Javier Mateo-Sagasta, International Water Management Institute, Sri Lanka

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1 Javier Mateo-Sagasta, International Water Management Institute, Sri Lanka This article is the first in a special series looking at water quality issues in the River Ganga (also known as the Ganges). The other articles in this series can be accessed here. The Ganga River is a symbol of faith, heritage and civilization. Its basin, with a 1.09 million km 2 area and over 600 million people, generates approximately 40% of India s GDP. Traversing over 2,500 km, the Ganga provides an extensive range of ecosystem services to riverine communities: water for cities and agriculture; fish production; recreational uses; and important sites for religious Bathers in the Ganga River, India. Source: Neil purposes to name a few. However, rapid population Palmer/IWMI growth and uncontrolled urbanization within the basin and along the river, and the resulting water abstractions and pollution loads, have reduced the provision of these ecosystem services and impacted productivity, environment and peoples health and well-being. Numerous and diverse issues affect the river. There is disruption to high velocity flow due to several hydro-electric projects and dams in the highly sensitive and fragile ecosystems in the upper reaches. The middle stretch of around 1,080 km from Haridwar to Varanasi is the most degraded due to significant irrigation canal and groundwater abstractions and a high degree of pollutant loads from different sources. Flow estimates after the canal diversions at Haridwar, Bijnor and Narora indicate that original Ganga river flow is almost completely lost 1, with little or no capacity to perform its ecosystem services and assimilate the large pollution loads. Fecal pollution is high all along the river and makes the water generally unsuitable for Global Water Forum 1

2 traditional bathing, let alone drinking, with the exception of a few upstream locations. What is even more alarming is that the situation has not improved in the last decades; on the contrary, coliform levels (a fecal pollution indicator) are on the rise and have substantially increased from 1996 in all locations throughout the entire course of the Ganga River 2. The Ganga River Basin has an installed capacity to treat up to 44% of the sewage produced in its Class I cities (> inhabitants), but only 8% of the Class II cities ( inhabitants) 3,4 and virtually 0% in smaller towns. Vast parts of the cities and most towns are, however, not covered by sewage networks or these networks are not operational or not ending in treatment plants, and so large quantities of wastewater remain untreated. But even where the constructed sewers are connected to treatment plants, there are concerns about their regular operation and maintenance which further lower the actual treatment of the collected wastewater. Addressing all these challenges will require massive efforts and innovative approaches. As a response to this call the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) and its partners, with the support of the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems (WLE), have recently launched the project Healthy Ganges: cleaner waters and more productive ecosystems. The two years project will identify and analyse the feasibility of technical, economic, and institutional solutions to clean and restore riverine ecosystems and analyse the potential for implementation of the most promising solutions throughout the Basin. These solutions will be gender sensitive and transformative and focus on improving river health in two ways: i) restoring environmental flows and the assimilative capacity of rivers; and ii) reducing pollution loads from small and medium cities. Research results from this project will be targeted at policy makers and public and private investors with the aim of supporting major initiatives of the Government of India. The project Global Water Forum 2

3 will build upon the expertise and experience of the project consortium, comprised of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF-India), the Institute of Rural Management Annand (IRMA) and the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)-Kanpur, as well as associate organizations such as the Water and Sanitation Program of the World Bank (WSP), the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), the Urban Development Authority in Uttar Pradesh, the National Mission to Clean Ganga (NMCG) and other local partners. The Healthy Ganga project s approach will be multiscale, from local to basin level, and from urban to rural. The work on environmental flows in the Upper Figure 1. Example of a simple reuse based Ganga River Basin will involve analyzing the costs, value proposition for fecal sludge management benefits and the trade-offs of implementing environmental flows and designing a framework for e-flows implementation and trade-off management. The environmental, social, gender and economics costs and benefits of restoring environmental flows will be examined and compared to the status quo. By identifying how environmental flows implementation will affect different users, potentially creating winners and losers, this research will provide insights on trade-offs amongst different users and shed light on how costs and benefits can be shared by the different parties involved. The last stage of the analysis will focus on developing a framework for the actual implementation of environmental flows. This will entail engaging with key stakeholders throughout the project to validate methodologies and discuss results. Global Water Forum 3

4 The work on pollution control will focus on 3 pilot cities in Uttar Pradesh, to analyse technical, economic and institutional solutions for pollution abatement and study the replication potential of the most promising solutions and the costs and benefits of such replication. A first baseline assessment will be conducted in three pilot cities in Uttar Pradesh. At the city level pollution sources, loads and pathways will be assessed with a focus on fecal pollution. Stakeholders and institutions involved in sanitation and pollution control will also be mapped and analyzed. Subsequently promising and scalable technical, institutional and economic solutions for pollution abatement, with special attention on fecal loads, will be elaborated in partnership with key stakeholders. Among others, research will focus on identifying and discussing with stakeholders novel business models for resource recovery from waste (Figure 1) and decentralized and low cost wastewater treatment. In this process, the active participation of women and youth will be sought to ensure that these groups of society influence the selection of solutions. Following on from this scoping study, the feasibility of the most promising solutions will be evaluated, and, after a solution has been verified as feasible, research will analyse its potential for replication in other localities within the Ganga River basin and the costs and benefits of such replication. This will provide quantitative and region specific data and evidence for prioritised interventions and investments. The Healthy Ganga project will also involve designing and implementing an uptake, communication and outreach strategy specifically targeted to key change agents, such as national, state and local public authorities. This comprehensive and integrated approach can trigger sustainable change in the Ganga River Basin and will contribute to move towards and healthier river. References: Global Water Forum 4

5 WWF-India. (2011) Assessment of environmental flows for Upper Ganga Basin, New Delhi, India: World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF)-India, 21 p. IITs (2012) Water Quality in the Ganga River and Efficacy of Sewage Treatment Processes: A Case for Adopting Tertiary Treatment. GRB EMP: Ganga River Basin Environment Management Plan. Indian Institutes of Technology of Bombay, Delhi, Guwahati, Kanpur, Kharagpur, Madras, Roorkee. Central Pollution Control Board (2009) Status of water supply, wastewater generation and treatment in Class-I and Class-II towns of India. Central Pollution Control Board. Delhi. Central Pollution Control Board (2013) Pollution assessment: River Ganga. Central Pollution Control Board. Delhi. Javier Mateo-Sagasta is a senior researcher at the International Water Management Institute (IWMI). He has extensive experience as agricultural engineer and environmental scientist in programs aiming at the control of water pollution and the safe reuse of marginal quality water in developed and developing countries. Before joining IWMI, Javier has worked on water management at research centers, in the private sector and in the UN system with FAO, as water quality officer. The CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems Focal Region Program in the Ganges Basins (WLE Ganges) is a research-for-development initiative that seeks to restore and bolster opportunities for increased agricultural productivity through key ecosystem services, especially in the resource poor areas in the region. The views expressed in this article belong to the individual authors and do not represent the views of the Global Water Forum, the UNESCO Chair in Water Economics and Transboundary Water Governance, UNESCO, the Australian National University, or any of the institutions to which the authors are associated. Please see the Global Water Forum terms and conditions here. Global Water Forum 5