"Clean Ganges Mission," the new India plan to save their sacred river

New Delhi, December 20. - Concerned about the massive pollution suffered by the Ganges, the Government indicated or had to spend millions on a new game plan to purify the main sacred river of Hindus, which supports hundreds of millions of people .
"The situation is serious: there are areas with so much pollution that nothing can live in them. Pollution and excessive exploitation are the main problems of the river, "the expert told Efe Parikshit Gautam, World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).
This year the Government created the National Authority of the Ganges Basin (NGRBA), which decided at its first meeting in October, completely eliminate the discharge of untreated industrial wastewater into the river or by the year 2020.
But the task appears daunting: according to the Indian owner of the Environment, Jairam Ramesh, the Ganges every day receives 3,000 million liters in discharges, and two thirds of this spend to flow without any purification.
To address the alarming situation, the Government considers necessary investment of 3,200 million dollars over the next ten years in infrastructure facility in the "Clean Ganges Mission," to what already has support from the World Bank.
"(The river) is under pressure from expanding production, industries and urban development", said this month in New Delhi that organization's president, Robert Zoellick, having agreed an initial aid to the project of 1,000 million dollars.
"The Bank will begin its commitment to promote the exchange of relevant experiences. Hopefully this will help to improve the management of this large river basin that supports 400 million people in India alone, "he added.
After a plan dating from 1985 which, according to activists, ended in failure, the Government has now decided to divide the expense between central and regional, to be completed by cyclical reports on the status of the most polluted areas.
The Ganges basin fed by life to a third of the land that forms part of India and its passage through the continent not only testifies to the existence of ancient civilizations, but lends support to one in twelve people worldwide.
But it is also much more than a river Hindus consider it sacred and to go on pilgrimage every year millions of people, encouraged by the fact that its waters wash the sins only, but free of the cycle of rebirths.
When passing through the city of Varanasi, the Ganges contains 60,000 bacteria fecal coliforms per 100 milliliters, 120 times the safe limit for bathing, which does not deter pilgrims from entering its waters to purify themselves.
"The religious festivals are happening many years, there are many fairs. But this can be improved, for example taking hygiene measures for the river is not affected by poor sanitation, "said Gautam.
Apart from biological waste, numerous fur industries located on the banks dump waste chromium and other metals to river flow, which is under intense pressure from the massive construction of dams on its tributaries.
According to WWF, 95 percent of the Ganges water is diverted from its course before emptying, increasing the presence of sediments and causes death or migration of native species, such as the Gangetic dolphin.
"He is confined in some strips isolated from each other. We estimate that there are only about 2,000 dolphins in the gangético system and its population is in decline, "continued the expert, alert to the additional threat that may involve climate change.
The solution, he said, going to end industrial pollution and ensure a minimum level in the flow, which can only be achieved with the state plan "if the objectives and development are right", unlike what happened so far.

The river Ganges

Of all the rivers of the Indian subcontinent, the Ganges, by culture and tradition, is the most significant. Gangáticas flows through the plains of northern India, to Bangladesh, from its birth in the Western Himalayas, Indian policy in the region of Uttarakhand. Culminates a long journey of 2,510 miles to the Sundarbans delta in the Bay of Bengal. It has long been considered a holy river by Hindus and has been the subject of religion, understood as an incarnation of the goddess Ganga. It has also been important historically: many former provincial capitals or imperial (as Pataliputra, Kannauj, Kara, Allahabad, Murshidabad and Calcutta) were built on its banks. The Ganges and its tributaries irrigate a basin of a million square miles that serves as a staple food for millions of people, with one of the highest population densities in the world.

The symbolic meanings of the river to the Indian subcontinent were referenced in the year 1946 by the father of Indian independence, Jawaharlal Nehru in his Discovery of India.

"The Ganges River is mostly in India, which has held captive the heart of India and drawn uncounted millions to her banks since the dawn of history. The story of the Ganges from its source to the sea, from old times to new, is the history of civilization and culture of India, the rise and fall of empires, of great and proud cities, of adventures of man ... "

Currently suffering extreme pollution affects the river some 400 million people living nearby.

Course. The source of the Ganges in the Himalayas is in the geographical area of the small state of Uttarakhand in northern India. Is formed by the beginning confluence of many streams and sources, although the most important streams are the Alaknanda, the Nandakini, Pindar, Mandakini and Bhagirathi. The latter is the true source: born at the foot of the Gangotri Glacier at an altitude of 3,892 meters.

After flowing 200 kilometers through narrow valleys of the Himalayas, the Ganges flows into the plain gangática up to the pilgrimage town of Haridwar. There, a dam diverts some of its waters of the Ganges canal, which irrigates the Doab region in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. The Ganges, which until then travels to the southwest, turns around and heads towards the southeast, across the plains of northern India.

Draw a curve of 800 kilometers and visit the city of Kanpur before joining the river Yamuna, at the height of the city of Allahabad. This point is known as the Sangam in Allahabad. The Sangam is a sacred place in Hinduism. According to ancient Hindu EXTS t, a third river, the Sarasvati, joined at this point with the other two.

From Allahabad, several major rivers flow to meet the Ganges, the Kosi, Son, the Gandaki or Ghaghra, thereby forming a tremendous power between that city and Malda, and in Bengal. Between them lies the city of Benares. And near East Bengal (Bangladesh), India in 1974 raised the Farakka dam, which controls the flow of the river.

The entrance of the river in Bangladesh makes a tangle of relationships with some large rivers like the Jamuna or the Meghna, the two largest tributaries of the Brahmaputra. The Ganges delta spreads in a large 350 km wide, and finally dies in the Bay of Bengal. Only two rivers, the Amazon and the Congo, carry a water flow greater than the system of rivers Ganges, Brahmaputra and Surma-Meghna.

Religious significance. Located on the banks of river Ganges, the city of Varanasi is considered by some as the most sacred in Hinduism and some people in the water spreads the ashes of loved ones dead. The Ganges is mentioned in the Rig Veda, the earliest of the Hindu scriptures. Appears in the Nadistuti sukta (Rig Veda 10.75), which lists the rivers from east to west. There is another reference to the word "Ganga" (RV 6.45.31) in the text, but it is unclear whether it refers to the river.

According to the Hindu religion, the famous king Bhagiratha held constant sacrifice times for many years to make the river Ganges, then in heaven down to earth, and thus give salvation to his ancestors, affected by a curse. Ganga came down to earth using the bow of Shiva, to make the land fertile again and pious, and sinless human. For Hindus in India, the Ganges is a river: a mother, a goddess, a tradition, a culture.

Some Hindus also believe that life is incomplete without bathing in the Ganges at least once in life. Many Hindu families keep a box of Ganges water in your home. This is done because it gives prestige at home to keep water from the sacred Ganges, so that if someone dies, you can drink some of that water. For many Hindus, drinking the Ganges can cleanse the soul of the person from all past sins, and can also cure the disease. The old scriptures say that the water of Ganges carries the blessing of the feet of Vishnu, hence the mother Ganges is known as Vishnupadi, meaning "emanating from the lotus feet of Sri Vishnu god supermodel."

The Ganges hosts some of the Hindu festivals and major religious congregations. Particular note is the Kumbh Mela, held every twelve years in Allahabad. Varanasi-known in India like Varanasi, has hundreds of temples along the banks of the Ganges, often flooded in the rainy season. The city is also a point of prayer and cremation for the deceased.

Swamps. There are two large reservoirs in the Ganges. One, near the source in the city of Haridwar diverts much of the snow melt from the Malaysian Hi Upper Ganges Canal, built by the British in 1854 to irrigate nearby lands. This caused a serious deterioration of water flow, and is a major cause of the unsuitability of the river to river uses.

The other major reservoir is in Farakka, near the point at which the main flow of the river enters Bangladesh . The barrier feeds the branch known as Hooghly River through a 26-mile canal, which was the subject of constant disputes with Bangladesh. Although the conflict looks set solution, the failure of the negotiations has hurt both countries for two decades. Bangladesh protest because the current lack of summer has caused increased sedimentation and exposed the country to flooding. Likewise, is controversial plan to improve the flow of water in the Ganges. The water management problem may actually affect other basin countries like Nepal, where there has been massive deforestation and increased silt.

Ganges is likely to carry more water in Roman times, when the present Patna was the great port city of Pataliputra. As late as the eighteenth century, the ships of the East India Company came to Allahabad. Today, silt prevents these types of communications for deep vessels.

History. During the early Vedic period, the Indus and the Sarasvati river, and not the Ganges, were the principals. But the later three Vedas seem to give more importance to the Ganges, if you look at the references.

The first Westerner to mention the existence of the Ganges was Megasthenes possibly. He did several times in his "Indika".

" India is , again, has many large rivers and waterways, which have their sources in the mountains of the northern border and cross the country level, and not a few of them, after uniting with each other, flow into the river called the Ganges. This river, which at its source is 30 stadia broad, flows from north to south and empties into the ocean, which forms the eastern border of Gangaridai, a nation with a vast force of large elephants. "

In the landmark Piazza Navona in Rome, a famous sculpture, Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi (source of four rivers), designed by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, emphasizes the importance of the Ganges. Built in 1651, symbolizing four major rivers of the world (apart from the Ganges, the Nile, the Danube and the Rio de la Plata).

Economy. Ganges Basin with its fertile soil, is key for agricultural production in India and Bangladesh. The Ganges and its tributaries provide a perennial source of irrigation to a large area. The main crops grown include rice, sugarcane, lentils, oil seeds, potatoes and wheat. On the banks of the river, the presence of wetlands and lakes favor an area of ​​crops such as vegetables, pepper, mustard, sesame, sugarcane and jute. The river offers fishing areas, but is very polluted.

Tourism is another related activity. Three holy cities, Haridwar, Allahabad and Varanasi attract thousands of pilgrims each year to its waters. Thousands of Hindus come to bathe in the Ganges, because they think the river will cleanse the sins and help attain salvation. The rapids of the Ganges are popular for rafting and attract hundreds of adventurers in the summer months. Muslims in India and Bangladesh resort to wudu, a religious cleansing of the body for prayer in the river Ganges.

People. Ganges sediments formed temporary islands in the area of Bengal. Each provides ground for 20,000 people. His land is very fertile and provide good nutrition to livestock, but may disappear within hours, as the river level rises, as during the monsoon. The inhabitants of these islands, sedimentary ("chars") are usually Bangladeshi refugees, so that the Indian government does not recognize its existence in fact or issue ID cards. Hygiene in these sediments is zero and there are no health services or schools, so that illiteracy is rampant. These people pay taxes.

Pollution and ecology. The river Ganges has been considered one of the dirtiest in the world. The waters of the river begin to suffer contamination from the source. Commercial exploitation of the river was in proportion to population growth, as in the cities of Gangotri and Uttarkashi: Gangotri had only a few huts until the 70 sadhus and Uttarkashi population has increased in recent years. In its course through densely populated Ganges pollution suffering human-bacterial, fecal-, so its water consumption at high risk of infection. Proposals have been made to remedy the situation, without success. In Varanasi, it is clear river pollution, industrial discharges subject to. On their way through the city, the river contains 60,000 faecal bacteria per 100 milliliters, 120 times the safe limit for bathing.

Climate change. Rising global temperatures are making a real difference on Tibetan glaciers, and thus on the Ganges. It is believed that the gradual disappearance of glaciers will threaten water supplies from rivers Indus and Ganges. According to a UN climate published in 2007, the Himalayan glaciers that feed the Ganges could disappear by 2030. From that point, the river current would result purely seasonal monsoon.

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The Ganges, threatened and sacred

New Delhi, 21 March 2007. - From the glaciers of the Himalayas to the distant shores of Bengal, the Ganges, Hindu holy river and a livelihood for tens of millions of people, faces two serious threats: pollution and overexploitation.
"The river is facing alarming levels of pollution and overexploitation of resources, which is the reason why in some places one can walk where once was water," he told Efe Parikshit Gautam, CEO of World Wildlife Fund ( WWF initials in English).
The Ganges basin fed by life to a third of the land that forms part of India, and its passage through the continent not only testifies to the existence of ancient civilizations, but sustains millions of families, to the point that one of every twelve people on Earth lives under its influence.
However, human activity itself, which acquires its meaning and way of life around the river, the Ganges that puts at risk the agricultural and industrial uses of the land, while river flow appears increasingly thin by the limited contribution of its tributaries, content, increasingly, even swamps.
The massive construction of dams weakens the natural river flow and prevents sediment reaching the mouth, which favors the salinization of the area and with it the death or migration of native species, the WWF warned in a report released this days.
At the end of its cycle, in the Sunderbans delta, the organization estimates that 95 percent of the water of the Ganges has been diverted flow, which affects a rise in sea levels and increased salinity that puts endangered ecosystems, india news agency ANI.
"Many farmers divert river water for their crops, sometimes illegally, which together with the proliferation of wetlands and contamination forced to take measures to avoid facing an irreversible situation," Gautam told Efe.
Along the banks of the Ganges, many fur industries discharging waste water in their chromium and other metals, which will later stop for pilgrims who come to purify their bodies in the sacred volume.
Because the Ganges river is also the foundation of Hindu theology, and he come on pilgrimage million people each year, encouraged by the fact that its waters wash not only sins, but that release of the cycle of rebirths.
Ignoring the wild levels of pollution, many Hindus saved with a bowl of holy water from the river waiting to ingest just before he died and have therefore, according to oral tradition, his soul ascends to heaven.
In this range of problems are also linked to climate change, whose effects threaten an ecosystem made ​​up of over 140 species of fish, 90 amphibians and the endangered Gangetic dolphin.
"Glaciers account for between 30 and 40 percent of the water of the Ganges, and between 70 and 80 percent for the Indus River. Studies are needed to determine the impact of melting glaciers on stream flow, "he told the newspaper" The Times of India "Sejal Worah, another spokesman for WWF.
However, concerns about the abandonment of the river is not new, and by 1985 the government launched an action plan of the Ganges (Ganga Action Plan), that 22 years later is considered a "failure" by Gautam.
"The plan has no substantial results, even though their goals were wide: he wanted to stop pollution and reintroduce species, but was not well implemented because it required an effort of coordination at many levels," said the activist.
That plan was devised earlier by the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, perhaps influenced by his father, the head of government Jawaharlal Nehru.
"From its source to the sea, the Ganges is the history of Indian civilization," said the historic former Indian prime minister.
Alien to man but under the constant influence, the Ganges continues its 2,510 miles of water stanza eternal, silent chronicler of the successes and misfortunes of their children, "from the old days, Nehru said the new".