The Ganga: Pure or Polluted?

Few days back one of my friend uploaded a picture of her own at Ganga Ghat. Instead of seeing her, eyes got focused behind her. I know you must have guessed what I saw and you are very right in your thinking. Yes, I saw garbage lying around and dusty water of Ganga.

We often read about pathetic situation of great Ganga, which is sacred for many! In history Ganga has great significance. It is considered the river of purity. A dip in this river is sacred and it un-mounts all the bad deals you have done in your life time. If your ashes are released in Ganga your moksha is assured. We know all these religious significance of Ganga in related to Hindus, then also why 80 percent of Hindu population doesn't join Save Ganga Project? Why the participation is meager.

Let’s keep aside the religious significance of the River and turn our attention towards some important facts related to Ganga to understand its importance. The Ganga flows around 2,525 km. It is the longest river in the India and comes in the list of top 20 rivers of world. Ganga basin is one of the heavily populated basins in the world. Around 400 million people come in direct contact of this.  So, when such a huge population depends of the river, excessive pollution of the river has larger consequences on the inhabitants.


As a large number of population is dependent on the river the chances for waterborne diseases is high. People belonging to lower income group with less education are most vulnerable as they use river water to bath, washing their teeth, laundry etc. further adding to pollute the water.  Cases related to water borne diseases like dysentery, cholera, hepatitis as well as severe diarrhea are correlated to Ganga water several times.

No doubt that for this pathetic situation we all are responsible. But government can’t escape from the responsibility.  To say this it would be right to again go through some of the programs launched by the government. In 1985, Rajeev Gandhi announced “Ganga Action Plan” to reduce the pollution level of Ganga. Till 2000, it has done nothing besides spending more than 900 crores rupees. In 2000, this program was called off.

Another step taken on 2009, government created a National River Ganga Basin Authority (NRGBA) under the environment protection act. Prime Minister is the chairperson and all the chief ministers through which Ganga flows are members of the authority. Till date I have nothing to share any remarkable thing done by the authority. The fertile basin of Ganga is blessing of nature to India. Let’s preserve it.

I had been in Delhi for last 20 years before again coming back to my state capital Patna. I have not visited Ganga Ghat yet. But Ganga was part of my life during my childhood as my small village is situated on the bank of the river. At that time I had seen the crystalline water of Ganga, which has become murky today. I hope I would see the same crystalline water again in my lifetime.