Read the third edition of the Parliamentary Questions Series Blog on World Environment Day
/ 3
Read the third edition of the Parliamentary Questions Series Blog on World Environment Day
The State of our Rivers – revisiting some of the factors that explain the current situation
With the Maha Kumbh Mela held earlier this year, the rising levels of pollution in the Ganga and Yamuna rivers, has received significant public attention. The on-going developments in a landmark Supreme Court case initiated suomoto in 1994,over high levels of pollution in the Yamuna river,also revealed that massive public expenditures, estimated at 12,000 crore, spent on cleaning the river seem to have gone down the drain —in this case literally.
In this Budget Session of Parliament, several questions related to river pollution have been asked.In light of the significant attention that this issue has received the public discourse,it is worth revisiting some of the factors that can explain the state of our rivers today.
The sorry state of sewage treatment
Most public interventions aimed at river conservation,are under the banner of pollution abatement, which are efforts to prevent the pollution load from reaching the river. Sewage treatment is the most common such activity.
However, there continues to remain a gap between the generation and treatment of sewage. Our total treatment capacity is just a little over 11,000 million litres a day (MLD) against over 38,000MLD of sewage that is generated, according to a study by the Central Pollution Control Board.Only 30 per cent of discharged sewage is therefore treated in Class I and II cities, as per this data.For sewage being discharged into rivers, the percentage treated was estimated to be even lower, a mere 10 per cent,according to the C.A.G.’s Report on Water Pollution, in 2011-12.
A number of Sewage Treatment Plants that have been set up to treat the sewage water that is discharged into rivers, moreover, do not function at their optimal capacity. 30 Sewage Treatment Plants set up in the Yamuna basin did not meet the required standards for Biological and Chemical Oxygen Demands, according to the reply to a Parliamentary Question.
Drying and dying rivers
The second, and perhaps larger issue that few policy interventions have addressed is the issue of water quantity in our rivers, which has drastically reduced.Few of our rivers today are perennial water bodies, which is characterised by a minimum level of water that should be maintained across all stretches of a river, throughout the year.
This graph depicts how the level of water flowing in the Yamuna has drastically reduced over the last four decades.
(Source:“Reviving River Yamuna,” from the PEACE Institute Charitable Trust, 2009)
In 2007, a sub-committee was constituted to advise the Water Quality Assessment Authority on minimum ecological flows that should be maintained in our rivers. The committee published a detailed report that evaluates different scientific methodologies used to determine an appropriate minimum ecological flow, strategies that other countries have adopted, and came out with a comprehensive set of guidelines for minimum flow requirements to be followed in India. However these recommendations have not been implemented. Currently, there lacks an institutional framework to monitor the level water flowing in our rivers.
The problem of rivers drying up is a common phenomenon today, with the construction of several barrages, dams and canals that obstruct the river’s natural flow. An unstarred question was asked in the Lok Sabha,about a regulatory framework to ensure that minimum ecological flows are maintained in rivers. In the response,it was mentioned that the“Environment Impact Assessment,” (EIA)which was issued as a notification under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986, mandates an assessment of ecological needs and impact before according environmental clearance for large construction projects including construction of dams, canals and barrages.However, a closer look at the notification reveals that prior environmental clearances are only required for hydropower projects above 25 Megawatts (MW), where river valley projects are concerned. Therefore, the environmental impact is not assessed for any other structures or projects planned in a river basin area. Moreover, our environmental laws do not define a minimum level of flow that should be maintained across rivers, leading to the unchecked diversion of water in our rivers.
During the non-monsoon months, virtually no original or freshwater flows downstream in the Yamuna, from the Tajewala barrage in Hathnikund till the Chambal confluence in Madhya Pradesh. The Ganga River faces a similar problem at the Tehri dam in Uttarakhand, and the Kanpur barrage in Uttar Pradesh.
Stagnation of water flow depletes the self-purification capacity of a river, or the ability of a river to clean itself.This is an inherent ecological characteristic of all perennial rivers, and a critical factor in controlling pollution.It is unsurprising then that the stretch of the Yamuna River between Hathnikund and Etawah where maximum abstraction of the river’s water occurs constitute the rivers most polluted stretches today.
The fact remains that even for sewage treatment to be effective, a sufficient level of water needs to actually flow in a river. The sub-committee report on environmental flows recognizes this. However, our policies aimed at preventing river pollution do not address this.
Restoring the health of our rivers:
Deteriorating water quality is an issue that rivers across our country face today. The Central Pollution Control Board in 2009 identified 150 Polluted River Stretches in India, with the highest number of stretches found to be in Maharashtra (28) followed by Gujarat (19). These two states accounted for almost a third of all polluted river stretches. Pollution abatement alone, however, is only a short-sighted solution to a problem that has much deeper roots. Shifting the policy paradigm from river cleaning to actually restoring the overall health of the rivers, which includes issues of water quality and quantity,is a start.
The new National Water Policy of 2012 is perhaps a sign that we are moving toward a more dynamic framework where rivers are concerned. While still in its draft version, the policy talks of assessing the ecological needs of our rivers, and setting out minimum flow requirements for our rivers.Yet it remains uncertain as to when this policy will be enacted, and more importantly how it will ultimately be enforced.
Until and unless our institutional frameworks do not mandate minimum ecological flows, or a maximum level of water that can be diverted from rivers, unchecked activities will continue to take the life out of our rivers, which has resulted in the situation that we face today. Re-assessing the ecological needs of our rivers is crucial to seeing a change from the current the state of our rivers today.
You can access the replies to Parliamentary Questions on River Pollution here, here and here.
MP Jayant Chaudhary is also introducing a Private Member’s Bill in the Budget Session of Parliament, 2013 for a Yamuna Rivers Basin Commission, which encourages a more ecologically integrated approach to restoring the health of the Yamuna River. You can access the Bill here
[The State of our Rivers is part of a four-part series called “Questions & Answers,” which highlights information from Parliamentary Questions asked by M.P. Jayant Chaudhary in 2012-2013, written by Saanya Gulati].
Saanya Gulati is a LAMP Fellow at PRS Legislative Research