DEHRA DUN: Water quality of the river Ganga in Haridwar is below the standards set by the Central Pollution Control Board for bathing, a recent study by an NGO says.
Water has been polluted due to continuous discharge of untreated waste and effluents from various drains directly into the river Ganga, a Dehra Dun-based NGO People's Science Institute said in its study.
Sewage treatment plant (STP) at Jagjeetpur releases about 129 million litres daily (MLD) into the Ganga with a fecal coliform concentration of about 34 million/100ml.
Fecal coliforms are non-sporulating bacteria. Scientists from People's Science Institute (PSI) took samples from 10 drains falling into the river Ganga at different locations in Haridwar on January 2 and 3 this year along with samples of the river water at three locations.
The fecal coliform count of the waste water discharged by the 10 drains ranges from 2.35 million/100ml to 40.6 million/100ml.
The worst situation is the sewer drain at Jwalapur in Balmiki Nagar in the holy town which releases an estimated 15 MLD containing 40.6 million fecal coliforms per 100 ml.
Water samples of Ganga river taken from Saptrishi, Har-Ki-Pauri and Jagjeetpur showed fecal coliforms counts of 1000, 1500 and 7.5 million per 100 ml.
These are well above the prescribed CPCB standard of 500 MPN/100 ml and they pose a health hazard to millions of devotees who are likely to bathe in the river during the Kumbh Mela, PSI Environmental Quality Monitoring Group Head Dr Anil Gautam said.
"The present results do not show any significant improvement in the waste water draining into the Ganga, or the treated effluents emerging from the STP at Jagjeetpur, compared to the results we obtained in July 2009," he said.
"We had circulated our results of July 2009 to all the state legislators and ministers. We received acknowledgements from only two of them, Matbar Singh Kandari and Amrita Rawat, both of whom wrote letters to the Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal," Gautam claimed.
However, no steps have been taken to clean Ganga before the Kumbh Mela, he said.
Source: TOI
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