Ganga pollution: After NGT’s rap, UP chalks out two-month plan for Mahakumbh

Uttar Pradesh plans a two-month strategy to address Ganga pollution ahead of Mahakumbh-2025, focusing on 34 drains and sewage treatment efforts.

Reprimanded by the National Green Tribunal (NGT) over pollution in the Ganga, the authorities in Uttar Pradesh have zeroed in on a two-month plan for the Mahakumbh-2025.

Devotees offer prayers on the banks of holy river Ganga (For Representation)

The key challenges include 34-untapped drains and the low level of water in the river. According to the NGT, these drains are discharging 128 MLD (million litres per day) waste water into the Ganga in Prayagraj.

As the monsoon retreated from the state by the first week of October, the water level will go down due to lack of rain by December-end in the Ganga, which flows from Bijnor to Ballia in Uttar Pradesh, even as the demand for irrigation will go up.

Chief secretary Manoj Kumar Singh conducted a high-level meeting with officials across departments and a plan for short-term and long-term measures were discussed for Prayagraj and the districts from where the Ganga flows towards Sangam City.

Screening, ponding with biological and chemical processing and filtration at the point of discharge of the drain will be done in Prayagraj.

Screening will reduce waste matter and carcasses flowing in the drain. Ponding of drain water with biological and chemical process will break the heavy pollutants. Filtration will weed out heavy waste.

With the water level bound to dip, the BOD (biochemical oxygen demand) will worsen. Unpolluted water has 0.7 miligrams per litre (mg/l). In moderately polluted water, this level is between 2 and 8. It is over 8 mg/l in severely polluted water.

The data available on November 5 showed the BoD level in the Ganga in Prayagraj was 2.8 mg/l at the Sangam point.

“Under long-term measures, sewage treatment plants (STPs) have been planned for these drains. With short-term measures, we hope to improve the water quality as per the required norm before Mahakumbh-2025,” said Uttar Pradesh Pollution Control Board (UPPCB) chairman Ravindra Pratap Singh.

Among short-term solutions, flow of fresh water from the Narora canal will be attempted to improve the BoD level. This will be done if the previous measures do not show the impact as desired.

The UPPCB has also made a roster for industries where the units, emitting effluents in the rivers, will remain shut for specific periods near the Shahi Snan days at the Mahakumbh-2025.

This roster will decide which district will keep their industrial units closed on which dates, keeping in view the river distance of the district from Prayagraj.