Funds for cleaning Ganga going down the drains

| | Haridwar
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Funds for cleaning Ganga going down the drains

Saturday, 20 October 2018 | PNS | Haridwar

Despite the Ganga activists sacrificing lives to make their voice heard and crores of rupees being spent in the name of Ganga cleaning, the harsh reality remains that the water is still not fit for holy dip and ‘Achman’ (drinking with hands as a ritual) at some places where drains pour out their untreated waste directly. The solution lies in ensuring that not a drop of wastewater is discharged in the city stretches of Ganga, say the scientists.

A Japanese organisation Asahi Glass Foundation which is striving to create a new society based on the vales of the civilisation has suggested ways to keep the Ganga clean. Supporting advanced research in the fields of science and technology and by recognising efforts to solve the environmental issues, it has suggested deactivating the retarders of Ganga cleaning by taking certain steps.

Based on the inputs from IIT scientists, it says that with more than half of wastewater generated from the slums in the cities of India discharging in the rivers directly, it is imperative to scientifically treat the organic-manure-rich wastewater being thus generated. The same water can be used then for irrigation purposes by the farmers for high profit-giving organic farming, those associated with the organisation suggest.

The experts say that the Government depending on very expensive foreign expertise despite indigenous availability in abundance is making the humongous sums being spent for Ganga cleaning projects going down the drains. 

Speaking to The Pioneer, former professor from Indian Institute of Technology D S Bhargava said, “For immediate cleaning of Ganga without spending money, it is a high time that we adopt safe, scientific and economic disposal of the city’s waste waters. A one-act solution to all these problems in a symbiosis manner is to construct a dam-like structure or a retaining wall between the river and the city.

Between the dam or wall and the city, a parallel covered canal or a huge sewer can be laid to carry all the waste waters generated from the city upto some three kms downstream of the city where the entire wastewater is given zero primary and secondary treatments depending on the finances available with the civic body of the city.”

A part of the untreated or treated manure-rich wastewater can be pumped to farmers for organic farming and the farmers would only be too glad to pay for it and provide some financial support to the civic body apart from desisting from committing suicides, he suggested. The Ganga due to its extremely high self-purifying abilities would get purified by the time it reaches the next urban centre, he added.

Dr Vijay Verma, an expert, opines, “The Hindus themselves are polluting Ganga by immersing the mortal remains of their near and dear ones in it. This is principally responsible for the pollution of the holy river. Steps must be taken to stop such practice.”

The dam-like structure which acts as a barrier between the city and the river can beautifully be developed into a very aesthetic river-front or a picnic-spot with umbrella-cum-chairs for the city dwellers, opine the engineers.

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