Thoughts on World Rivers Day & World Environmental Health Day

Today on September 26th, the world observes a day that highlights two burning environmental issues.

One is World Rivers Day and secondly World Environment Health Day. Indeed, the two ideas or concepts are closely interlinked.

World Rivers Day is?a celebration of the world's waterways. It highlights the many values of rivers and strives to increase public awareness and encourages the improved stewardship of rivers around the world. Rivers in virtually every country face an array of threats, and only through active involvement of human society, can we ensure their health in the years ahead. As the Canadian river conservationist Mark Angelo said, “Rivers are the arteries of our planet; they are lifelines in the truest sense”.

How are we faring in India? The Central Pollution Control Board, India (CPCB) in 2018 identified 351 polluted river stretches in India. The list is frightening. Maharashtra has the highest number of polluted rivers at 53, followed by Assam (44), Madhya Pradesh (22), Kerala (21), Gujarat (20), Odisha (19), and West Bengal and Karnataka (17).

According to a Niti Aayog report called ‘A Composite Water Management Index’, published in June 2018, more than 600 million people in India face high to extreme water crisis in the country.?With nearly 70% of water being contaminated, India is placed 120th amongst 122 countries in the water quality index.

Let us look at the much-revered River Ganga. ?Passing through five states, the Ganga covers 26 per cent of the country’s landmass. Despite the enormous amounts of money spent on cleaning it, the river continues to run polluted. Worse, the pollution is increasing even in stretches that were earlier considered clean.

According to (Late) Padma Shri Ramaswamy R Iyer, a water-policy expert, who wrote the seminal book ‘Living Rivers, Dying Rivers’?(Oxford University Press, 2015), most rivers are on the decline, and even the few ‘living rivers’ are on the decline. He had said that in the Indian context the problem of water has been a “crisis of gross mismanagement” and in the international context, “a crisis of rapacity.”?A poignant point he went on to make was that ‘Rivers are not human artifacts; they are natural phenomena, integral components of ecological systems, and inextricable parts of the cultural, social, economic and spiritual lives of the communities concerned. They are not pipelines to be cut, turned around, welded and re-joined.”

“What ails the Indian rivers is beyond just the rivers. It is also the river beds, the banks, the vegetation on both sides, the flood pains and the catchment area., the totality of all this constitutes a river. A river is a natural, living organic whole, a hydrological and ecological system. Indeed, rivers are more than just water, and an integral part of our social, historical and cultural fabric”, Iyer pointed out

The question we have to ask is then why are the rivers dying. The reasons have long been documented and the biggest villain of water pollution in Indian rivers is untreated sewage. Untreated sewage also effects groundwater. There is a large gap between generation and treatment of domestic waste water in India. While toilets are a necessary part of the solution to India’s sanitation, an arguably bigger yet often overlooked issue is how to contain and treat India’s sewage and a large percentage of untreated sewage makes its way into rivers and other water bodies.

For reference, the levels of coliform bacteria should be below 104 MPN/100 ml?or lower for water to be considered safe. However, River Ganga has faecal coliform levels that is found to be?3 to 12 times higher than the permissible level at most inter-state boundaries. It is in the same waters that millions of pilgrims come and take a dip as part of religious observances. The river is polluted by both domestic and industrial pollution. There is agricultural run-off of containing residues of harmful pesticides and fertilisers. There is open defecation on the banks too. In addition, animal carcasses and half-burnt and human corpses are also reported to be thrown into the river.

The Kumbha Mela sees the biggest gathering and one of the reasons for pandemics in human history as well as a burden to environmental health. The earliest documented record of infectious disease at the Kumbh Mela festival was an?outbreak of cholera?in 1817.?This spread through the returning pilgrims across India and through its ports to Europe and East Asia, leading to the 1817–1824 Asiatic cholera pandemic. In addition, pilgrims leave back pooja materials, cloth and other items that are swept into the river and becomes a dumping ground for solid waste.

In Prayagraj, for instance, experts say the gap between sewage generation and the capacity to treat it is widening rapidly. A study by the Uttar Pradesh Pollution Control Board (UPPCB) has shown that the Ganga at Prayagraj, both upstream and downstream, is unsafe for bathing and could expose people to extremely high levels of coliform bacteria (35-40 times permissible levels), mostly the faecal coliform,?Escherichia coli. The banks of the Bhima river which becomes the Chandrabhaga river at Pandharpur in Maharashtra, is a sorry sight with the banks sullied with litter that goes to pollute the river and affects aquatic flora and fauna.

When will we prioritise cleaning our rivers, not allowing discharge of human waste, which is the actual form of reverence to ‘Ganga Mata’, ‘Yamuna Devi’, ‘Narmada Devi’ and other rivers?

Approximately 80% of the water supplied for domestic uses, comes out as wastewater. Even today, in many urban areas of India, wastewater is let out untreated due to the lack/unavailability of sewerage network and discharged into the natural drainage system causing pollution in the downstream areas.

India’s largest cities have attempted centralized sewage systems, with underground pipes, pumping stations, and treatment plants. However, these systems are expensive to build and require uninterrupted power, skilled operators, and extensive maintenance to operate optimally. In 1992, a World’s Health Organization study reported that out of India’s 3,119 towns and cities, only 209 had partial wastewater treatment facilities, only eight had full facilities, and nearly 114 cities dumped untreated sewage and partially cremated bodies directly into the River Ganga. Shocked?

This untreated wastewater is the cause for diarrhoeal diseases, such as?cholera, typhoid fever and rotavirus. These diseases are responsible for?the mortality of nearly 800 children every day. High time we shifted our attention to these diseases.

The questions we should be urgently asking is that for every toilet or household grey water, where is it discharged? Is it safely contained, treated on site, or transported for treatment? If it is transported, how far is it taken and how is it treated? Are existing STPs (sewage treatment plants) monitored stringently?

The answers to these questions bring us to the other environmental issue that is in focus today and that is ‘Environmental Health’. Untreated sewage is not just devastating to human health but also to the environmental health. The excess of nutrients (such as nitrogen and phosphorous) that are released into the environment from untreated wastewater, disrupt natural ecosystems as well as aquatic life. Coral reefs are dying due to this phenomenon all over the world.?It is a sorry situation, but what is worse is that we are not applying existing solutions.

Thankfully, in 2016, as reported in the magazine ‘Global Recycling Info’, the number of sewage treatment plants (STPs) rose to 920 in different states, out of which 615 STPs were operational, 80 STPs were non-operational, 154 STPs were under construction, and 71 STPs were in the stage of planning. This was the last time an inventory was taken. The estimated sewage generation in the country was 61,948 mld in 2015 against the available treatment capacity of 23,277 mld. This means in effect that 38,671 mld or 62 percent are not treated.

An estimated Rs 2,958 Crores (US$460 million) have been spent until July 2016 in various efforts in cleaning up of the River Ganga.

So what are the solutions for India and one can think of the following.

1.?????Widespread awareness and education on waste management and waste-water management, so that waste does not reach water bodies. ?

2.?????Address pollution taking in confidence communities and elicit cooperation, such as modifying rituals, stopping open defecation

3.?????Address location of polluting industries and strengthen legislations and implementation of pollution control.

4.?????Recycle wastewater and encourage new innovative technologies such as Decentralised Sewage Treatment Plants. ?

5.?????Improve water harvesting and catchment

If you feel as strongly as we do about Environmental Health and the state of the Rivers in the country, we at Ecoparadigm, welcome collaborations to create clean rivers, so that we leave behind a legacy worthy enough for the next generation to carry. For more on our DTS (Decentralised Treatment Systems), solid waste management, rain-water harvesting, do contact us or leave a message in the comments.

Sangeeta Venkatesh on behalf of Ecoparadigm