What should be the indicators considered for the success of the Ganges clean up program?

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What should be the indicators considered in the evaluation of the success of the Ganges clean up program in order to establish credibility of the utilization of public funds?

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25 Answers

  1. Hi Vidhya, that is a very complex question for there is no single set of answers and most will be relative. All I can say is that something can and must be done.

  2. Partial indicators sufficient?

    Yes, BOD, COD, TOC will give partial information about the success of Ganges clean up program and sometimes they might be misleading too. 

    1. Ganga is NOT subjected to pollution from organic load only. 

    2. Vast number of industries dispose effluents that contains toxic metals like Lead, Chromium, Mercury etc into Ganga. BOC, COD, TOC indicate very little or nothing about these toxic metals.

    3. Same with pesticide load from agriculture.

    4. Above all, Ganga is facing challenge to maintain adequate flows to sustain ecosystem. BOD, COD and TOC does convey nothing about this very vital information.

    So, BOD, COD and TOC convey half information that might mislead the very success of any clean up program. (If the purpose is to offer loopholes for industries and corruption in the system to sustain and flourish, then only BOD, COD and TOC are sufficient).

     

  3. A method of indication would simply be monitoring the health of the general public in direct contact with the environment local to the Ganges. And spend as much of the funding as possible on waste water treatment, policing discharge regulations and awareness of the threats involved to human health.

  4. Grey water footprint

    Dear Vidhya, have you considered applying the grey water footprint as an indicator of water pollution? The grey water footprint measures the volume of water required to assimilate the load of chemicals added to the water in a basin as a result of human activities. The grey water footprint in a basin can then be compared with the assimilation capacity in a river basin to estimate the water pollution level. See for all details the Water Footprint Assessment Manual: http://www.waterfootprint.org/?page=files/WaterFootprintAssessmentManual. Warm regards, Arjen 

  5. Of criteria to measure the success of the mission: the safety of aquatic measuring, the proportion of diarrhea among children, and stomach ailments, and tests of water purity

  6. Dear All, It is an important point, which needs serious thought. all the indicators as mentioned above by different participants in this Discussion, are fair enough. However for success of such River Cleaning Programme, one should not underestimate even the self-purification capabilities of water bodies. So the Dry Weather Flow in the River is also an important aspect, while looking for all the indicator qualities. All weather ecological flow of water needs to be considered to know the dilution effects for the pollutants, if any. Another important indicator may be the pollutants loads from different outfalls into the River. For all the Cities / Towns along the River Ganga of any other Major River in India, the task of establishing the Sewerage Network alongwith Sewage Treatment Plant might not be a feasible option immediately at this point of time. So all the Waste Outfalls / Drainage Channels leading to the River should be initiated as a points of Bioremediation, which may eventually grow the scope for reuse or recycle for different meaningful purposes. Finally as a whole the the pollutants loads to the Rivers might get reduced. Thanking All. Regards.

  7. Col. Islam ul Haque

    1. The physical , biological and chemical set of indicators will confirm credible clean up of Ganga River; like

        a. The desired colour, pH , oder and taste are the ruling indicators which will determine  the suitability  of the physical parameter of the river  water quality.

       b.  The EPA accepted levels of BOD, COD and DO limits/levels which are good enough for the survival of aquatic life.

    2. The soundness of sustainable river water quality monitoring mechanisms in the post clean up operation will ensure the credible clean up operation.

    3.  The effectiveness and degree of community mobilization and participation will also indicate the clean up operation effectiveness and sustainability. 

     

  8. Landscape management indicators are necessary, as the condition and management of the landscape is directly correlated to the Ganges. And, if one just uses instream indicators, it does not provide information about what could be done, only if it is good, bad or somewhere between. "Smart" indicators are those that provide a basis and platform for improvements. Here is a mature system, but a more rudimentary process can be applied: https://prezi.com/pvx9r5dykawt/the-role-of-shared-governance/ A governance indicator should also be applied. If the issue is technical, social, political, ecological -so too should the indicators.

  9. Starting from organic carbons, DO and E.coli, and nutrients (N, P) should be considered further in improvement processes

    For the water quality parameters, the answer (comments) from Bruno Peeters seems to be a good answer. BOD, DO and E.coli have been basic parameters for the river water quality especially with deteriorated water quality. After water quality improvement, e.g. BOD

    For the indicators to control pollutant discharge, point sources especially from municipal wastewater as well as industry sources should be targeted. Pollutant discharge per capita (PDC) would be an important parameter for management and planning municipal wastewater pollutant discharges.

  10. The first thing, first to do is to realize that pure drinkable water is the most precious natural resources we humans have on planet Earth but sadly the volume or percentage of pure drinkable water to the volume of our planet Earth is a mere 0.02%. Meaning that a misuse of such precious natural resources will only spell our doom. Use water wisely. Thank you.

  11. Many excellent points raised about the efficacy of clean up program for Ganges. I believe one should consider the aquatic life development within the River basin stretch under consideration after clean up too. I am not sure whether the clean up programs are considering the impact of pollutants released from the sediments after or during clean up. As a significant amount of pollutants might be present in the deposited sediments in the river bed, they may tend to release in the water column above. I have never seen any report on sediment studies on Ganges. Would love to see how polluted the sediments are and how can they affect the overall clean up task by becoming a source/pool of pollutants.

  12. Indicators

    This is a good question. I would suggest general groupings of indicators - socio-cultural, political, economic, and environmental. There are quite a few models that suggest different parameters within these general groupings. I can share a model developed by Aaron Wolf and his research group on a dam assessment project called IDAM. http://rivers.bee.oregonstate.edu/integrative-dam-assessment-modelling-idam

    Although this was assessing dams, it is a good multifaceted model for river health assessment in general. Hope this helps! 

  13. Dear Vidhya Chittoor Vishwanathan, All the above comments and indications are totally right, of course. First populations needs to treat waste waters before returning to the river. It means a strong infrastructure in each village and town. Then, the river itself needs to be redesigned as on natural state, at least from place to place by large pièces of marshlands with certain kind of plants able to clean the waste water by biological process. Then river bed should be cleaned from its toxical mud. Then the river will blow a new life and change the human life through the natural self revival, much more than expected. Then, Tar Kovacs Systems company will bring a new type of boat and ships to navigate on rivers which provide no pollution at all and no eddy. We are already engaged with such programmes in Europe. I would be very pleased to work in India as we are already building a power plant for constant renewable energy in Gujarat.

  14. A simple indicator showing the oxygen balance (demand supply) of a river would be dissolved oxygen (DO) at the water temperature (T). This can be measured quickly with a portable DO & T meter. Other objective indicators to characterize the oxygen demand (from organic and nitrogenous pollution) are total organic carbon (TOC) and total Kjeldahl nitrogen (TKN). However these require sampling and lab analysis by qualified staff. A less objective but simple indicator could be biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) but this takes several days (standard: 5 days at 20 °C) and the results can vary a lot depending on the skills of the analysts. Additional indicators would be total heavy metals (THMe) and total suspended solids (TSS). However TSS will largely vary with weather conditions upstream (heavy rainfalls) and with water flow velocities.

  15. je pense que le Gange n'est pas plus pollué que les fleuves européens et bien d'autres fleuves de pays sur développés qui rejettent toute leur pollution chimique dedans. le premier travail à faire c'est l'assainissement. I think that Gange is not polluted more than the European rivers and many other rivers of countries on developed which reject all their chemical pollution inside. the first work to do it is the cleansing.

  17. Control, CSTP and maintain discharge

    Dear Vidhya Chittoor Vishwanathan,

    I give some point for clean up the Ganga.

    1. Firstly control all all waste water steam which directly flowing in ganga.
    2. Installed the CSTP in every town and city before before the discharge  of water in ganga.
    3. maintain the characteristics of water before the discharge.       

  20. But the more important question is :

    Answered your question in a response above.

    But here is the real deal. It is not possible to clean up the Ganges. If you have seen the volume of pollutants, sewage etc. that enter it right through its whatever 500 mile long journey - it is a big ganda nallah.
    We have to stop dumping this stuff into it. No drainage should flow into rivers. It should be directed outwards (of cities) treated and even the sullage should not be dumped into rivers.  
     

  22. Ganges water quality

    Hi Vidhya
    It never ceases to amaze me how respondents will talk around the subject without answering the question!
    The UK Environment Agency has a sophisticated system for reporting on river quality which has six grades from A to F. They consider a range of parameters but the main one is the diversity of species which live in the river.
    I prefer the system used in asset management which has five grades:
    1=excellent: Very wide range of species; no pollution ever
    2=good: wide range of species, only slight occasional pollution
    3=adequate: typical pollution resistant species, occasional pollution
    4=poor: only pollution tolerant species, regular pollution
    5=awful: very little life at all, constantly polluted.

    These grades can be subdivided if required.

  23. Vedic Sciences approach available in India

    Since this National Dialogue is focussed on pooling resources of the nation from the Academicians, Technocrats, and Public and Environmentalists,  I am submitting  details of a new technology based on ancient Vedic Sciences developed in India by a scientist named Swami Valmiki Sreenivasa Ayyangarya from Karnataka.

    I will briefly state its features as follows:
      AA) R.O systems reduce TDS no doubt but very low TDS is harmful for human health as per WHO research. It is corrosive and leaches minerals from the human body, creating many health complications.Swami Valmiki's technology based on ancient Indian Rasa Shastras do not harm the human body but are beneficial. The water is purified and is pathogen free. Harmful TDS gets locked up and do not react with the human body.   BB) R.O systems discharge in the reject stream a lot of dissolved solids. This is highly toxic and in large volume discharges can create serious ecological damage.   CC) This technology can help clean up Yamuna, Ganga and all Peninsular river systems and water bodies.It will also be the most economical and efficient and hence is superior to all technologies currently in use.


    DD) It can very efficiently treat the Municipal Solid Waste landfill such as the dump at Okhla, in New Delhi which is emitting foul odour, whose leachates also damage ground water due to toxicity.

    EE) It can treat industrial effluents with highly toxic materials which cause ecological damage when discharged in rivers and land.This has been done on lab scale in small volumes.
     

    FF)

    Sewage discharged into rivers is a major pollutant. This technology can treat all sewage, sullage before discharge into river systems, water bodies or into oceans in the peninsular region of India. The treated sewage, sullage alternatively can be used to recharge ground water also. In volume terms measured on an annual basis, this is much greater than rain water which occurs in the few months of the monsoon. Hence water tables can be safely replenished by this treated grey water which is also pathogen free and free of any contaminants including heavy metals which are locked up by the process.   GG) On a large scale, it has been tried successfully to arrest algal bloom in ponds. It also promotes aquatic life since I have seen fish and a kingfisher quite busy at a temple pond, holding about 500,000 litres of water.This is a bio indicator of safety of this technology.I also frank cup after cup of the temple pond water which tasted sweet and looked very clear in the paper cup. It however needed some de silting but the sludge at the bottom was inactive and hence pathogen free.

    Hope that you find this information of interest.If used on a large scale in India this will greatly benefit  the ecology leading to more efficient water resources management and help reduce mosquitoes also since the treated water does not allow their breeding or promote spread of endemic diseases and also helps aquatic life like fish to thrive, which I have personally experienced and seen having stayed with Swamiji for several nights.While I have tried to explain it in simple language, it has a complex science known to India in ancient times of BC vintage.It may take decades for western science to catch up.This is not a chauvinistic statement but as factual and scientific in its approach as any other opinion!

  24. Fish biomass and diversity is one of the most important indicators. Clean and healthy water will have many species of fish in large quantity. Since fish are at the top of the aquatic food chain, more fish indicates that all organisms lower down the food chain are thriving. This indicates that the water is clean and healthy. Using fish to judge the water quality of any lake, river or ocean is a simple solution.

  25. I supposed that program prior it will start must have a clear objective as to what will be the end point/s? State all desired results in all factors from what it was and what it will be..Once meet or exceeded, its a way to say it successful .