Lok Sabha Question No. 6330 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2018-04-05
Subject: Discharge of Waste Water  into Ganga River
Ministry: WATER RESOURCES, RIVER DEVELOPMENT AND GANAGA REJUVENATION
Asked by: RAJIV PRATAP RUDY

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF WATER RESOURCES, RIVER DEVELOPMENT & GANGA REJUVENATION

## LOK SABHA UN STARRED QUESTION NO. 6330

ANSWERED ON 05.0 4.201 8

## DISCHARGE OF WASTE W ATER INTO GANGA RIVE R

## 6330. SHRI RAJIV PRATAP RUDY

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

- (a) whether the Government has assessed the discharge of untreated domestic and industri water into Ganga, Ghagra and Sarayu rivers;
- (b) if so, the details thereof and the action taken by the Government to prevent the same
- (c) whether the pollution of these rivers have affected the habitat of more than thirty fishes and a large number of people who are dependent on the ri ver water and fish and if so, the details thereof; and

(d) the measures taken by the Government to ensure that the water drawn from hand pump rivers are fit for human consumption especially for people living near the polluted river

## ANSWER

THE  MINISTER  OF  STATE  FOR  WATER  RESOURCES, RIVER  DEVELOPMENT  AND GANGA REJUVENATION & HUMAN RESOURCES DEVELOPMENT

( DR. SATYA PAL SINGH )

- (a)Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) in association with State Pollution Control (SPCBs) of 5 Ganga State s monitors water quality of River Ganga at 94 locations, Saryu at location and Ghaghra at 3 locations.

In  2015,  based  on  long  term  assessment  of  water  quality  of  Rivers,  302  pollute stretches were identified on 275 rivers (including River Ganga, Saryu & Ghaghara) based evaluation of water quality data over the years with respect to indicator o f organic pollution i.e. Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD) in 29 States/UTs. Details of polluted river stretches on the

three rivers are given in table below:

|   S No. | River Name   | State Name    | Stretch Identified         | Towns Identified                                                                                                                            |   Approx Length Of The Stretch (In Km) |
|---------|--------------|---------------|----------------------------|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|----------------------------------------|
|       1 | Ghaghara     | Uttar Pradesh | Barhalganj to Deoria       | Ayodhya, Tanda, Deoria                                                                                                                      |                                     25 |
|       2 | Saryu        | Uttar Pradesh | Ayodhya to Elafatganj      | Faizabad, Ayodhya                                                                                                                           |                                     25 |
|       3 | Ganga        | Uttar Pradesh | Kannauj to Varanasi        | Kannauj, Kanpur, Allahabad, Mirzapur, Varanasi                                                                                              |                                    450 |
|       4 | Ganga        | Bihar         | Buxar to Bhagalpur         | Buxar, Patna, Bhagalpur                                                                                                                     |                                     40 |
|       5 | Ganga        | Uttarakhand   | Haridwar to Sultanpur      | Rishikesh, Haridwar                                                                                                                         |                                     10 |
|       6 | Ganga        | West Bengal   | Tribeni to Diamond Harbour | Kanchrapara, Hooghly, Naihati, Chandannagar, Bhatpara, Barrackpore, Baranagar , Kolkata, Howrah, ,Berhampore, Palta, Dakshineswar, Uluberia |                                     50 |

(b)Govt. of India is supplementing the efforts of the state governments in addressing the of river Ganga by providing financial assistance to the states. Government of India has Namami Gange Programme in May 2015 for conservation of river Ganga with total outlay of Rs 20,000  crore.  Namami  Gange  is  an  umbrella  programme  for  river  Ganga  basin  including tributaries, which integrates previous and currently ongoing initiatives by enhancing extracting  synergies  and  supplementing  t hem  with  more  comprehensive  &  better  coordinated interventions.

Namami  Gange  programme  is  being  carried  out  through  various  coordinated  activi including treatment of municipal sewage, treatment of industrial effluent, river surfac rural  sani tation,  River  Front  Development,  Ghats  and  Crematoria,  afforestation  &  biodiv conservation, public outreach etc.

The  initial  focus  of  the  programme  has  been  main  stem  of  river  Ganga  wherein estimated 2953 Million Litres per Day (year 2016) sewage is generated from the towns located along river Ganga.

In  order  to  address  the  untreated  sewage  discharge  into  river  Ganga,  in  additio existing Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) capacity of 1584 MLD (Nov'2017), projects for creation of  1607  MLD  have  be en  sanctioned  under  various  scheme  and  are  at  different  stages implementation.

Along river Ghaghra & Saryu, 9 towns have been identified having an estimated se generation of 170 MLD. As of today no project have been proposed on these two tributaries.

(c) National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) has assigned a project on 'Assessment of Fish and Fisheries of the Ganga River System for developing suitable conservation and restoration plan' to Central Inland Fisheries Research Insti tute (CIFRI), Barakpore, West Bengal for a period of fiv years (2015 - 2020).

As  per  the  study,  the  fish  catch  from  river  Ganga  has  seen  decline  due  to  si increase  in  the  proportion  of  exotic  fish  like  common  carp  and  tilapia  which  re 43-48% of the total catch.

These changes are multi - factorial in origin, such as pollution and decline in water f the river due to water diversion in barrages/dams, unregulated use of small meshed fish adoption of flood control measures, disconn ection of floodplains, siltation in river bed, cli change etc. As a result, a section of fishers might have moved into other professions.

(d) The Central & State Pollution Control Boards are implementing the Water Act, 1974 to water quality. T he following main steps are taken to prevent and control pollution.

1. CPCB issued Directions under Section 5 of the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 rega 'Treatment and Utilization of Sewage for Restoration of water quality of River' to Municipal Corporations of 46 Metropolitan cities and 20 State Capitals in October, 2015.
2. CPCB issued Directions under Section 18 (1) (b) of the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974 regarding treatment & utilization of sewage to SPCBs/ Pollution Control Committee (PCCs).
3. Directions are issued for various industrial sectors to implement Zero Liquid Disch protection of the water quality of rivers and streams.
4. Common effluent treatment plants for cluster of Small Scale Industrial units.
5. With respect to industrial effluents, consent management for compliance of standards enforced by SPCBs/PCCs to improve the water quality of the rivers.
6. The continuous water quality monitoring system s are being established on industrial units i the country through the directives issued by CPCB for getting real time informatio effluent quality and non -complying units have been identified for action.
7. Status  on  polluted  stretches  has  been  commun i ated  to  SPCBs/PCCs  for  restoration  of Polluted River Stretches and preparation of action plan.

******