CPCB for maintaining minimum flow in Ganga: Govt

Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) has proposed to maintain minimum flow in Ganga throughout the year to support the river's ecosystem, Lok Sabha was informed today.
Replying to queries whether the government has conducted any study on the river's pollution, Union Minister of State for Water Resources Sanwar Lal Jat said that the CPCB came out with a report titled 'A Plan on Conservation of Water Quality of River Ganga - A Segmental Approach' in December 2015.
In the report, the CPCB has made an attempt to evolve a segmented action plan which is based on identifying sources of pollution.

The recommendations made by the CPCB include setting up in-situ sewage treatment plant (STP) on sewage carrying streams; installing bio-gas plants for recovery of gas from municipal solid waste generated in small towns; framing water utilisation plan; regulating withdrawal of water from Ganga at Haridwar, Bijnore, Narora and Kanpur; upkeep of ghats and maximising utilisation of the river water before it flows into Bay of Bengal.
On controlling pollutants emanating from industries located along the river, the CPCB has recommended setting up of effluent treatment plants (ETPs). It has suggested making attempts to polish treated effluents which should either be recycled or reused back into the industrial system.

The CPCB also recommended enforcing "self-regulatory" mechanism like installation of continuous effluent monitoring devices and directing the industry to provide effluent tapping point to be notified by Pollution Control Boards so that samples can be collected to know norms are being complied with or not.