Roger Choate | April, 2003

In the 56 years since Independence, not one single river in India has been cleaned up - including the holy Ganga. Swatcha Ganga Campaigner Roger Choate asks why

	Fish catches - a disaster for the fishing industry.

You may well ask why a guy from faraway Sweden should presume to write an article about the befouled Ganga.

Isn't this a matter best left in the hands of Indians and the Indian Government?

Well, yes and no.

Only India can finally determine the fate of the Ganga. But that decision, for good or ill, will rebound across the world. Supporting 400 million people in the Ganga Basin - 8% of the global population - the death of the Ganga would reflect disastrously not only on India as a civilization but also on the world community: Fresh water for everybody is the No. 1 environmental priority in this century.

Now, I don't think that Ganga is going to die. The democratically elected government in New Delhi would never let that happen.

But as a river regarded as divine goddess by one billion believers the world over, Ganga Ma certainly isn't feeling well.

The truth about Ganga
Many rural stretches are still OK. But in urban areas and even in Haridwar, pollution is severe and sometimes lethal. In all, 103 cities are believed to be dumping raw sewage directly into The River of Heaven.

Fish catches such as carp are dropping - a disaster for the fishing industry. Crops become poisoned because of contaminated groundwater - a disaster for farmers and consumers alike.

The toxicity of Ganga - and the entire Indian river system - is ghastly. The alarming levels of arsenic, cadmium, mercury, nickel and chromium VI can have a lethal impact on public health when they enter the food and water chain, according to the World Health Organization.

Cadmium is a potent kidney toxicant, and mercury is a potent neurological toxicant. Chromium VI is a known human carcinogen. Other metals, too, are potent sources of renal, neurological, skin diseases and blue baby syndrome.

Shit
And of course the Ganga is repository for human and animal excrement. In many places the river is hardly more than a sewer. When foreign aid agencies contemplate new projects, they might well consider financing millions of public eco-toilets and urinals. Meantime, city governments can cajole farmers into moving wallowing cattle far away from public bathing areas.

At Tulsi Ghat in Varanasi, where I live, our own laboratory has determined that fecal-coliform readings can be as high as 47,000 times the accepted Indian level for human bathing. Fecal coliform is a measurement of human and animal waste in water.

And yet an estimated 60,000 persons bathe daily along the great ghats of Varanasi and elsewhere along the 2,525 kilometer waterway. They usually know nothing about river pollution because the health authorities have not acted for some reason. Many pilgrims and daily bathers believe that because the river is a goddess, she cannot be contaminated, but instead has healing powers.

India is a country where, unusually, some 80% of her citizens depend on only 14 rivers. The Ganga alone supports nearly half the population, directly or indirectly. Everything from drinking water to agriculture and river rafting.

Around 70% of the population does not have access to treated water. They must rely on untreated river water or groundwater. Not surprisingly, the World Health Organization estimates that perhaps 1.5 million children in India die every year from waterborne diseases as direct or indirect result of river contamination or related befoulment. River contamination leaches into the groundwater system, affecting water supplies and agriculture.

Does anybody care?
But what's to account for our disregard for these condemned children? And for rivers like Ganga that kill them? Why, in fact, isn't Ganga clean - a river celebrated by Hindus for her purity. It is said that a single drop of Ganga water brushing your cheek can cleanse you of all sins. Now, it may also cause skin rash.

Back in 1985 the Government did launch the so-called Ganga Action Plan (GAP) in 29 Ganga Basin cities. It has failed in many instances because of over-reliance on electrical power supplies that often fail in northern India; problems of flooding and improper maintenance.

We can't always be certain how extensive GAP failures are, because many official statistics are kept under wraps. Only a parliamentary act would release them. But we do know that when river pollution statistics are classified, there must be a good (or bad) reason for that.

But nobody can hide the deaths of children from waterborne diseases often occasioned by river pollution and particularly the Ganga.

At the end of the day, only the Central Government can prioritize a Ganga cleanup - and a cleanup of all rivers. Prioritization will only happen through public pressure. No great river in the world - be it the Thames, Rhine or Hudson - has ever been cleaned without public pressure removing the sandbags of political apathy.

As an international campaigner, I hope you will permit me to speak bluntly. The Central Government of India, despite tragic blunders, does know how to clean the Ganga. It knows which towns and industrial areas generate exactly how much sewage and effluents. It knows which technologies are available to treat wastewater. It knows where to get the financing (Japan and Sweden, for instance, want to help.) And it knows which industries are the culprits.

The government also knows that more than 300 million lost workdays annually costing $8.3 billion dollars are due to waterborne diseases affecting adults. And it knows that India's fresh water resources are likely to be exhausted by 2028 if present population trends persist. As things stand, nearly half of all Indians have to make do with palmfuls of muddied water while the other half guzzle aerated beverages.

Cleaning the Ganga is not on the political agenda of any party in India. Only public pressure can put it there. Only you and I can do that. And then something will happen.

The dying must stop
But long before then, the deaths of children from waterborne diseases must stop. The government and the people of India have the means to provide medicine for each and every child and adult suffering from diarrhea and gastrointestinal disorders. A campaign is needed right now. Contact ami@ideaforaction.org. if you are interested.

Just as importantly, we want to help the Government deal with indiscriminate dumping. There are laws about this. The laws must now be upheld. Our Campaign for a Clean Ganga plans to gather funds to instigate appropriate legal actions to speed things along. We invite the Central Government to do the same, to a much greater extent than before.

The great Ganga crusaders like Dr.Veer Bhadra Mishra and Rakesh Jaiswal have shown us the way. They have alerted India and the world to the plight of the great waterway, and what must be done.

These heroes have now been joined by a new generation of campaigners, with a refreshing mindset that is straightforward: The Ganga will be clean! Because Ganga is India. To defile Ganga Ma is to defile the nation and the souls of her citizens.

These devoted crusaders perhaps derive their ultimate optimism from a paraphrase of the great Radhakrishnan: "...we are still alive, still vital, still looking forward, still dissatisfied with our present, still not merely adoring the past, but looking forward to the future as the great Ganga flows in our souls. So long as we have this kind of impulse... the future of our country, of every country for that matter, is safe."

Roger Choate, a Ganga campaigner, is a former journalist with The Times (London) and Reuters plc. He divides his time between Varanasi and Stockholm as fundraiser for the Ganga Campaign.

Copyright (C) 2003 Roger N. Choate. This article may be used free of charge, providing that the author and copyright are acknowledged