Ganga pollution
Topic: Geographical Issues: Pollution, Urban Waste, Slums and Land Degradation · NCERT: Class 12, Ch 9 "Geographical Perspective on Selected Issues and Problems"
Meaning
Ganga pollution means the dirtying of the Ganga by waste from the towns and factories along its banks. The main causes are domestic sewage from big cities and industrial effluents (liquid factory waste), such as tannery waste. Religious fairs and the dumping of material from rituals add to it. The river is worst in three places: downstream of Kanpur, downstream of Varanasi, and at the Farakka barrage. These polluted stretches lie in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal. Cleaning efforts began with the Ganga Action Plan (1985) and continue under Namami Gange (2014).
Example
Downstream of Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, the tanneries' waste and the city's sewage pollute the Ganga heavily. Today, dissolved oxygen has improved, but faecal coliform (bacteria from human waste) is still high (verify current).
Don't confuse with
- Yamuna pollution: here the main problem is low flow. Haryana and Uttar Pradesh take so much water for irrigation that too little is left to dilute Delhi's waste.