namami-gange-modi-s-life-mission-remains-stench-ridden-and-polluted

The Indian government has been striving to clean the Ganga since the inception of the Ganga Action Plan in 1985, leading up to the National Ganga River Basin Project in 2008. The latest addition to these efforts is the Namami Gange Programme, launched in 2014.

 

In 2014, the Indian government initiated the most recent in a series of projects aimed at purifying the Ganga's waters. However, in the city of Varanasi, results appear to be mixed.

 

Named Namami Gange under Modi's tenure, the project was declared in May 2014 as Modi’s "life’s mission." According to a report from 2021, only 20% of the sewage plant of the Rs 20,000 crore scheme had been completed. The National Mission for Clean Ganga aims to add 7,000 million litres of sewage treatment capacity by 2026. This reflects the status of the PM’s ‘life’s mission’ after ten years in power.

 

Varanasi, a city of 3.6 million, is also the constituency of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who assumed power in 2014. He pledged a cleaner Ganga through his governance and policies, promptly launching the flagship Namami Gange programme, which advocates a "scientific" approach to reducing the river’s pollution and enhancing conservation and rejuvenation efforts.

 

According to the Central Pollution Control Board of India (CPCB), approximately Rs 20,000 crores (USD 2.14 billion) was spent cleaning the Ganga between 1986 and 2014. Since 2014, an additional Rs 25,000 crores (USD 3 billion) has been allocated, with over Rs 13,000 crores (USD 1.57 billion) spent by October 2022. The government has also shifted its policies, adopting a highly technical approach to cleaning the river.

 

 

 

The government asserts that the project and its technology-first approach have achieved success where previous efforts failed. In January, the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh claimed that the Ganga was now so clean that foreign diplomats bathed in it and dolphins reappeared.

 

Visually, Varanasi’s stretch of the river, where tourists offer prayers and bathe in the water, appears cleaner than before 2014, with rubbish and floating filth seemingly removed.

 

Also Read: 10 years of Modi: Pension cuts & declining support leaves India's elderly vulnerable

 

In a response provided to the Indian parliament last year, the Ministry of Jal Shakti, which oversees water issues, stated that between 2018 and 2021, there was a significant improvement in the state of the river. "None of the Ganga Stretches [where pollution levels were tested along the river] are in Priority Category I to IV, and only two stretches are in Priority Category V,” it said. Category I indicates that water is ‘critically polluted’, whereas Category V denotes water that is ‘fit for bathing.’ However, the CPCB report quoted by the minister did not mention the same.

 

Nonetheless, it is apparent that waste continues to be dumped into the Ganga. Industries still dispose of chemicals and heavy metals via the river, while households contribute kitchen and toilet waste. Household sewage is the primary source of pollution in the Ganga. In Varanasi, cremations persist, and floating corpses often make a distressing appearance.

 

Also Read: How much has India’s economy really improved under PM Modi in 10 years

 

In its analysis, the Sankat Mochan Foundation found that Ganga water samples taken from the nearly 5-kilometre stretch from Assi to Namo Ghat did not meet government targets. Rather than improving, the NGO stated that water quality in this stretch of the Ganga in Varanasi has consistently degraded.

 

The most recent audit report of the Namami Gange project by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India, the country’s autonomous auditing agency, from 2017 noted “deficiencies in financial management, planning, implementation and monitoring, which led to delays in achieving milestones under the programme.”

 

Moreover, the Uttar Pradesh Pollution Control Board (UPPCB) has been accused of using unscientific methods to measure and produce debatable reports on water quality in the Ganga. A 2022 order by the Allahabad High Court critiqued the UPPCB for its monitoring and found a “variation in results” in reports submitted by the UPPCB compared to IIT Varanasi and the nearby Banaras Hindu University (BHU) from sampling at the same spots.