Indian rivers heading for disaster

It is on account of huge untreated sewage flowing into the rivers, says a CSE study. Chetan Chauhan reports.

Updated on: Feb 18, 2007, 17:52:00 IST

None | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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Not just Yamuna, many Indian rivers are heading for an environmental disaster, a new study by the Centre for Science and Environment predicts.

It is on account of huge untreated sewage flowing into the rivers. Of 27.022 million litres of sewage generated every day, there is treatment capacity for only 18.6 per cent and of that, just 13.5 per cent is treated before discharge into rivers, lakes and the ocean.

In Mumbai, 90 per cent of sewage generated within the municipal council area and over 50 per cent in the municipal corporation area goes untreated and flows into the Arabian sea and creeks. In Chennai, after spending Rs 355 crore, rivers Adyar and Cooum run polluted. In Delhi, Yamuna is almost dead because of untreated sewage flowing into the river, the study states.

The report, Sewage Canal, quoted a Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) survey of 115 sewage treatment plants (STPs) — of the total 269, saying that as many as 45 plants did not meet the standards for discharge of the affluent, pointing a finger over the government policy of installing STPs for cleaning rivers.

The river, the yet to be released report says, are fast losing their ability to assimilate, regenerate and revive themselves. "If we do nothing to change this scenario, many other rivers will be in the same state (as Yamuna is)," the report alerts.

Stating that building sewage treatment plants (STPS) is not the solution, the report recommends reuse and recycle of sewage, rather than discharging it into a river.

Moreover, India may not be able to afford the huge cost of treating all sewage — estimated to be Rs 7,655 crores. But, the actual requirement of funds may be higher as most don't have data on actual generation of sewage. "In many cities people depend on private ground water for their needs. This is not accounted in the waste sums," the report states, giving Delhi's example where the city generates 3,864 MLD of sewage against Delhi Jal Board's claim of 2,940 MLD.

The report, which looks into the death of Yamuna, also questions the government data on river water pollution levels. In 2003, the ministry of Environment and Forests, found an improvement in biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) from 18.5 in 2001 to 6.1 mg/l at Kanpur in river Ganga. This reduction in BOD should have resulted in increase in dissolved oxygen (Do) level. But, as per the ministry's own data the DO level fell.

The CSE also pointed out that government's intervention under National River Conservation Plan (NRCP) failed to have its desired impact. Two examples quoted are of river Godavari in Nashik and Krishna, where even after spending 80 per cent of the sanctioned amount, the pollution level did not fall much.

Email Chetan Chauhan: chetan@hindustantimes.com

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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