Effective Measures by Government to Stop the Pollution

Ganga Action Plan

The Ganga Action Plan was established in 1986 to combat pollution in the Ganga River. The main goal of this strategy was to clean up the Ganga River by removing pollution caused by trash disposal from cities along the river’s banks. The goal was to clean up the Ganga from Rishikesh to Kolkata. In 1984, the central pollution control board devised a five-year plan to clean up the Ganga. To clean up the Ganga, the central Ganga authority was established in 1985, and a Ganga action plan was initiated in 1986. 

The Ganga Action Plan’s first phase was launched by late Rajiv Gandhi at Banaras’ Rajendra Prasad Ghat. Its implementation was entrusted to the National Protection Agency. 256 programmes totalling 462 crores were implemented during the first phase of the Ganga Action Plan in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and West Bengal. To check the purity of the water, special stations have been set up. The water quality was tested by professionals from Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited and the National Environment Engineering Research Institute. 

Despite all of the effort, the Ganga action plan failed horribly, despite the fact that crores of dollars were spent on it. Economic pollution has resulted from the failure of such a large plan. In 2001, the government began the second phase of the Ganga Action Plan, which is being implemented by the central pollution board, central public works department, and public works department.

Namami Ganga Programme

Under the river rehabilitation effort, a flagship Namami Ganga Program was formed under a separate union Water Ministry. The initiative intends to incorporate the Ganga conservation mission, which is in action to clean and conserve the river while also providing socio-economic advantages to the river’s dependent population through job development, improved livelihoods, and health benefits. 

The Namami Ganga projects have made significant progress in the following areas:

• Creating sewage treatment capacity: 63 sewerage management projects are now being implemented in the states of Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and West Bengal to increase sewage treatment capacity. In these projects, 12 sewage management projects were launched.
• Creating riverside development: Construction, management, and refurbishment of 182 ghats and 118 crematoria has begun on 28 riverfront development projects and 33 entry-level projects.
• River surface cleaning: The collecting of solid floating waste on the ghats and rivers is known as river surface cleaning. These wastes are piped into treatment facilities after being collected.
• Public Awareness: Seminars, workshops, and conferences, as well as a variety of other activities, are held to educate the public and improve community transmission.
• Industrial Effluent Monitoring: The Grossly Polluting Industries are regularly monitored. Environmental compliances are checked in industries that follow the stated norm. Without the use of intermediaries, the reports are submitted directly to the central pollution control board.

Water is one of the most important natural resources on the planet, and it has existed for millennia. In reality, the same water we drink has been around in some form or another since the dinosaur era. More than two-thirds of the earth’s surface is covered with water. This equates to1 octillion litres (1,260,000,000,000,000,000,000 litres) of water dispersed over the oceans, rivers, lakes, and streams. Although this is a large amount of water, only about 0.3 % of it is suitable for human consumption. That number has decreased as commercialization and industrialization have developed. Furthermore, water contamination has been caused by inefficient and obsolete techniques, a lack of understanding, and a variety of other factors.