The government has proposed a law penalising pollution of the Ganga.
At least four drafts have been received by the Ministry of Water Resources and the proposal is in its “final stages”, official sources said.
One of the drafts is based on suggestions made by the IIT Consortium while others are from institutions and individuals. The Ministry of Water Resources, Environment and Forests, Law and Urban Development are the key ministries involved in drafting the law.
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Already, based on directions from the Green Tribunal, the government has issued notices to all 118 Urban Local Bodies and 687 grossly polluting industries to come up with Action Plans on setting up sewage infrastructure and sewage treatment plants.
A conference will be soon convened with District Magistrates to give a push to the programme.
According to official sources, about 501 million litres per day (MLD) of untreated waste is discharged from industries and 4000 MLD from municipalities.
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The Rs. 20,000 crore Namami Gange project is spread over five years and covers 41 tributaries of Ganga. Rs. 7272 crore has been set aside for interventions in existing, defunct projects while Rs. 12,728 crore has been allocated for new initiatives. This is a four-fold increase since the new government came to power. Since 1985, Rs. 4168.55 crore has been spent on cleaning the river.
The National Mission for Clean Ganga that has been assigned the task of cleaning the river, is focussed on abatement of pollution and has designed its interventions around this. However, it is seeking partnerships and is tailoring its projects so that state governments, local municipalities and panchayats have a stake and take ownership of the projects for sustainability.
To speed up the process of cleaning the river, the Mission has sought the participation of institutions, donors, overseas Indians, business and corporate houses to donate their might and money for projects or sponsoring projects to clean up the river . Already pilot projects have been launched in eight cities. The challenge is to set up a drainage system in thickly populated cities.
The urgent need is to bring down lean season BOD levels in the river to 10 mg/litre/day, the Total Suspended Solid levels to 10 mg/litre/day and Total Faecal Coliform to 100 mg/litre/day. These levels run into over lakhs at present.
“Stopping pollutants from coming into the Ganga are a priority,’’ say senior officials of the Mission. Donors and philanthropist agencies can take their pick in tackling surface pollution and can contribute, say, for river surface cleaning equipment which range from Rs. 60,000 to Rs. 12 crores. They can sponsor improved electric or wood-based crematoriums.