Water Quality
The quality of the water in the Ganga is determined by a large amount of variables, and effects the environment as well as the population which relies it both directly and indirectly. The fact that Biological Oxygen Demand levels are unsteady is a great stressor on aquatic life. This also makes it nearly impossible for the river to clean itself. Human and animal waste, as well as untreated sewage and various industrial pollutants are continuously being dumped into the river and the water is not able to keep up, and break down, all the waste in the Ganga.
It is important to take initiative, and find ways to cut back on these organic and inorganic waste materials being discarded into the river because they are greatly affecting all life associated with the Ganga. Plant and animal life in the river is dissipating and may species are becoming extinct. This throws off the ecosystem. Another major problem is the way that this water is affecting human life. The people that are using this water on a daily basis are contracting fatal diseases, and the Indian health care system is unable to keep up with the care that they need.
Sewage Treatment Plants
When fixing, replacing, or creating new treatment facilities the treatment system capacity must match or exceed the sewage generation in that area. The main problems with placing the necessary treatment plant or modifying existing ones are space allocation, the cost of creating the treatment plan plus the cost of maintenance, and trained manpower to maintain the plants.
According to the status check done by the CPCB on the sewage treatment plants, there are two cities which have STPs but are underfunded and cannot maintain running the plants. The two cities are Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, according the their results Bihar has no currently working STPs and Uttar Pradesh has plants that are both over designed and under designed.
The over design of plants is probably due to the fact that while designing the plants, the concerned agency has not monitored the actual sewage characteristics or the area. When creating new STPs in the future, the agency putting in the STP must do research of the towns needs before designing the plant so that it meets what is required and some so that there is room as he town may grow in population.
Problems in cities that have appropriately allocated funds are still having problems. At West Bengal the plants are under loaded but sewage is not reaching the STPs due to gaps in sewage lines and pipes are full of slit which does not allow for the sewage to smoothly and efficiently flow to the TPs. If funds are adequate for meeting the needs of the plants and they are still not performing as they should, this could imply a lack of laborers with the knowledge of how to repair damages, inappropriate resource allocation, or a combination of both. Having plants that can treat the needs of a town with enough funding but are not working properly is a serious issue that must be addressed by the government before they go onto make new treatment plants.
Power outages are notorious all over India and have significant impacts on the biological processes of the plants. When the power goes out the bacterial populations, which is what treat the water, die out and become less efficient. When this happens it is necessary to have trained employees to record the damage, how much less effective it is after the outages, and on how to restore the efficiency of the plant. Because if the plant is less efficient after an outage then the plant cannot handle the full capacity and if they overload the plant it will do even more damage to the bacterial populations and threaten to completely kill the plants ability to treat any water at all.
Kanpur is the number one leather producing city in India, these leather producing industrial plants are called tanneries. These tanneries are located along the Ganges river and manufacture 8% of the worlds leather and produce extremely harsh and dangerous chemical pollutants. The main pollutant is chromium which is used to harden leather. Chromium is both highly toxic and non biodegradable thus specialty treatment facilities must be set up to take care of the chemical waste. The only chromium treatment plant that has been set up by the GAP in Kanpur was declared non operational. Where does the waste go since it is not being treated properly? Back into the Ganges. Implementing a backup plan for where these industrial wastes go if the treatment plant is inoperable is extremely important because the chemical wastes are extremely toxic and allowing for it to flow into the river where people are bathing is not a responsible alternative.
Water that has been treated by the plants, as previously stated, is not all being returned to the river. It’s a catch 22 to not send water back into the river because it is being used for irrigation and pisciculture which contributes to food production. With the exponentially growing population of India, the demand for food increases along with population growth. But if you don’t send the clean water back into the river, the flow is decreasing which leads to furthering the decrease in water quality. People must make a decision of what is more important, Having enough food or saving their Holy river.
Limited Space & Funding
Urbanization in the Ganges River Basin area leaves little space near the river to build more sewage treatment plants. These plants are often large in size and would require displacing homes and businesses in order to make space for them.
With such limited space, funding is an issue as well. With little awareness and money, it is tough to create a forceful legislation that can reduce current pollution levels in the river. It would be ideal to take preventative measures against against additional industrial and domestic wastes from being released into the water, but that is going to be inevitable, even with a cap on how much can be released. The government can work with these companies, creating incentives to limit high releases of harmful substances in the water and that can increase awareness or save a few dollars.
Making structural changes can be costly, especially when the government does not have the money to facilitate these actions. One way the government can work around a budget is to work directly with companies, creating incentives to limit high releases of harmful substances in the water, which can help increase awareness. Other structural changes that would need fundraising can be to create an alternative yet eco-friendly disposal industrial and agricultural waste; restore wetlands and vegetation areas that can trap sediments and waste; and the more expensive option - the expand sewage treatment plants.
Cultural Concerns
Due to the religious significance of the river, structural changes must acknowledge the holiness of the river in order to be followed and enforced by locals. For this reason, we believe that it is imperative that scientists who know the area and its religious meaning are involved in the designing of systems. By enlisting inhabitants to create, operate, and fix the water treatment systems, community involvement and accountability would increase. Any foreign help should be focused on generating funding or training local scientists on water treatment procedures.
Limitations
The main limitation of our investigation is that this is a very complex problem with many variables to study. Scientists have been working for decades to improve the water quality in the Ganges and a complete understanding of the situation requires more time and training than we had. Our research provides an overview of the factors involved in treating the polluted water and should not be interpreted as an exhaustive study of the Ganges River pollution issue.
The quality of the water in the Ganga is determined by a large amount of variables, and effects the environment as well as the population which relies it both directly and indirectly. The fact that Biological Oxygen Demand levels are unsteady is a great stressor on aquatic life. This also makes it nearly impossible for the river to clean itself. Human and animal waste, as well as untreated sewage and various industrial pollutants are continuously being dumped into the river and the water is not able to keep up, and break down, all the waste in the Ganga.
It is important to take initiative, and find ways to cut back on these organic and inorganic waste materials being discarded into the river because they are greatly affecting all life associated with the Ganga. Plant and animal life in the river is dissipating and may species are becoming extinct. This throws off the ecosystem. Another major problem is the way that this water is affecting human life. The people that are using this water on a daily basis are contracting fatal diseases, and the Indian health care system is unable to keep up with the care that they need.
Sewage Treatment Plants
When fixing, replacing, or creating new treatment facilities the treatment system capacity must match or exceed the sewage generation in that area. The main problems with placing the necessary treatment plant or modifying existing ones are space allocation, the cost of creating the treatment plan plus the cost of maintenance, and trained manpower to maintain the plants.
According to the status check done by the CPCB on the sewage treatment plants, there are two cities which have STPs but are underfunded and cannot maintain running the plants. The two cities are Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, according the their results Bihar has no currently working STPs and Uttar Pradesh has plants that are both over designed and under designed.
The over design of plants is probably due to the fact that while designing the plants, the concerned agency has not monitored the actual sewage characteristics or the area. When creating new STPs in the future, the agency putting in the STP must do research of the towns needs before designing the plant so that it meets what is required and some so that there is room as he town may grow in population.
Problems in cities that have appropriately allocated funds are still having problems. At West Bengal the plants are under loaded but sewage is not reaching the STPs due to gaps in sewage lines and pipes are full of slit which does not allow for the sewage to smoothly and efficiently flow to the TPs. If funds are adequate for meeting the needs of the plants and they are still not performing as they should, this could imply a lack of laborers with the knowledge of how to repair damages, inappropriate resource allocation, or a combination of both. Having plants that can treat the needs of a town with enough funding but are not working properly is a serious issue that must be addressed by the government before they go onto make new treatment plants.
Power outages are notorious all over India and have significant impacts on the biological processes of the plants. When the power goes out the bacterial populations, which is what treat the water, die out and become less efficient. When this happens it is necessary to have trained employees to record the damage, how much less effective it is after the outages, and on how to restore the efficiency of the plant. Because if the plant is less efficient after an outage then the plant cannot handle the full capacity and if they overload the plant it will do even more damage to the bacterial populations and threaten to completely kill the plants ability to treat any water at all.
Kanpur is the number one leather producing city in India, these leather producing industrial plants are called tanneries. These tanneries are located along the Ganges river and manufacture 8% of the worlds leather and produce extremely harsh and dangerous chemical pollutants. The main pollutant is chromium which is used to harden leather. Chromium is both highly toxic and non biodegradable thus specialty treatment facilities must be set up to take care of the chemical waste. The only chromium treatment plant that has been set up by the GAP in Kanpur was declared non operational. Where does the waste go since it is not being treated properly? Back into the Ganges. Implementing a backup plan for where these industrial wastes go if the treatment plant is inoperable is extremely important because the chemical wastes are extremely toxic and allowing for it to flow into the river where people are bathing is not a responsible alternative.
Water that has been treated by the plants, as previously stated, is not all being returned to the river. It’s a catch 22 to not send water back into the river because it is being used for irrigation and pisciculture which contributes to food production. With the exponentially growing population of India, the demand for food increases along with population growth. But if you don’t send the clean water back into the river, the flow is decreasing which leads to furthering the decrease in water quality. People must make a decision of what is more important, Having enough food or saving their Holy river.
Limited Space & Funding
Urbanization in the Ganges River Basin area leaves little space near the river to build more sewage treatment plants. These plants are often large in size and would require displacing homes and businesses in order to make space for them.
With such limited space, funding is an issue as well. With little awareness and money, it is tough to create a forceful legislation that can reduce current pollution levels in the river. It would be ideal to take preventative measures against against additional industrial and domestic wastes from being released into the water, but that is going to be inevitable, even with a cap on how much can be released. The government can work with these companies, creating incentives to limit high releases of harmful substances in the water and that can increase awareness or save a few dollars.
Making structural changes can be costly, especially when the government does not have the money to facilitate these actions. One way the government can work around a budget is to work directly with companies, creating incentives to limit high releases of harmful substances in the water, which can help increase awareness. Other structural changes that would need fundraising can be to create an alternative yet eco-friendly disposal industrial and agricultural waste; restore wetlands and vegetation areas that can trap sediments and waste; and the more expensive option - the expand sewage treatment plants.
Cultural Concerns
Due to the religious significance of the river, structural changes must acknowledge the holiness of the river in order to be followed and enforced by locals. For this reason, we believe that it is imperative that scientists who know the area and its religious meaning are involved in the designing of systems. By enlisting inhabitants to create, operate, and fix the water treatment systems, community involvement and accountability would increase. Any foreign help should be focused on generating funding or training local scientists on water treatment procedures.
Limitations
The main limitation of our investigation is that this is a very complex problem with many variables to study. Scientists have been working for decades to improve the water quality in the Ganges and a complete understanding of the situation requires more time and training than we had. Our research provides an overview of the factors involved in treating the polluted water and should not be interpreted as an exhaustive study of the Ganges River pollution issue.