministry of Water Resources and comprises of secretaries of Urban Development Ministry, Environment and Forest Ministry, Finance Ministry, Power Ministry, Science and Technology Ministry, besides chief secretaries of the five Ganga basin States.
Meanwhile the Uttar Pradesh Pollution Control Board (UPPCB) has issued closure directions, to 98 tannery units. The CPCB has issued directions for the installation of real time monitoring by the units before June 30, 2015. The CPCB has also issued time bound directions for the implementation of Zero liquid Discharge (ZlD) sector wise to prevent the discharge of effluent into the river Ganga.
The CPCB has also identified 144 drains along the main stem of river Ganga, discharging about 6614 MlD of sewage/waste water.