The presentation focuses on how Ganga Action Plan came into existance, flaws in implementation etc.

1. SUBMITTED BY:
SUMIT
SHARMA
GANGAACTION PLAN

2. WHY GANGA ACTION PLAN
There is some scientific evidence for the
Ganga river’s high capacity to assimilate
(i.e.biodegrade) a large level of organic
waste input, includingpathogens,
but no river can sustain its self-purifying
power with this kind of over-use,misuse
and abuse of its waters

3. INITIATIVES
Directed
• The Ganga Action Plan (GAP) originated from the
personal intervention and interest of
our late Prime Minister Mrs Indira Gandhi

4. • Central Board for the Prevention
and Control of Water Pollution
[Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB)]
a comprehensive survey of the
situation in 1979.
To give
report

5. CPCB published two comprehensive
reports which formed the base for
GAP in
Oct 1984
was not
presented to the nation formally due to
assassination of
Smt. Indira Gandhi.

6. • In Feb 1985, the Central Ganga Authority (CGA)
with the PM as Chairman was formed
• with an initial budget of Rs 350 crore to administer the
cleaning of the Ganga and to restore it to pristine condition
by our late PM Sh. Rajiv
Gandhi.
• In June 1985, the Ganga Project Directorate
(GPD) was established as a wing of the
Department of Environment.
• GAP was launched on June 14, 1986 by
Rajiv Gandhi at
Varanasi

7. Rajiv Gandhi in his inaugural speech said:
“We shall see that the waters of the Ganga
become clean once again…..In the years to
come, not only the Ganga, but all our rivers will be
clean and pure as they werethousands of years
ago”.

8. Bathing standards
BOD 3 mg/l max.
DO 5 mg/l min.
Total Coliform MPN 10,000/100 ml
Faecal Coliform MPN 2,500/100 ml
According to the designated best use classification of the CPCB, the river has
been classified as under:
1. From origin to Hardwar Class A
2. From Hardwar to confluence with river Roopnarayan in Bengal delta Class
B
3. From Roopnarayan confluence to the Haldi confluence Class
D
4. From Haldi confluence to Bay of Bengal Saline
stretch
• According to official standards, water safe for bathing should not contain more than
500 faecal coliforms per 100ml, yet upstream of Varanasi's ghats the river water
already contains 120 times as much, 60,000 faecal coliform bacteria per 100 ml.

9. SO THE PROBLEM CAN BE SUMMARISED AS
AS RIVER MOVES FURTHER IT GETS MORE AND MORE
POLLUTED AND
THEREFORE
 INDUSTRAL , MEDICAL AND SEWAGE WASTE
SHOULD BE TREATED IN THE BEST POSSBLE WAY
 MORE FOCUS ON R&D WORK IN WASTE MANAGEMENT TO
FIND BETTER SOLUTION TO SUCH PROBLEMS

10.  The GAP-I envisaged to intercept, divert and treat 882 mld
(Million litres per day) out of 1340 mld of wastewater, generated in
25 class-I towns in 3 States of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West
Bengal. The NRCD had scheduled the GAP-I for completion by
March 1990, but extended it progressively up to March 2000.
While the GAP-I was still in progress, the CGA decided in
February 1991 to take up the GAP-II, covering the following
pollution abatement works:
 (a) On the tributaries of river Ganga, viz. Yamuna, Damodar and
Gomati.
 (b) In 25 class-I towns left out in Phase-I.
 (c) In the other polluting towns along the river.

13. • The Ganga Action Plan Phase I has failed on key
counts both quantitatively and qualitatively.
• Quantitative failure : the failure to tap significantly
the discharge of raw domestic sewage and raw
tannery effluents from entering the river waters.
• Qualitative failure : failure of the treatment plants to
treat the tannery effluent and sewage to the desired
and safe levels
FAILURE OF GAP PHASE I

14. • The GAP I was extended as GAP II from 1993
onwards covering 4 major tributaries of Ganga,
namely, Yamuna, Gomti, Damodar and Mahananda.
• The program was further broad-based in 1995 with
the inclusion of other rivers and renamed as National
River Conservation Plan (NRCP).
• Ganga could not be cleaned but 34 other rivers have
been
taken up for cleaning with the same failed model of
“GAP”.

15. Failures of GAP II
GAP aimed to tackle 2794 mld of sewage; 882 mld under
the GAP-I and 1912 mld under the GAP-II. The NRCD
records put the estimates of total sewage generation in
towns along river Ganga and its tributaries as 5044 mld.
Delhi alone accounts for 2270 mld. The GAP-II was to tackle
only 20 mld in Delhi, and Delhi Government was to handle
the balance 2250 mld separately from augmentation of its
own available installed capacity.

16. • Main failure point of was that it was dealing with only a small quantity of waste efflu
• Other reason was that it did nothing for non point sources of pollution

17. CAUSAS OF POLLUTION
(A) AREAS INFESTED WITH OPEN DEFECATION,
(B) DISPOSAL OF HALF BURNT OR UNBURNT DEAD BODIES AND
(C) RUN-OFF FROM SOLID WASTE AND GARBAGE DUMPS WERE ALSO
TAKEN UP UNDER THE PROGRAMME.
MEASURES DONE
i. Activities for construction and improvement of bathing ghats to provide a clean
and hygienic access to the river were also part of the Action Plan.
ii. Pollution of the river from grossly polluting industries has been monitored and
controlled under the existing Environmental Laws without any public investment
except for a common effluent treatment plant (CETP) at Kanpur.

18. Effects of pollution in Ganga
Chromium based industrial waste causes
• Threat to biodiversity
• Skin infection caused by polluted water

19. Why this photo?
because
GAP is not merely based on river GANGA
It also depends on its TRIBUTARIES

20. • In June 2011, Swami Nigamanand died after
a 73 day fast initiated to raise awareness of
the illegal mining being done in Haridwar and
polluting the river.
• Now swami Dayanand has started anshaan
against the mining practices being done near
Ganga in Haridwar
RECENT WORKS

22. WHAT CAN BE DONE
• Public investment (giving tax benefits)should be promoted.
• People should be given employment in NREGA or there
should be a parallel scheme to clean ganga and generate
employment
• Social activists like Baba Ramdev, Shri Shri Ravishankar are
trying to
aware people and also providing funds to clean GANGA
• Whenever there comes talk about ganga only HINDU
PARTICIPATION is thought and MUSLIMS are not taken into
consideration ,so their participation should be promoted.

23. QUALITY OF WATER
Although the river water quality along Kanpur and Varanasi has improved significantly, it
still does not meet the prescribed standard of BOD of 3 mg/l. This is mainly because:
• Only 160 out of 425 mld at Kanpur and about 100 out of 160 mld of sewage at
Varanasi has been taken up for interception and diversion under GAP I.
• The river stretch from Farrukhabad to Varanasi in general and Kanpur in
particular is critical in terms of the availability of the desired minimum flow for
dilution purpose.
The quality of river water quality monitoring leavesThe quality of river water quality
monitoring leaves much to be desired.
• There is lack of transparency and professionalism in this effort.
Impact on health
• According to official standards, water safe for bathing should not contain more than
500 faecal coliforms per 100ml, yet upstream of Varanasi's ghats the river water
already contains 120 times as much, 60,000 faecal coliform bacteria per 100 ml.

24. We can summarize that at last waste (effluent)
ultimately has to go to the water bodies so we
must try for better technology so that quality of
river water and sea water should not be affected.