New Delhi, Apr 23 (PTI) There is a wide gap in the treatment of sewage discharge in the Ganga and its tributaries across 22 districts of Uttar Pradesh while no treatment facilities exist in 12, the National Green Tribunal observed and asked the authorities concerned to “expeditiously” take remedial measures.
The green panel has taken up the matter of abatement of pollution in the Ganga and its tributaries and had earlier sought specific information on the river’s pollution from Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Bihar, West Bengal and Uttarakhand.
A bench of National Green Tribunal Chairperson Justice Prakash Shrivastava noted that a report was submitted by Uttar Pradesh, providing information on 23 districts.
These districts are Baghpat, Bulandshahar, Ballia, Mathura, Saharanpur, Lalitpur, Gonda, Hamirpur, Hathras, Mau, Aligarh, Bareilly, Etah, Jalaun, Kasganj, Ambedkar Nagar, Sahajahanpur, Raebareli, Pratapgarh, Amethi, Hardoi, Ghazipur and Ayodhya.
The bench, also comprising Judicial Members Justice Sudhir Agarwal and Justice Arun Kumar Tyagi and Expert Member Afroz Ahmad, said, “There is a wide gap in sewage treatment in all the 23 districts except district Kasganj, which is yet to be verified.” “No sewage treatment facility exists in Ballia, Lalitpur, Gonda, Hamirpur, Hathras, Jalaun, Mau, Ambedkar Nagar, Shahjahanpur, Amethi, Hardoi and Ghazipur,” it added in an order dated April 16.
The tribunal observed that no information had been disclosed about the districts that are the major contributors to the pollution load on the Ganga — Varanasi, Prayagraj, Farrukhabad, Kanpur, Unnao and Mirzapur.
At several locations abutting the river and its tributaries, which are under civic bodies, “sewage or sullage is directly flowing and thereby impairing water quality of Ganga and tributaries making them unfit for bathing”, it said.
The tribunal noted that the polluted tributaries of the Ganga are the Kali (east and west), Krishni, Hindon, Betwa, Sehjwal, Bishui, Manaharan, Ramganga, Aril, west and east Begul, Kichha, Karvan, Pahuj, Tamsa, Saryu, Garrah, Sai, Khannaut and the Gomati.
“These water bodies have high BOD (biochemical oxygen demand) and faecal coliform,” it said.
The tribunal said when the National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) was asked about the action required to be taken on violators, it had said the mission could only issue directions and the responsibility of execution rested upon the state and the district administration.
“Since the sewage and trade effluents are being discharged in the river Ganga and its tributaries, therefore, preventive or remedial action is required to be taken by the concerned local bodies or administrative authorities expeditiously,” it said.
The green panel directed the district magistrates concerned to prepare an action plan for remediating the situation and ensuring the object of zero discharge of sewage or effluent in the Ganga and its tributaries.
“Such action plan needs to be a time-bound action plan with an outer limit to complete the objective in respect of each of the sources of pollution,” the panel said.
It directed the district magistrates to file an action plan along with their next reports.
Meanwhile, the tribunal expressed its dissatisfaction with the NMCG report, saying it was “too general and cryptic.” “It has not been disclosed what is to be done for smaller urban local bodies (ULBs) to have cost-effective treatment of sewage and its utilisation,” the tribunal said.
“We direct the NMCG to file its independent report on the quantity of sewage and trade effluents being discharged through drains etc into the river Ganga and its tributaries and the time-bound action plan for preventing such discharge and getting execution at each district,” it added.
The matter has been posted to July 30 for further proceedings. PTI MNR MNR SZM
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