River Pollution Ramaa Ramesh Xlri

ashwamedha ignite

tackling river pollution in india CARE - a four point sustainable solution

Ramaa Ramesh | XLRI

RIVER POLLUTION: The situation thus far Sources

Causes

•India is home to 14 major rivers, which today share the dubious commonality of being among the most polluted in Asia •Over time, these once clean rivers have fallen prey to a variety of polluters, lack of public concern and failed government machinery and planning

Government Role

•The GOI’s efforts in the manner of the Ganga Action Plan and the Yamuna Action plan, to state a few, have been uniformly unsuccessful due to a plethora of reasons

CARE – a solution

•This presentation examines the sources of river pollution in India, efforts undertaken, and the reasons for their failure, and proposes a simple, relatively inexpensive five-pronged sustainable strategy for the cleaning and maintenance of river systems across the country

References

Major sources of river pollution in India POINT SOURCES OF POLLUTION Municipal Sewage •75% of all point source pollution •Consists of untreated or poorly treated sewage and overflow from under-capacity sewage treatment facilities

Industrial Pollution •25% of PSP •Hazardous solid and liquid wastes from factories •Consists of solvents, heavy metals and radioactive materials •Frequently enters groundwater supplies

NON POINT SOURCES OF POLLUTION Runoff from wastes

Carcass disposal

•Runoff from solid wastes from waste dumps; leakage from landfill sites •Runoff from medical wastes, including runoff from hospitals, health care centers and from medical laboratories •Runoff from agricultural fields and farmland containing a high level of pesticides and chemical fertilizers

•Disposal of hundreds of burnt and half burnt human bodies on a daily basis in major rivers including the Ganges, leading to infection and pollution of water •Disposal of bodies of dead animals including diseased and untreated livestock by framers and animal breeders, leading to infected water

Open defecation & cattle wallow •100000 tons of human excrement a day polluting Indian rivers, causing great difficulty to those using the river water for drinking and bathing, as well as holy dips etc •Cattle wallowing also contributes significantly to dirtying and polluting rivers

Why does pollution occur? In order to tackle river pollution, it is important to understand why it happens in the first place

Free Water – Use it, Abuse it! In India, water is a free commodity, and our rivers are too often treated as everyone’s right, but no one’s responsibility. Usage is indiscriminate and pollution unchecked

Polluting is Inexpensive Despite much ado about water pollution and norms, the sad fact of the matter is that people and companies alike know it is easy to flout the rules; hence, they flout them with scant regard for laws

No Accountability 1200 crores and not 1 cusec of cleaned water to show for it from the Yamuna Action Plan. Our government is as irresponsible and unaccountable as industrial polluters.

Key Governmental initiatives

Ganga Action Plan (GAP)

•Launched in 1986 by GOI with the broad aim of abating pollution and improving water quality •Lack of prior experience in implementing a project of this scale, inordinate delays, bureaucratic red tape, inefficiency and local body unconcern as well as non-release of funds by state governments have been described as some of the causes for the failure of the GAP

Status: failure

National River Conservation Plan (NCRP)

•A flagship scheme of Govt. of India, Ministry of Environment & Forest for abatement of pollution and conservation of rivers in the country •Currently projects for cleaning two rivers in MP are in progress •While the scheme is a step in the right direction, too often governmental inefficiencies and delay as well as public unconcern and lack of participation hinder serious progress

Status: in limbo

Yamuna Action Plan

•The largest river conservation plan of its kind in India, it is also deemed a failure thus far with the government officially that it will be unable to clean up the Yamuna before the Commonwealth Games and that another 7-8 are needed •Under failure for not being able to clean even one cusec of water despite over Rs. 1200 crore in expenditure Status: failure

CARE- A four point solution WHAT IS CARE? CARE is a four point solution that focuses on a localized citizens’ movement initiative involving the use of low cost technology to combat river pollution and work in tandem with government bodies. The four interrelated aspects of CARE are Citizenship(C). Available Technology (A) and Riverkeepers (R) and Enforcing Norms(E). WHY CARE? The idea behind CARE is that in a country the size of India, it is near impossible to bring about any large scale change without citizen awareness support. The central theme is the usage of available low cost technologies to effectively reduce pollution and revive clogged rivers; while at the same time enforcing the Polluter Pays principle where upstream users are excessively fined to compensate downstream users in case of excessive pollution.

HOW DOES CARE WORK? CARE works as a integrated process where each step complements the next. Together, the four steps CARE take care of both cleaning and maintaining clean river

Citizens Initiative

Available Technology

Enforcing Accountability

Riverkeepers

1. Citizen’s Initiatives WHAT DOES IT INVOLVE? •In each locality along a river or using a river, the river is divided into stretches of approximately 20 km, and citizen’s rights groups are formed consisting of people those who use the river for drinking water, bathing, or other purposes. •These people will now be responsible for systematically ensuring the cleaning up of the river in small batches, and ensuring that waste is not dumped into the river at its source. One simple way is to collect and dispose the waste that is dumped on river banks before it enters the water. WHY WILL THIS WORK? A citizen’s initiative is not only a powerful tool that collectivizes interested parties and harnesses the power of the people; considering the enormity of the task of cleaning long stretches of rivers, it becomes necessary that huge numbers of people engage themselves in the movement. WHAT DOES IT REQUIRE? •Awareness: Much of the pollution happening comes from households and open defecation as well as discarding carcasses. To prevent these instances from occurring or at least to narrow down their frequency, awareness needs to be built into the system. The best way to do this would be by involving citizens themselves into the movement. •Reward: The Government for its part should encourage such citizens’ activist groups from time to time with tangible monetary and other awards. Given such encouragement, there is a high chance that the level of pollution in rivers can be brought down with concerted effort.

2. Available , low cost Technology WHAT DOES IT INVOLVE? •Simple technology that we use in our daily lives can be a very powerful tool to tackle the issue of river pollution, and reduce the dependence on tradition water-harming chemical treatment. •One idea suggested here, inspired by NRI scientist Subijoy Dutta, is that air diffusers and simple floating or stationary aerosols be immersed in rivers along these 20 km stretches, which can be operated using pumps or generators. This regenerates the oxygen content in the water and improve levels of Biological Oxygen Demand.

HOW COST EFFECTIVE IS IT? •According to Dutta, a simple diffuser would cost around Rs. 20000 and could be immersed in rivers from point to point. •Even taking into account the highly polluted stretches of major rivers, the cost would not exceed or even equal that of the various river plans, which have failed to yield any result whatsoever. WHAT DOES IT REQUIRE? •Minimal investment in available technologies •Government funding and encouragement of organizations like CSIR and private bodies

Riverkeepers •Riverkeepers are ordinary citizens who assume the role of ‘river-keepers’ – literally, they will patrol and guard the river to ensure that people and industries are not polluting the river or releasing toxic material and substances into the river. It is a hugely successful concept in the West, but a relatively new idea to India. •These river-keepers are educated well regarding the do’s and don’ts of river usage. The moment they spot any discrepancy, they alert the authorities. They can also be legally given the right to take certain actions against those caught polluting.

Enforcing Norms •The Polluter Pays principle states that people pay for what they use; and those who pollute must pay for it- not the rest of society. Usage of water in general must be taxed higher; and upstream users, especially large-scale industrial polluters need to be taxed accordingly and fined at an increasing rate for higher levels for what they pollute in order to compensate downstream users. •This policy reduces pollution, supplements the CAR strategies and completes the four stage CARE model.

Select References

•http://www.ecofriends.org/main/eganga/images/Critical%20analysis%20of%20GAP.pdf •http://sify.com/news/nri-scientist-offers-solution-to-clean-yamuna-news-nationaljegmvIejcji.html •http://sankatmochan.tripod.com/GAPFailure.htm •http://www.cleanganga.com/articles/4.php •http://www.indianexpress.com/news/cant-clean-up-yamuna-before-the-games-sayssheila/480493/0

•http://www.potomacriverkeeper.org/what-we-do?task=blogsection