Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) has identified a total of 764 Grossly Polluting Industries (industry discharging more than pollution load of Biochemical Oxygen Demand 100kg per day) along the entire stretch of river Ganga and its tributaries.
This information was given by Union Minister of State for Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation Vijay Goel in a written reply in Lok Sabha today.
He also said that from December 2015 to January 2017, 573 inspections have been carried out by CPCB covering 302 GPIs. 141 units were found to be complying with stipulated norms, 96 were found non-complying and 65 were found closed. Closure directions were issued to 45 non-complying units, show cause notices to 37 and letters to 14 non-complying units.
He also said that the government has recently launched a survey in river Ganga to determine the population of aquatic life including that of the endangered Gangetic dolphin. National Mission for Clean Ganga has entrusted Wild Life Institute of India (WII), Dehradun to carry out a comprehensive survey of the aqua life of Ganga. As part of this project WII has initiated a standardized multi- species focus field survey throughout the Ganga River stretch. The survey focuses on the Gangetic Dolphin, Otter, Crocodiles, Fresh water turtles, migratory and breeding water birds, Amphibians, Fish and aquatic insects.
He also said that under Namami Gange Programme a holistic approach has been adopted to clean the river Ganga. The various types of pollution abatement schemes taken up to clean Ganga may be categorized into core and non-core schemes. Core schemes include Interception and Diversion (I&D) of sewage discharging into the Ganga and creating treatment infrastructure to treat the intercepted sewage. Non-Core schemes include providing Low Cost Sanitation (LCS) at community and individual levels at identified locations, installation of Crematoria (electric as well as wood based improved crematoria), River Front Development(RFD) including bathing ghats, river surface cleaning, afforestation, protecting biodiversity and creating public awareness and participation.
Water quality monitoring of river Ganga in five states is carried out on monthly basis by respective State Pollution Control Boards (SPCBs). The annual variation in water quality parameters does not indicate any sustained improvement or degradation in water quality and the long term trends only can show the improvement or degradation in water quality.
The four stretches of river Ganga where Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD) levels are more than permissible limits, as monitored by CPCB, is given in table below:
In other stretches, BOD levels are within permissible limit i.e = <3mg/l. However, as per monitoring reports of CPCB, the minister said, the entire stretch of river Ganga has high levels of faecal coliform against the prescribed standard.
