Eco Friends Ganga Dialogue
On Sept 28, 2005

At Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology, Dehra Dun

Report by Christine Matovich

The Ganga Dialogue organized by Eco Friends, Kanpur , held in Dehradoon was a foreshadowing of the necessity of dialogues between various NGOs, Government branches, and scientists-all focused on the health and welfare of the Ganga and its citizens.

As an American citizen, exponent of the arts, I had the pleasure to participate in a joint cultural outreach with the American Center and Eco Friends in Kanpur . The success in Eco Friends outreach to the public schools is but a small reflection of the ability of one body that takes an active concern and manifests that concern through positive, organized, far reaching plans that slowly, but certainly bring about necessary and logical change. I felt the efforts of this Ganga Dialogue were based on the outreach plan that has had measurable impact in and around Kanpur in regards to the Ganga and her citizens. A holistic approach and an excuse would be “it's a global problem what to do…” we can't point fingers at cross purposes when what is apparent is that the Ganga, in many areas, is a sewage repository, a dump, a tomb of discarded ignorance and special interest.

Although immediate solutions weren't apparent at the dialogue, suggestions were via the introduction of other NGOs, limited government representation, and field experts. One dialogue could not cure the ills of the Ganga , but it could bring enlightenment of sincere obvious problems.

The questions put forth for the dialogue were: Do we have a Ganga vision? Is there a threat to the existence of the Ganga ? Are we satisfied with the present state of affairs? What kind of Ganga do we want? What is better, the River or Basin approach? What are thoughts and concerns of Dams, Water Diversion, Pollution, and Projects? What are the problems arising out of Ganga Management with its commercialization and displacement of people and ecology?

What I garnered from the dialogue regarding the questions was an initial vision to give attention to Pollution Free Ganga , the second vision would be River Flows . It was mutually apparent that the Ganga is definitely being threatened.

Key problems identified were pollution and run off, use of sewage for land irrigation as well as run off industrial waste for farming communities along the Ganga, the lack of treatment plants, lack of awareness in key religious areas regarding pollutants (plastic offerings, corpses, paraffins, oils, toxin based idols, etc.), basins that are not being properly filled, dams that divert too much water causing areas of the Ganga river bed to be depleted of water and necessary irrigation, lack of awareness for sewage treatment plants, lack of widespread awareness for government imposed industrial waste treatment plants, increased glacial melting (study in progress), concerns over merging the rivers.

What was well muted was the lack, first at the dialogue level, of government representation, as well as the fact that specific areas related to the Ganga for water are divided amongst various government agencies-how can this be brought under one umbrella? Why did the Ganga Action Plan fail? Why did the Potomac Action plan succeed? How can data be centralized that leads to a policy of action and enforcement?

River and Basin-Approach

The river must first supply the basins for its people, diversions must be coincided with full basins, and diversions must be environmentally friendly as well as ecologically and economically balanced. The integrated flow of river and dam is that both levels and quality must be checked.

Irrigation: UP, Haryana, Punjab ….

What is the impact and use of fertilizers run off in the water source? How does it affect ground water, dams and reservoirs as well as natural water flow?

Statistics and Sources

As mentioned above, data must be centralized with contributing agencies. There is a need for a long series of data-which is valid and recognized to provide data on each problem/issue? Do we start with some of the representatives at the dialogue? This would include all hydrological data study via the contributing rivers, snow and glacial melt.

Water Conservation

This issue is not addressed and needs adequate study-do basins need to be increased? What water tables are being filled? What water is being wasted leading to early droughts in areas that would not necessarily need to have droughts via proper water management? What is the balance of water diversion to Delhi and surrounding land locked cities in conjunction with water conservation and retention?

Policy

Policy must allow for actual data to be gathered from varied expert sources and centralized first non-NGO, and access to government findings for active comparison. Currently the government agencies that are separate in water policies and issues regarding the Ganga work at cross-purposes.

A National Ganga Agency that works with Ganga , NGOs and universities creating a well defined business and action plan modeled after successful river clean up projects- Thames , Potomac , Colorado . What is a realistic timeline? 5 years for data collections while simultaneously cleaning up pollution on local levels via awareness and action is feasible.

How to act on such Proposals?

Data lead to awareness
Awareness leads to presentations
Presentations lead to community outreach
Outreach leads to acceptance and civil participation in each city
Civil participation as part of mandatory policy, policy that enforces fines and critical measures from rich to poor to enforce anti-pollution.

Marketing, Ecology and Economy:

Nothing comes for free. The recurring theme is “love thy mother”. Mother Ganga, the milk that nourishes. Guilt is a powerful tool. The image of Mother Ganga being choked with sewage, idols, run off, corpses and dry riverbeds are on documented film. How did Chevron simultaneously search for oil and conserve the environment? What are incentives that can be implemented without corruption? The smallest village has radios, and even TVs, celebrity endorsement and larger industries willing to fund an ad campaign will assist a centralized NGO body to bring societal and governmental change. The media, for a short term-long reaching plan will be the biggest ally-if fully and adequately informed.

The dialogue was a success in bringing together a small but informative group of highly involved individuals who shared a mutual concern via their various specialized fields that the Ganga needs sincere immediate attention. The thoughts, concerns, identification of key issues, and proposals is indicative that such a dialogue needs to happen frequently, with more government representation, as well as media, lobbyists and policy makers. Is it the responsibility of Eco Friends to hold forth a centralized dialogue, or can a small board of directors from the various NGOs create a centralized committee that works towards the implementation of the proposals? This is needed-I sincerely believe that a step in the right direction was made at the Dialogue. If the NGOs express apathy at this point by not getting involved to centralize as well, are they not as culpable as the government agencies they blame for working at cross-purposes?

(Christine Matovich was a participant and Dialogue Moderator)

For the report of Dr. AC Shukla, click here