River Ganges or “ MAA GANGA ” pure but TOXIC because of the apathy of her devotees and Industrialists

River Ganges or “ MAA GANGA ” pure but TOXIC because of the apathy of her devotees and Industrialists

 Recently from February  7^th 2020 to February 13 2020 I was at Varanasi for the first time in my life. This was the time I was able to see and know many a facts both on the SCIENTIFIC lines and on the lines of the EPICAL EPOCH of the Indian history about the River Ganges

 I shall hereby place them and put them into perspectives, all about the PIOUS RIVER GANGES whom we HINDUS refer to it as MAA GANGAA

 Ganga of what I saw at Varanasi requires a lot of work that needs to be done by the present Government if at all it has to be preserved and if at all the people of India are to be kept alive.It is getting polluted day after day and a time will come when we will be without water.

 Every river and it’s rivulets are connected to the river Ganga. It is a kind of a blessing by the LORD SHIVA which after so many a discussions with the TRINITY of the DEVAS and the GODDESS and with the advice of all the famous RISHIMUNIS of that era had given the GANGA as a GIFT to the WORLD and to this nation for water, it’s uses and it’s preservation with a  kind of a BLESSING that till the moment this river is safe, clean and pure the LIFE of the nation will survive and once it is UNCLEANED and it starts shrinking the LIFE of the nation and also the world will start diminishing.

 Efforts are been dome to cleanse the entire river of Ganga but even after a gap of almost four years nothing concrete that way is evidently seen which can make one sure of the fact that the river is getting clean.  The way I saw the river at Varanasi, I’m not convinced at all the the River Ganga is getting cleaned in the manner that it should be.

 It is almost FIVE years that a team under Ms Uma Bharati was set up by the incumbent Ministry under Mr Modi to cleanse the river “ MAA GANGA ” .Of what I saw and of what I have believed to be a REAL PICTURE of the river ganga as I also have taken my HOLY BATH at the river when I was at Varanasi, I write it here for at least the Ministry and the Prime Minister to know what actually is the state of affairs of the river Ganga.

For one very real truth- IF THE RIVER IS NOT CLEANSED WITHIN ANOTHER TWO YEARS THE CORONA VIRUS IS NOTHING THE NON AVAILABILTY OF CLEAN DRINKING WATER WILL KILL THE ENTIRE NATION AS ALL THE RIVERS ARE ATTACHED AND LINKED TO RIVER GANGES IN ONE WAY OR THE OTHER FOR THE PURPOSE OF GETTING WATER FOR SURVIVAL

 REVIEW AND THE FOCUS OF THE STUDY “Source of LIFE is NEUTRALISED & OVERTAKEN BY METAL POLLUTION

 The present Review focus is  on the heavy metal pollution in holy river Ganga. The Ganga river water is a source of life but contamination of water is the major threat in today's India. Multiplicity of heavy metals, some of them are potentially toxic and are relocated to the surrounding Water environment through different pathways.

Water quality has become a major issue due to growing industrial development, urban development, E-Waste, wastewater irrigation and Sewage. The concentrations determined were more than the maximum admissible and desirable limit when compared with the National and International organizations like WHO, USEPA.

Exposure to heavy metals has been linked to chronic & acute toxicity developing retardation, neurotoxicity, kidney damage, various cancers, liver damage, lung damage, and fragile bones and even death in instances of very high exposure. These review paper presents all the findings of the work carried out by the many researchers in the past on the heavy metal pollution of holy river Ganga.

River Ganges – Historical, cultural and socioeconomic attributes

 The River Ganges (also referred to as Ganga) is a symbol of faith, hope, culture and sanity, as well as a source of livelihood for millions since time immemorial

She is the centre of social and religious tradition in the Indian sub-continent and particularly sacred in Hinduism. The very special faith and respect for the River Ganges in India are as old as Indian culture itself. These are amply reflected in such ancient Indian scriptures as: Vedas, Puranas, Mahabharata, Ramayana and several others.

In fact, respect for Ganga is a part of Indian identity and the very symbol of Indian culture. The history of Ganga in nurturing culture and civilizations is appreciated through fostering native culture in its basin, shifting of the Indus-Sarasvati basin civilization into its fold, and promoting integration of cultures to develop Indian civilization. The Ganges alone drains an area of over a million square kilometers. Its extensive basin accounts for one-fourth of India's water resources and is home to more than 407 million Indians, or some one-third of India's population. The Ganges basin, with its fertile soil, is a significant contributor to the agricultural economies of both India and Bangladesh.

The Ganges and its tributaries provide a perennial source of irrigation to a large area, in addition to recharging the groundwater table all along their course. By supporting agriculture, animal husbandry and fisheries, tourism, river-based trade and transport, the river contributes significantly to the livelihood, food and nutritional security of about one-third of Indian and two-thirds of the Bangladeshi population.

This article attempts to present a macro view of the Ganges and provide a broader context encompassing its historical, spiritual, cultural and socioeconomic attributes and considerations which often remain untouched in scientific papers.

 Abstract ::  Serves a a very useful mode of precautionary study

 The River Ganga passes through a large number of cities, towns, villages and agricultural fields. A sizable fraction of effluents and sewages generated from all

these diverse sectors enters into the river. The incoming water is, therefore, carrying huge amounts of organic substances, residues of the used pesticides and metals along with other contaminants. Review of the pesticide residue studies indicate that hexachlorocyclohexane (HCH), dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) and endosulfan were the major contaminants in water and biota while HCH, DDT, aldrin and dieldrin dominate the sediment phase.

 In water the residues are frequently crossing the permissible limits of US EPA standards for aquatic organisms and their consumers, indicating various levels of risk. In fishes, the permissible limits for HCH, endosulfan and DDT are exceed only in some occasions, signifying minor risks on human consumption. Regarding metal contaminations, the uppermost stretch, up to Haridwar, is relatively free from pollutions. The middle stretch, receiving diverse kinds of effluents, is markedly polluted.

Although a significant stretch of the estuarine zone is densely industrialized and regularly receives effluents, the tidal action is maintaining the metals in lower level than the middle stretch. However, in majority of the cases the reported levels in water were much higher than the US EPA permissible limits for aquatic organisms. With respect to the metal contaminations in sediments, the river is found moderately polluted. In some fishes, contamination of Pb, Hg and Cr crosses the limits. However, the alkaline pH, high sediment transportation and rigorous flushing during monsoons are protecting the river from accumulation of these toxic contaminants. With respect to aquatic health, it is anticipated that the metal and pesticide contaminations might have adversely affected fish health.  “ Systematic studies are, however, lacking on this aspect ”.

Estimation of water pollution and probability of health risk due to imbalanced nutrients in River Ganga, India

The River Ganga is the largest, perennial and one of the sacred rivers in India. It supports the lifeline of major population in urban and rural areas existing in the river basin. The river is a chief source of water supply, power generation, river-borne transport and expansion of the urban industrial belt. However, the river receives huge amount of untreated wastewater which imbalances the nutrient concentration at many points along the stretch. Therefore, the present study is focused to estimate the water pollution using water quality indices, such as OPI, national sanitation foundation index (NSFWQI), comprehensive pollution index (CPI) and heavy metal pollution index (HPI), and identify the imbalance nutrients (i.e. NO₃, PO₄, heavy metals, etc.) in the river.  Also, the probability of health risk that might occur by drinking the river water has been classified using risk assessment index (RAI).

The analytics of the water and it’s analysis were conducted by a team which was engaged. The water samples were collected in post- and pre-monsoon months in year 2014–2015, from nine sampling locations between Haridwar and Garhmukteshwar. The results indicate that the water quality of River Ganga is unsuitable for drinking during sampling months, because the average NSFWQI was found to be 53.44 and 43.56, while CPI was 2.71 and 2.82 in post- and pre-monsoon, respectively. The river water has been found to be severely contaminated due to heavy metals (i.e. HPI > 3) and indicates the human health risk (i.e. RAI > 1).

Therefore, it has been suggested that the river water must be treated to balance the nutrient concentration before used for drinking. Further, by a comparative analysis of indices, NSFWQI and CPI have been found as the better suitable indices to classify the status of water quality .

Additional information

Funding

The project and the studies in this regards and many a research on the studies were conducted and the authors who were funded and aided by the Government of India were the authors (MC & SM) are thankful to the Ministry of Human Resource and Development (MHRD), Government of India for financial assistance in the form of academic scholarship during their Master of Technology programme in Environmental Management of Rivers and Lakes in IIT Roorkee.

 The role of water use patterns and sewage pollution in incidence of water-borne/enteric diseases along the Ganges river in Varanasi, India

 In Varanasi, India, an estimated 200 million liters daily or more of untreated human sewage is discharged into the Ganges River. River water monitoring over the past 12 years has demonstrated faecal coliform counts up to 10⁸ MPN (most probable number) per 100 ml and biological oxygen demand levels averaging over 40 mg/l in the most polluted part of the river in Varanasi.

A questionnaire-based survey was used to estimate water-borne and enteric disease incidence and study river use among resident users of the Ganges River in Varanasi.

 The overall rate of water-borne/enteric disease incidence, including acute gastrointestinal disease, cholera, dysentery, hepatitis-A, and typhoid, was estimated to be about 66% during the one-year period prior to the survey. Logistic regression analysis revealed significant associations between water-borne/enteric disease occurrence and the use of the river for bathing, laundry, washing eating utensils, and brushing teeth.

Thirty-three cases of cholera were identified among families exposed to washing clothing or bathing in the Ganges while no cholera cases occurred in unexposed families. Other exposure factors such as lack of sewerage and toilets at residence, children defecating outdoors, poor sanitation, low income and low education levels also showed significant associations with enteric disease outcome. This study provides an estimate of water-borne/enteric disease incidence and identifies possible risk factors for residents who live by and use the Ganges River in Varanasi.

Acknowledgements

This research and publication were made possible in part by a travel grant award from the NSF EPSCoR program of Montana State University, and by NIH Grant Number P20 RR-16455-03 from the BRIN Program of the National Center for Research Resources.

Steve Hamner who himself was involved in a BIG manner to experiment , research and put the volumes on the subject manner was assisted in a big way by many experts in water technology and he  wishes to thank Dr Veer Bhadra Mishra and all members of the SMF in Varanasi, and Francis Peavey and Catherine Porter of the San Francisco-based Friends of the Ganges for their encouragement and support for completion of the health survey and data analysis. The contributions of the SGRL of the SMF in gathering and sharing 12 years of water quality data are gratefully acknowledged.

Dr Martin Hamilton, Professor of Statistics at Montana State University, provided invaluable advice for applying logistic regression analysis to the health survey data.

We thank the Central Water Commission (CWC) of Government of India for providing the discharge data of River Ganga.

 This article is basically to make the Indian Government to WAKE up to the REALITY that if the RIVER GANGES or MAA GANGAA is not cleansed within another TWO YEARS the problem of drinking water would be so severe that IT WOULD SURPASS ALL THE GRAVES THAT CORUNA WOULD CREATE AND BUILT BEFORE IT EXTINGUISHES

 Thanks if the GOVERNMENT OF INDIA has understood it and acts in a manner expected to ward off the GRAVE that I can forsee coming and hitting us

 Regards

Shyamal Bhattacharjee