Varanasi: The Central government’s ambitious project to clean River Ganga, under its Namami Gange Project (NGP), has borne some fruit with river water from Rudraprayag in Uttarakhand to Uluberia in West Bengal improving between 2014 and 2019, latest data of the Jal Shakti ministry showed. The dissolved oxygen level has improved at 27 locations while biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) and faecal coliform (FC) has improved at 42 and 21 locations, respectively, the information provided by the ministry to Kochi-based Right to Information applicant, K Govindan Nampoothiry, stated.

The ministry has provided an annual average of Ganga water quality on these three parameters, thereby discounting the season variations. These parameters help in understanding the water quality of an aquatic system. Higher dissolved oxygen (national standard is 5 milligram per litre or more) shows whether water can sustain aquatic life. Lower BOD (national standard is 3 milligram per litre or less) shows there is less amount of bacteria and other microorganisms in water. Faecal coliform (national standard less is than 2,500 coliform in 100 ml of water) indicates the amount of sewage in water.

The data shows that in the past six years the water quality of the river on these three parameters has improved marginally at most locations. Experts say by this pace, the authorities would take decades to make water fit for human consumption. “The progress so far has been slow. In six years, if Ganga’s water quality has improved by just 10-15 percent, it would take decades to clean Ganga,” said BD Joshi, founder of the Indian Academy of Environmental Sciences, who has worked on the river for more than four decades.

The Central government had initially fixed 2019 as the deadline to clean the national river but extended it to 2022 as the Namami Gange Project (NGP) took off slowly. As on August 1, only 29 percent of the 154 sewage projects taken up have been completed. For these projects, the ministry has allotted Rs 23,120 crore, as per government documents. Till now, the ministry has approved 310 projects costing Rs 28,790 crore, as per the information provided by the ministry to Rajya Sabha on September 14, 2020. Most of these projects are at an advanced stage of implementation, the ministry said.

A ministry official privy to the information about the project said the sewerage infrastructure projects are coming up in eight states — Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Haryana Delhi and Himachal Pradesh — through which the 2,525-km river flows. Currently, the 97 towns located on the main stem of the Ganga generate 2,953 million litres a day (MLD) of sewage. However, the available treatment capacity is only 1,794 MLD.

The RTI reply showed the maximum improvement in Ganga water quality has happened in the hills of Uttarakhand, primarily due to effort been made to contain the flow of human and animal sewage. Another reason for this could be that unlike the plains, the flow of industrial waste in the hill is much less. “We have minimized flow of human sewage by building sewage treatment plants in towns and toilets for all those living close to river Ganga. Work is on for zero sewage into river Ganga in the state,” said Uttarakhand environment minister Harak Singh Rawat.

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