Madhusudan Srinivas | July - August, 2003

India has not yet accepted the truism that rivers like Ganga are ecological beings. This emerged from a frank interview awhile back with KC Sivaramakrishnan, former director of India's most ambitious river cleaning scheme - the Ganga Action Plan - when it was launched in 1985. Extracts from the interview:

	K.C. Sirvaramakrishnan believes many river planners are stuck in an outmoded mindset.

"It's stupid for any society to clean up its rivers after creating widespread pollution. Many countries are now beginning to understand it's a mug's game: you can't dirty up first and then start thinking about what's the most cost-effective way of cleaning this up. You've got to think ahead.

"Yet, that's what the situation had sunk to, by the late 70s. Most Indian rivers were no better than dirty drains. And in the Indian context, what better river for starting the clean-up than Ganga - the most revered river in the country?

"Having said that, Ganga is venerated, mainly because water is a precious life-sustaining source and hence worthy of worship. Our hope was that simple messages of human survival could perhaps be best conveyed with Ganga as a platform. You can't sell these simple, powerful messages through Cooum (in Chennai/Madras) or with the Sabarmati (Gujarat). The impact would have been far less.

K.C. Sirvaramakrishnan believes many river planners are stuck in an outmoded mindset. Not all technologies are equal "At the time, there were three essential factors that planners had to bear in mind.

"First of all, while technology is a key issue, not all technologies are equal to the job of cleaning up, if people continue to remain dirty and filthy. Social awareness was and even now, remains the greatest challenge.

"Secondly, we had not paid attention to non-biological, chemical pollution. That's valid not only for the Ganga, but also for all the rivers of the country. Most rivers the world over have become aquatically dead - because mankind did not pay attention to fertiliser residues, to insecticides and chemicals.

"The self-cleaning properties of Ganga arise from the biological resources in that river. And chemical pollution has the capacity to slowly destroy those properties. Once that happens, the river cannot recover. That is what has also happened to some rivers in the Western world.

"The third point - we are still not paying attention to the river as a continuing, dynamic ecology. As a society, we've still not accepted that a river is an ecological being. It must have a 'minimum flow', or a minimum amount of water flowing in order to dilute and dissolve pollutants. When water is diverted into an irrigation canal, there is less fresh water to dilute pollutants.

"The irrigation engineers in Indian Institute of Technology, at Roorkee were brought up on the belief that it is a crime to let one drop of water flow to the sea.

"Divert it, deflect it, take it away, but don't let it go to the sea - was their motto."

Not one single drop
"I remember the Central Water Commission also saying that it is not possible. They said water is too important, it is not possible to allow X amount of water to flow in a river for pollution control purposes. It is a waste of water. It is therefore appropriate that you invest money in treating the dirty water to the nth degree if it comes to that. This was a point of view, whether official or not.

"So you do have that kind of a mindset.

"After six or seven years of debate, in the 90s, you need the Supreme Court to tell you a river is supposed to be a flowing river, not a static pond and therefore it has to flow. And will you engineers kindly put your heads together and decide, what should be that flow? You needed a Supreme Court to tell you this very simple thing. So these are some of the issues.

"But today, mature societies are seeing that a river has to flow. If the river really doesn't flow, you are going to affect the sea. So a wholely different understanding has surfaced.

"Arising from that really, is the question of water conservation, limiting the use of water and so on."

Scoring political points
"And matters become worse, when different political masters head the plans at different times. The last meeting of the National River Conservation Directorate (NRCD) was pretty silly. The then Environment Minister was trying to score political points - he wanted virtually the same assets put up for all rivers in the country, just because this had been done for the Ganga! What is the use of talking about funds for MLAs, again sewage treatment plants, water pipes and so on, when the plans have failed to secure desired results?

"Moreover, we have a plethora of plans: Ganga Action Plan (GAP) according to Environment Ministry, GAP according to the Supreme Court decision, GAP according to the Allahabad High Court.

"Some fellow in Uttarkashi tells the Supreme Court, I am pulling my flush, I am connecting to Ganga, if someone doesn't repair my flush, I threaten you, I am polluting Ganga. It's coming to that kind of wretchedness.

"What are we talking about? How can such a confusing multi-pronged approach bring about results?

"In my opinion, I'm afraid in spite of working on this plan for 10-15 years, I do not see the levels of maturity increasing. Some of these basics have got to be gone into. Even if all assets constructed under the plan works, I'm afraid we would still have missed the boat if the other problems are not taken care of.

"All this kind of water usage, conduit laying, treatment plant technology is not going to work. Therefore, the point is, to look at non-pipe technologies.

"Varanasi is already a million-plus town. With water sources under increasing pressure from different users, what is really a viable way of looking at this?"

Several layers of ignorance
"I think it's important for some of us to realise there are enormous gaps in our understanding. We have been living with several layers of ignorance. But over a period of time, one has to try and get some consensus on what should be, some organising truths for society. If you don't, then everything becomes ad hoc, everything becomes a deal, everything becomes a temporary expediency.

Our revered Ganga defines India as a civilisation.

"Our revered Ganga defines India as a civilisation. If an alternative treatment technology treats all the wastewater in Banaras, will that solve the problem? Perhaps partly. But only partly. Will it answer the trouble with the Ganga in Kanpur? No. Will it answer this entire stretch running through UP, that is continually polluted? No. Will it quench the thirst of these increasing communities? No. Will it deal with the problem of chemical and fertiliser pollution that is taking place? No. Will it deal with soil erosion? No.

"So my point is, this river has sustained the civilisation and people for so many centuries, and it is under threat.

"There are some principles. Whether the fellow is an uneducated person in Motihari (Bihar), or an Iyengar Brahmin in Srirangam (South India).

"When I was a boy, one of the few occasions when I was thrashed by my father was when I peed in the Tamarabharani River at my village in Tirunelveli district. My father gave me one hell of a thrashing.

"He said "you won't pee in the river." I said there is so much water. He said that is not the issue. You don't pee in it; you don't defecate on its banks. I am sure some other father on the banks of some other river in other parts of India, would have the same kind of attitude, and my father did not go beyond class five (fifth grade).

"Running out of water is the real Sankat (Crisis) that society is facing. And cleaning seven kilometres of maiyya (Mother) in Varanasi will not offer Mochan (Salvation)."


This interview was conducted by Journalist Madhusudan Srinivas. An earlier version appeared last year on www.cleanganga.com and is being re-published in view of its topicality.