Haaye Ram Teri Ganga Bahut Maili

Haaye Ram Teri Ganga Bahut Maili

“Over 14 million liters of raw sewage with floating fecal matter flow into the Ganga every day at Haridwar from just two drains,” said Dr. Anil Gautam, Head, Environmental Quality Monitoring Group at People’s Science Institute (PSI) in Dehra Doon. Dr. Gautam was releasing the results of a survey undertaken by his team in Haridwar last month. (See attached data sheet.) These drains are at Lalta Rao bridge (S-3 in the map) and at Jwalapur (S-5).

It may be recalled that in response to a question in the Vidhan Sabha last month, Shri B.S. Chufal, Uttarakhand’s Minister for Environment emphatically declared that no sewage flows directly into the Ganga at any point.

According to Shri R.K. Joshi of the Ganga Pollution Control Unit in Haridwar six major drains and over a dozen small ones empty straight into the River Ganga at Haridwar. PSI’s team measured the effluents quality at nine outfalls (marked S-1 to S-9 on the map). “These drains carry about 20 tons of organic matter, almost 37.5 tons of suspended solids and about 24,000 trillion fecal coliform into the river every day and pollute it,” says Dr. Gautam. “It is amazing that the quality of effluents coming out of the Sewage Treatment Plant at Jagjeetpur (S-9) is almost the same as that of the untreated effluents flowing into the Ganga from the other drains,” he added.

Drain S-1, upstream of Har-ki-Pauri, releases about 2.4 million liters per day (MLD) into the Ganga. These effluents contain 31.3 million fecal coliform per 100 ml. and a BOD content of 140 mg/liter. This is a serious health hazard for millions of devotees who bathe at the Ghats and perform other rituals. The situation is critical since over 50 million devotees are expected to visit Haridwar during the Maha Kumbh next year to bathe in the river. It is still not clear if any of the Rs.400 crores special grant from the Central Government will be spent on ensuring that the river is pollution free during the mela.

Everyday the nine drains studied release over 80 million liters of wastewater into the river. The fecal coliform count in these drains ranges from 11.79 to 51.79 million/100ml. and the Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD) varies between 80 to 465 mg/l. The BOD values obtained from all the sites are much higher than the standard limit of 30 mg/l set by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) for treated waste water. The BOD value of the treated wastewater released into the Ganga from the sewage treatment plant at Jagjeetpur, set up under the Ganga Action Plan, is 180 mg/l, six times higher than CPCB’s standard limit.

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For further information please contact: Dr. Anil Gautam, 9412176896 (M)

Mr. Pavitra Singh, 9410706109 (M)

Water Quality of sewer drains joining the River Ganga at Haridwar

Site Code	Location	Parameters
		BOD (mg/l)	COD (mg/l)	TSS (mg/l)	FC,(million/100 ml)	Daily discharge (MLD)
S-1	Sewer drain before fall out into the Ganga Canal d/s of LokNath Ghat	140	240	70	31.29	2.4
S-2	Laltarao bridge Nala fall out into Ganga d/s Gujrala Bhawan	205	320	2235	41.09	8.6
S-3	Sewer drain fall out into Lalatarao bridge Nala come from Vishnu Bhawan side	239	348	480	21.89	2.0
S-4	Kassaban Nala, Jwalapur *	270	520	80	29.98	17
S-5	Sewer drain at Jwalapur *	465	720	523	34.68	12.4
S-6	BHEL Nala at Jwalapur *	190	280	164	35.69	13.8
S-7	Ranipur drain d/s Sanskrit Bhawan ,Ranipur mod	145	235	105	51.79	5.1
S-8	Jagjeetpur Nala near Matri Sadan fall out into Ganga river	80	120	18	11.79
S-9	Jagjeetpur STP final out let before confluence with the River Ganga	180	400	356	30.89	18 (as per STP capacity)

Abbreviations: BOD-Biological Oxygen Demand, COD-Chemical Oxygen Demand, TSS-Total Suspended Solids, FC-Fecal Coliform, MLD- million liter per day

* Drainages are falling into upper Ganga Canal

source: Peoples' Science Institute, 252/I Vasant Vihar, Dehra Doon 248006, Uttarakhand. INDIA

phone: +91 135 2773849; 2763649, fax: +91 135 2763186, 2762516, psiddoon@gmail.com, psiddoon@rediffmail.com