India’s river apartheid must end

Several rivers crisscross the Indian subcontinent. Of these, none has captured the imagination of minds through the ages the way the Ganga has. Ganga is India’s longest river at 2,525 km, and the basin sustains about 40 per cent of the country’s population, covering 26 per cent of India’s land mass.

So, when such a river gets polluted, it naturally grabs attention from across the planet. It is representative of India’s hoary tradition, finding its way into mythology and poetry. But are the other rivers deemed to be less sacred?

Sadly, in the policy perception, the Brahmaputra, Godavari, Indus, Krishna, Cauvery and their tributaries have become ‘lesser rivers’.

Rivers other than the Ganga support 50 per cent of India’s population — or 600 million across West, South, North (Indus) and North-Eastern India — contributing to irrigation, power generation and other livelihoods.

Nevertheless, these rivers are relegated to a lower priority for rejuvenation, unlike the Ganga which has attracted the attention of the government to such an extent that it even named a ministry after the river.

The Ganga Action Plan (GAP) I and II assigned funds for cleaning of non-Ganga rivers under the National River Conservation Plan extending to 190 towns in 20 States, but according to a Central Pollution Control Board report, water quality in these rivers continues to deteriorate for the same reasons that the Ganga continues to be polluted.

Rampant and unchecked interference of dams across various non-Ganga rivers and river basins have reduced them to a trickle downstream; city after city, village after village across non-Gangetic India continue to pour toxic waste from industries, municipalities and agriculture directly into rivers. Whether it is the Vrishabhavathy in Bengaluru or the Musi in Hyderabad or water bodies across Nagpur, or the Mutha, Indrayani and Bhima in Pune or any in your city, town or village, the story of water quality remains the same.

The externalities of water pollution on humans, livestock and bio-diversity are undeniable. People’s health has been ravaged as they suffer from waterborne diseases such as cholera and diarrhoea, besides various forms of skin lesions, cancer, psychological disorders, defective child births or miscarriages without even being aware of the cause.

But all these repercussions assume a lower order simply because the rivers or water bodies are less divine. Even the tributaries of the Ganga such as the Gandak, Kosi and Son, are not as fortunate as the main Ganga. It is a kind of river apartheid — categorising rivers as superior and inferiorThis, in turn, leads to a kind of apartheid in allocation of funds to clean the rivers vis-à-vis Ganga: apartheid in monitoring; apartheid in implementation of anti-pollution measures, and so on.

The consequences of this are severe. While these lesser rivers have to wait for the Ganga clean-up to succeed first to ensure their turn, the delay can lead to serious health and environment consequences.

While the government in its affidavit to Supreme Court has stated that it would take at least 18 years — i.e. 2033 — for its complete rejuvenation, it is unknown how much time it would take for non-Ganga rivers to even get noticed.

And if the deadline for the rejuvenation of the Ganga is missed, then the scenario of non-Ganga rivers would worsen.

In India, the externalities or cost of damage to the environment and social costs are rarely measured. These hidden costs have an impact on the economy in the form of accentuated health costs, loss of livestock, loss of biodiversity and loss of livelihoods, interrupting the economic recovery of the very same poor people who are supposed to benefit from the much-hyped Indian GDP growth.

While this is the scenario regarding surface water, the situation regarding water beneath the ground is even worse. The quality of groundwater continues to deteriorate across India, including that of the Ganga basin.

According to the groundwater atlas published by the Central Ground Water Board, the groundwater table in several regions across India is precariously low and as a consequence, becoming a source of flouride contamination, leading to severe health issues for the local populations (about 85 per cent dependent on drinking water and over 60 per cent dependent on irrigation).

Pollution from agriculture and the dumping of effluents and toxic wastes by industries and sewage by municipalities continues to pollute groundwater as well. Yet, water below ground is not a priority; it does not capture the same attention as the river Ganga.

Thus, India is moving towards disaster, as water continues to grow scarce (with quantity remaining constant and quality deteriorating). While the reduction in quantity due to rise in population is causing water scarcity in several parts of the country, the reduced quality is not only furthering the scarcity, but also affecting health, agriculture, environment and the economy.

As India moves closer to 2020, it is time the government focussed on overall scientific management of rivers instead of falling prey to ancient myths and beliefs.

There shouldn’t be this baseless prioritisation of rivers or groundwater. It is in India’s interest that the government realises the importance of eradicating river apartheid at the earliest.

The writer is the deputy director of Central Water Engineering Service. The views are personal