Lok Sabha Question No. 4737 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2017-03-30
Subject: Cleaning of Ganga River
Ministry: WATER RESOURCES, RIVER DEVELOPMENT AND GANAGA REJUVENATION
Asked by: ARUN KUMAR

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF WATER RESOURCES,

## RIVER DEVELOPMENT & GANGA REJUVENATION

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. †4737

ANSWERED ON 30.03.2017

## CLEANING OF GANGA RIVER

†4737. DR. ARUN KUMAR

Will  the  Minister  of  WATER  RESOURCES,  RIVER  DEVELOPMENT  AND  GANGA  REJUVENATION  be pleased to state:

- (a) the details of the work done to control pollution in the holy river Ganga;
- (b) whether pollution level has declined as a result of the same;
- (c) if so, the details thereof and the extent to which the pollution has declined region/place-wise; and
- (d)  if  not,  the  action  likely  to  be  taken  against  the  persons  responsible  for  the  failure  of  Ganga  river  cleaning programmes?

## ANSWER

THE  MINISTER  OF  STATE  (IC)  FOR  YOUTH  AFFAIRS  &  SPORTS  AND  MINISTER  OF  STATE  FOR WATER RESOURCES, RIVER DEVELOPMENT AND GANGA REJUVENATION

## (SHRI VIJAY GOEL)

(a) to (d) Conservation & cleaning of river Ganga is a continuous & collective effort of Central Government, State Governments, Local bodies and general public.

Under Namami Gange Programme a holistic approach has been adopted to clean the river Ganga. The various types of pollution abatement schemes taken up to clean Ganga may be categorized into core and non-core schemes.  Core  schemes  include  Interception  and  Diversion  (I&D)  of  sewage  discharging  into  the  Ganga  and creating treatment infrastructure to treat the intercepted sewage. Non-Core schemes include providing Low Cost Sanitation (LCS) at community and individual levels at identified locations, installation of Crematoria (electric as well as wood based improved crematoria), River Front Development(RFD)  including bathing ghats, river surface cleaning, afforestation, protecting biodiversity and creating public awareness and participation.

Water quality monitoring of river Ganga in 5 states is carried out on monthly basis by respective State Pollution  Control  Boards  (SPCBs).  The  annual  variation  in  water  quality  parameters  does  not  indicate  any sustained improvement or degradation in water quality and the long term trends only can show the improvement or degradation in water quality.

The  four  stretches  of  river  Ganga  where  Biological  Oxygen  Demand  (BOD)  levels  are  more  than permissible limits, as monitored by CPCB, is given in table below.

| State         | Stretch                      |   Identified Length of stretch (km) | BOD range/ max value (mg/l)   |
|---------------|------------------------------|-------------------------------------|-------------------------------|
| Uttarakhand   | Haridwar to SultanpurAdampur |                                  10 | 4.2-5.8                       |
| Uttar Pradesh | Kannauj to Varanasi          |                                 450 | 3.8-16.9                      |
| Bihar         | Buxar to Bhagalpur           |                                  40 | 7.8-27                        |
| West Bengal   | Tribeni to Diamond Harbour   |                                  50 | 3.1-5.8                       |

In  other  stretches,  BOD  levels  are  within  permissible  limit  i.e  =  <3mg/l.  However,  as  per  monitoring reports of CPCB, entire stretch of river Ganga has high levels of faecal coliform against the prescribed standard.