Despite the government spending crores of rupees to clean the Ganga, a symbol of people’s faith, many cities continue to discharge sewage and drain water into the river. This raises questions about the ongoing projects aimed at cleaning the Ganga.
The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) report on the Namami Gange program states that 23 of the 42 projects related to the Ganga River in Uttarakhand were inspected from 2018 to 2022-23. The projects included sewage management, riverfront development, ghat cleaning, and afforestation and horticulture promotion. The inspection revealed some deficiencies. The investigation found that the State Ganga Committee and the State Ganga Mission did not plan and implement sewage treatment infrastructure in collaboration with the local community.
The state government did not contribute its own resources to improving sewerage facilities in the cities along the Ganga. This explains why many STPs are not or only partially connected to the domestic sewer network. Existing STPs lack adequate treatment capacity, resulting in significant amounts of untreated sewage flowing into the Ganga. The report also states that the Uttarakhand Jal Sansthan refused to take control of 18 STPs due to personnel issues during their construction and operation. Furthermore, the State Ganga Committee failed to conduct timely safety audits of the STPs, resulting in loss of human life and Namami Gange assets.
Lack of sewage is a cause of the landslide in Joshimath.
The CAG report states that in 2010, the central government approved an I&H scheme to lay 27.67 kilometers of sewer lines at a cost of ₹9.61 crore (96.1 million rupees). The scheme included drain tapping but did not provide for STP construction. After spending ₹9.57 crore (95.7 million rupees), the scheme was discontinued in 2017. At the same time, despite spending ₹42.73 crore (US$1.2 billion) on infrastructure developed under the 2010-2017 schemes, none of the projects had sewage connections. The incidents of land subsidence in Joshimath were attributed to deficiencies in the sewage system. A new preliminary proposal was submitted to the NMCG in 2023 to lay a sewer network and provide household connections at a cost of ₹202 crore (US$1.2 billion).
Questions were also raised about the quality of sewage treatment plants.
The CAG report stated that the quality of sewage treatment at sewage treatment plants was poor. Most STPs did not comply with the National Pollution Control Board (NPT) or central government standards. Water quality up to Devprayag was in the “Category A” category, while the Ganga River water quality in Rishikesh remained in the “Category B” category from 2019 to 2023. During this period, the Ganga River water quality in Haridwar district also remained in the “Category B” category. The CAG report found deficiencies in sewage treatment in seven Ganga-side towns. The CAG report stated that deficiencies in sewage treatment were found in Joshimath, Nandprayag, Karnaprayag, Rudraprayag, Kirtinagar, Chagoli, and Srinagar. Here, STPs are treating only gray water from drains
