During his election campaign for Prime Minister, Narendra Modi swore to clean up most sacred river in India, the Ganga. Now, after five years, the Modi-led government is finalising a plan to restore the river, one of the most polluted in the world. The government has submitted a blueprint to India’s Supreme Court outlining its plan to clean up the river within 18 years. This project comes shortly after the Supreme Court criticised the government for not taking enough measures on the issue. The government’s plans lack any new or innovative ideas. It relies on spending more money on new sewage treatment plants, following the earlier Ganga Action Plan, which ended in complete failure. The plan includes measures for upgrading existing sewage treatment plants; improving sanitation in towns along the Ganga; conservation of animals; afforestation, investments in sewerage infrastructure and the ban of open defecation. The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) will also enforce a zero liquid discharge policy for heavily polluting industries located in the Ganga Basin. The government has promised to tackle pollution in Kanpur, a city in Uttar Pradesh infamous for its polluting leather industry, which discharges toxic waste straight into the river. But some criticize the government's action, because “despite the Ganga Action Plan, the situation has in fact worsened,” said Rakesh Jaiswal, who heads the Kanpur-based NGO Eco Friends. “It has been a total failure. In 1986, there were 170 tanneries on the banks of Ganga but now there are 400 and they discharge toxic wastewater directly in the river. What little gets treated doesn’t even conform to the standards set by the CPCB" he added. The problem is that most of the sewage treatment plants installed along the river are not linked to the drainage system and as a result the wastewater gets dumped into the river unchecked. In 2013, inspecting 51 of the 64 existing sewage treatment plants along the Ganga and were found that less than 60% of the installed capacity was being used and 30% of the plants were not even functioning. In the light of this, environmentalists say that the Modi government’s new plan is unlikely to rejuvenate the Ganga. According to Bharat Jhunjhunwala, a water activist, "it is a disastrous policy. The government should put a system in place to involve private players to treat the sewage and the government should purchase that treated water which can be used for irrigation. If recycled water is used for agriculture, it will reduce the amount of water being diverted from the river. But today the Ganga hardly has any water in it.” The long-term plan for the rejuvenation of the Ganga will be based on the Ganga River Basin Management Plan (GRBMP), currently being prepared by a consortium of seven Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs). The Modi-led government has now opened the Clean Ganga Fund for voluntary contributions from Indian citizens and Indians living abroad. But at the same time, the government has announced an Inland Waterway project called “Jal Marg Vikas”, which will allow 1,500 tonne vessels to navigate a 1,620-kilometre stretch of the Ganga. Environmentalists have raised their concerns, arguing the project will require massive amounts of dredging, which will threaten fishes and other aquatic biodiversity. The gLawcal Team EPSEI project Thursday, 16 October 20014 (Source: China Dialogue)