Sir — This refers to the report, “Namami Gange pledge falters, Rs 3 cr lying idle” (December 20). It is sad that the Ganga has to always remain in an ‘endangered mode’, in spite of numerous attempts at cleaning it with huge amounts of funds. The cleaning of the Ganga must begin with a radical overhaul of the municipal sewer system all along the river to prevent the entry of human wastes and agro-chemical run-off into the river.
Illustrious water champion of India, Rajendra Singh, lamented that post-Independent India is still clinging to an idiotic order of one Hawkins, the British Commissioner of Varanasi in 1932, to link sewer lines to the Ganga. The abysmal ecological sensitivity inherent in colonial bureaucrats is, of course, fully understandable, but to see our netas and babus in free India continuing the same is condemnable.
Second, shunning vote-bank politics, rehabilitation of the openly polluting leather and textile industries must be done. Waste water and effluent treatment plants must be set up and farmers must be made to practice only natural farming. Recently, in a welcome move, the NGT banned plastic packaging materials in towns located along the Ganga. I would say we should ban aluminum too and replace all these with areca nut, palash and bagasse tableware. Oil boats must be banned and bio-toilets should replace the traditional/flush toilets.
Biological Oxygen levels, which have to be low for enabling bathing and fish survival, should be constantly monitored. The impact of interrupting the river’s flow by impounding it at various places for hydroelectric power generation or the proposed inland waterways (between Hooghly-Varanasi) must be seriously addressed.