Mision 2020: A Clean and Dolphin Filled Ganges
Ganga, the holiest of holy rivers in the Indian sub-continent is also one of the most polluted rivers in the region. Last year, after much lobbying, Ganga was declared the National River of India owing to its religious as well as environmental significance. However, just that could never have been enough for cleaning a river on which millions of Rupees have already been spent.
Now, the Union Environment Minister of India Mr. Jairam Ramesh, who had previously unveiled the National Ganga River Basin Authority (NGRBA), has put the NBRBA on a “mission mode” to clean the river by 2020. And his indicator for success is not clear blue waters but the return of the Gangetic dolphins that were once sighted in the river in plenty!
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“By 2020, no municipal sewage or industrial effluent will flow into the Ganga (river) without complete treatment,” the Environment Minister declared at a press conference today. A little over two months back, the Minister had agreed that both the Ganga and the Yamuna rivers are no cleaner today than they were two decades ago, though the government is spending huge amounts on action plans for the rivers.
Consequently, the NGRBA is well aware of the mistakes that were made by the previous Ganga Action Plan (GAP) and is making sure it does not repeat the same. A major difference in planning and strategizing this time around is that the focus this time is on entire catchment treatment — on a basin wide basis. The major gap in GAP was it had a town based approached and much greater focus on sewage treatment than anything else.
A comprehensive river basin management plan is thus being seen as the first step in the process and will be prepared by December 2010. The exercise will cost the Indian government Rs. 15,000 crore over the next 10 years. And the indicator for Ganga water quality are declared to be the Gangetic dolphins (Platanista gangetia), which are themselves an IUCN declared endangered species. The river water is muddy making vision useless and so these dolphins are blind having eyes with no lenses. They eat shrimp and fish from the mud in river bottoms.
What needs to be made sure by the Government this time is the proper implementation of the plan and rigorous monitoring lest the implementation failures are yet again declared plan failures and be done with it.
Image by Eunheui Courtesy Flickr
