The monitoring of water quality of river Ganga under the Ganga Action Plan indicates that the water quality of river is not complying with the desired standards in stretches along the towns of Kanpur and Varanasi, but meeting with the norms in its stretch along the Haridwar town.
The levels of Fecal Coliforms (bacterial indicator for health concerns) are also reported to be exceeding the maximum permissible limit of 2500 MPN (Most Probable Number) per 100 milliliter at many of the monitoring stations along river Ganga except in upstream locations of Haridwar.Indian Council of Medical Research and National Institute of Communicable Diseases under the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Government of India, are reportedly neither aware nor have conducted any study or survey regarding the Ganga river becoming a reservoir of virulent forms of bacteria, Escherichia coli.
Since 1985, with the implementation of Ganga Action Plan (GAP) for pollution abatement activities in the identified polluted stretches of river Ganga,, a total sewage treatment capacity of 1765.34 million litres per day has been created so far for Ganga and its major tributaries. Despite phenomenal increase in the urban population along the banks of the river leading to increased pollution loads, the water quality of river Ganga has shown discernible improvement in terms of organic pollution at major locations, over the pre-Action Plan water quality
This information was given by the Minister of State for Environment and Forests Shri Namo Narain Meena, in a written reply to a question by Dr (Shrimati ) Najma Hepttulla, in the Rajya Sabha today.
Source-PIB
SUN/L
