Ganga Action Plan-I improves water quality

New Delhi, Oct 2 (UNI) The water quality of the Ganga river has improved after 259 projects for checking pollution under the Ganga Action Plan-I, the government today said.

The projects, covered 23 towns in three northern states, created a sewage treatment capacity of 865 million litres per day, the Environment and Forest Ministry said.

The composition of lean season average (March to June) values for Dissolved Oxygen (DO) and Biochemical Oxygen Demand, the major indicators of water quality, for 1986 and 2005 shows a perceptible improvement during the period all along the stretch of the Ganga, the Ministry said.

Ganga Action Plan-I was formulated on the basis of a comprehensive survey of the Ganga basin carried out by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) in 1984.

According to the CPCB survey, the total sewage generated from 25 Class I towns in 1985 was estimated at 1,340 million litres per day.

A total of 261 projects of pollution abatement covering these 25 towns in three States were sanctioned under this Plan. The remaining two projects of sewage treatment plants in Bihar are in the final stage of completion.

The Ganga Action Plan-I was declared closed on March 31, 2000.

The water quality monitoring of the river has been done by independent institutes like Central Pollution Control Board, Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd, Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur and Indian Toxicological Research Centre, Lucknow.

According to the Ministry, it was observed that in spite of a phenomenal increase in population in the urban centres located upstream on the Ganga, there was a perceptible improvement in pollution during this period at all the major locations of the river.

UNI FZ SP KN2103