Summary Inside India’s Gargantuan Mission to Clean the Ganges River | WIRED www.wired.com
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India's Namami Gange program invests heavily in new sewage facilities to clean the Ganges River.
Slides
Slide Presentation (7 slides)
Key Points
- India is undertaking a major engineering program to restore the heavily polluted Ganges river, which is both sacred and contaminated.
- Poor sanitation in India affects millions of people and leads to water-borne illnesses.
- The Namami Gange program has been launched to clean up the Ganges river through new sewage facilities and sewer lines.
- Despite progress, the Ganges in Varanasi remains polluted, with high levels of fecal coliform bacteria exceeding safety limits.
- Religious and environmental campaigners advocate for a clean Ganges river, criticizing the government's efforts.
- The government's sanitation schemes face challenges, with high levels of fecal coliform bacteria still reported at monitoring stations.
- India's sanitation drive has shown progress, including increased sightings of aquatic life in the Ganges river.
Summaries
20 word summary
India's Namami Gange program aims to clean the Ganges River, with over 328 billion rupees spent on new sewage facilities.
59 word summary
India is working on a large project to clean the heavily polluted Ganges river, despite progress in providing sanitation facilities. The Namami Gange program has spent over 328 billion rupees on new sewage facilities and sewer lines, with progress made in Varanasi. However, the river remains polluted, and an additional $2.56 billion will be spent on expanding the program.
136 word summary
India is undertaking a massive engineering project to clean up the heavily polluted Ganges river, a sacred waterway used for Hindu ceremonies. Despite progress in providing sanitation facilities through the Clean India Campaign, sewage continues to heavily pollute the Ganges. The Namami Gange program has been launched to address this issue, with over 328 billion rupees spent on new sewage facilities and sewer lines. In Varanasi, progress has been made in installing new sewer lines, capping drains, and implementing measures to reduce pollution levels. However, the river remains polluted, with high levels of fecal coliform bacteria. India's sanitation drive has made some progress, but challenges remain. The government has confirmed an additional $2.56 billion expenditure on expanding the Namami Gange program, as the campaign to clean the Ganges river continues despite facing criticism from religious leaders.
311 word summary
India is embarking on a massive engineering effort to clean up the Ganges river, a sacred waterway that has become one of the most polluted in the world. The river, used for Hindu ceremonies, has turned into a dumping ground for pollutants, including human waste. This is part of a larger global issue, with 1.7 billion people lacking access to modern sanitation facilities and suffering from water-borne illnesses.
Despite India's progress in providing sanitation facilities through the Clean India Campaign, sewage continues to heavily pollute the Ganges. The Namami Gange program has been launched to address this issue, with over 328 billion rupees spent on new sewage facilities and sewer lines. In Varanasi, significant progress has been made in installing new sewer lines and capping drains that previously discharged raw sewage into the Ganges.
The city has also implemented measures to collect temple flowers, ban certain plastics, and convert diesel-powered boats to run on compressed natural gas to reduce pollution levels. New sewage treatment plants have been built, but they are still inadequate for the task at hand.
Despite these efforts, the Ganges in Varanasi remains polluted, with high levels of fecal coliform bacteria exceeding safety limits. Religious and environmental campaigners are critical of the government's efforts and advocate for a clean holy river. They have seen the river's health decline with India's growth.
India's sanitation drive has made some progress, with increased sightings of aquatic life in the Ganges river. However, high levels of fecal coliform bacteria are still reported at monitoring stations. The government has confirmed an additional $2.56 billion expenditure on expanding the Namami Gange program.
The campaign to clean the Ganges river continues, despite facing challenges and criticism from religious leaders who see it as a moral mission. For them, the Ganges is more than just a river; it's a medium of life and a holy mission.
525 word summary
India is undertaking one of the biggest engineering programs in the history of sanitation to restore the Ganges river, which is one of the most sacred waterways and one of its most polluted.
The Ganges river is a sacred waterway for Hindus, but it is also one of the most contaminated major rivers on earth. It is used in Hindu prayer and ceremony, but it has become a dumping ground for countless pollutants, including human effluent.
Sanitation remains an urgent global issue, with an estimated 1.7 billion people worldwide still lacking access to modern sanitation facilities. In India, poor sanitation affects millions of people and leads to water-borne illnesses.
India has made significant progress in installing sanitation facilities through the Clean India Campaign, which has provided sanitation for an estimated half a billion people. However, the sewage needs to go somewhere, and the Ganges remains heavily polluted.
The Namami Gange program has been launched to clean up the Ganges river, with over 328 billion rupees spent and the construction of new sewage facilities and sewer lines. The program aims to clean a river sacred to hundreds of millions of people.
In Varanasi, a city situated at the confluence of two rivers that join the Ganges river course, significant progress has been made in installing new sewer lines and capping drains that previously discharged raw sewage into the Ganges.
The city has also implemented measures to collect temple flowers and reduce pollution levels, including banning certain plastics and converting diesel-powered boats to run on compressed natural gas.
New sewage treatment plants have been built to process effluent and reduce dissolved nitrogen and phosphorus to minimize eutrophication. However, the sewage treatment plants are still inadequate for the task at hand.
Despite the progress made by the Namami Gange program, the Ganges in Varanasi remains polluted, with high levels of fecal coliform bacteria exceeding safety limits. The government's figures do not reflect the reality experienced by bathers on the ghats.
Religious and environmental campaigners like Vishwambhar Nath Mishra are advocating for a clean holy river and have been critical of the government's efforts. Mishra's foundation has been keeping track of the Ganges water quality data and has seen the river's health decline with India's growth.
The continued failure of the government's schemes to clean the Ganges is a wedge issue for religious campaigners, to whom the issue of cleaning the Ganges is more than practical or political; it's moral.
Despite the challenges, India's sanitation drive has made progress, with increased sightings of aquatic life in the Ganges river. The government has also confirmed an additional $2.56 billion expenditure on expanding the Namami Gange program.
India's sanitation drive is still far from where the government's narrative would have the public believe, with high levels of fecal coliform bacteria reported at monitoring stations. The Namami Gange project has made progress, but the Ganges in Varanasi remains polluted.
The campaign to clean the Ganges river continues, no matter how unpopular it makes activists with the government and Modi-leaning press. For religious leaders like Mishra, the Ganges is more than just a river; it's a medium of life and a holy mission.