03-April-2003

Report of the public hearing on the issue of severe pollution in river Ganga and its impact on the life and livelihood of the Ganga Communities at Kanpur

Background:

Kanpur is the most populated and polluted town along the river Ganga in Uttar Pradesh. The population of the town is estimated to be 3 million (2001 census). In terms of population, Kanpur is the 9th largest town in India and the 2nd largest in North India after Delhi.

The river Ganga meets up to 60 per cent of the water needs of Kanpur. It is the lifeline for the citizens of Kanpur. However, a number of factors have put strain on Ganga. These factors include rapidly growing population and resultant pollution load, industrial pollution and agricultural run offs which have a concentration of pesticides and chemical fertilizers. In addition to this Kanpur city generates approximately 400 million litres per day (MLD) of waste which ultimately finds its way into the river Ganga.

The stark reality is that the river Ganga in Kanpur is being treated as a natural sewer, garbage depot and morgue. The river is always strewn with human corpses and animal carcasses, trash such as non-biodegradable polybags, plastic bottles and biodegradables like worship materials, clay idols, account books and so on. It has been turned into a dumping yard.

People in hordes defecate along the river. Cattle wallowing, washing of clothes, use of soaps and detergents at various bathing ghats is prevalent. All these non-point sources of pollution definitely add to the pollution of the river, besides posing very offensive and repulsive sights to the Ganga users as well as common viewers.

The situation has come to such a passe that the river has not only earned the reputation of being “dead” with almost no aquatic life, it is also causing a host of health problems to the population of Kanpur.

Moreover, Ganga started shifting its course towards North from 1945 and it changed its course permanently in the 1960s, deserting the Kanpur side completely. At present, the mainstream of the river is at a distance of 8 kms from the water intake point, the main raw water source for Kanpur.

Kanpur had a line of beautiful bathing ghats and temples that are now completely in shambles. Efforts are on to restore Ganga to its original course at Kanpur. Ganga Barrage, which is expected to come up in 2003, promises to do just that.

A large number of people living on the banks have direct dependence on the river waters for their livelihood. These include fisher folk, washer folk, boatmen and the traditional cremator communities like Doms and Pandas. The fish and turtle population have plummeted alarmingly. The fish that survive are not fit for human consumption as they carry toxic elements.

Due to the prevalent pollution and reduced flow of water in Ganga all the ghats are in a pathetic condition. People no longer take boat rides thereby affecting the livelihood of the traditional boatmen.

Under its key activity, Eco-Friends has been monitoring the Ganga and Ganga Action Plan-Phase I for the past 10 years. It has found that Ganga cleaning efforts under GAP-Phase-I have fallen flat. Further, Eco-Friends has also realised the truth that the Ganga communities who live along the bank of the river can act as river watchdogs more effectively than any one else because of their close association with the river.

The basic idea behind the public hearing was to motivate as well as empower these Ganga community members to come forward to protect the river. Eco Friends wanted to give a platform to these communities to bring their plight to the notice of the policymakers and the district authorities. The aim was to provide a forum for exchange of views between them.

After a lot of preparatory activities, Eco-Friends succeeded in bringing together a board of experts from different fields, government authorities concerned, people’s representatives and pollution control agencies in order to comprehensively understand the issue and to arrive at a long-term strategy to deal with the problem of pollution.

Public hearing

List of Participants:

200 Ganga community members representing various communities such as Doms, Naviks, Dhanuks, fishing, Chandal, Panda et al participated in the public hearing. The authorities included the Mayor, Deputy Mayor, police officials, eminent scientist, officials of Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), CEO Cantt., representative of UP Fisheries department, representatives of Kanpur Jal Sansthan, Kanpur Jal Nigam and Ganga Pollution Control Unit (GPCU) and eminent citizens. Special guest from Germany and experts from other related fields also came to attend the meeting. Detailed list of resource persons and other participants is given below:

Resource persons :

Community Participants:

Included 200 participants representing Ganga communities of different ghats along 10 km. stretch of Ganga at Kanpur –

Boatmen of Sarsaiya Ghat,

Cremators (Doms) of Bhairon Ghat

Pandas, Fishermen and Boatmen of Massacre Ghat

Boatmen and Fishermen of Dapka Ghat

Cremators (Doms) of Burhiya Ghat

Cremators of Siddhanath Ghat

Cremators (Doms) of Chandan Ghat

Communities of Shukla Ganj, Unnao etc.

Proceedings (Abstract) of the Public Hearing

More than 200 women, men and children representing various Ghats of Kanpur attended the programme. A number of resource persons were also invited to interact with the communities and distinguished authorities and understand the impact of pollution on the lives and livelihoods of the ghat people.

The programme was divided into four main sessions-
i) First Session (Ganga Aarti & Inaugural)
ii) Second Session (Status of Ganga and Ghats)
iii) Third Session (Government. efforts to clean Ganga and strategizing the future course of action)
iv) Fourth Session (Presentation of Ganga Prahari I- cards to the community members)

In the first session, Mr. Anil Sharma (Mayor Kanpur City), resource persons and the community members were welcomed by Eco-Friends Executive Secretary Mr Rakesh K. Jaiswal. After the welcome, Mayor Sri Anil Sharma inaugurated the programme by performing the Ganga Aarti at Massacre Ghat under the supervision of Swami Shitalanand Nath Ji Maharaj, a famous religious leader with the help of Eco-Friends team members. The resource persons and the ghat community people also joined the aarti.

Ganga Arati was followed by the introductory address of Mr Jaiswal. Mr Jaiswal briefly outlined the problem of pollution in river Ganga and the role of citizens in depolluting the river. He also spoke about the efforts made by the government agencies in controlling the pollution which were next to nothing. While highlighting the dependence of the Ghat communities on river ganga for their livelihoods, Mr Jaiswal explained the audience how these communities can act as natural guardian of the river.

According to him, the Ganga community must realise the importance of their role in pollution abatement efforts. He stated that unless the participation of Ganga communities is sought, all pollution control plan will remain ineffective. Mr Jaiswal pointed out that Eco-Friends had implemented the concept of Ganga Praharis which was gradually gaining currency. Ganga Praharis are those ghat people who have vowed to fight the Ganga pollution and stop those who profane the river. Urging the district administration to ensure the participation of Ganga communities in future Ganga pollution control measures, Mr Jaiswal said that the government should start a community-friendly project for providing livelihood to these people who have been the direct victims of the pollution in the river and are suffering in silence.

After the introductory address of Eco-Friends’ Executive secretary, Mayor Kanpur city Mr Anil Sharma was invited to speak a few words. Mr Sharma talked about the socio-cultural importance of river Ganga for Indians. He lamented that though Indians call Ganga their Mother and regard it as a Goddess, they profane the river by throwing garbage into it. He added that to disrespect Ganga was to disrespect God. According to him two things had been downplayed by India in the post-independence era. One is education and other is Ganga.

Addressing the gathering, Mr Sharma said that a large scale dredging would be carried out in Ganga to extract the waste material accumulated at the riverbed. He also said that it was high time that the three crematoria – at Bhairon ghat, Bhagwatdas ghat and Shuklaganj – became functional.

The Second Session began with Mr. Mohammad Owais (Eco-Friend’s Program Officer) report on the status of river Ganga and its Ghats at Kanpur, He talked about the geographical shift of the river and government’s tall claims of its success in Ganga Action Plan. Mr Owais also pointed out that the domestic sewage and untreated industrial wastes was going directly into the river. Eco-Friends’ Quarterly monitoring report, IIT test results of ground water of Jajmau area was brought forth to make the people gauge the intensity of the problem.

Mr Owais drew inferences from the survey and highlighted the effects of pollution on the communities. After this, Mr Owais invited the community members to give their individual presentations and voice their deplorable plight.

Community presentations:

Third session kicked off with the individual presentations of the Community members. In this session, the ghat community people highlighted the problem they were suffering from the existing pollution in the river. They unanimously appreciated Eco-Friend’s effort to give them a platform to interact with the authorities and in trying to bridge the gap between them and the government officials. They also made the authorities aware about their efforts in cleaning the ganga and protecting it from getting more polluted. The brief outline of the individual presentations is given below-

Munnu Lal Awasthi of Massacre Ghat raised the issue of the poor condition of the ghat and said that the government had turned a blind eye to the plight of Ganga. He said that the disposal of domestic sewage directly in to the river Ganga by two big drains namely Sisamau drain and the Bakarmandi nullah was creating havoc. He also stated the miserable condition of Massacre and Sarsaiya ghat because of the sewage. He pointed out that due to foul smell of sewage in the river water, the people have stopped visiting ghats. According to him, the plan to depollute Ganga is only on papers and the government has turned a deaf ear to the grievances of the ghat people.

Guddu of Massacre Ghat complained about the sorry state of the river and the historical Massacre Ghat. He pointed out that encroachment of stray animals in the ghats was a big nuisance and should be tackled. He said that the Ganga at this ghat was being fouled as people from the nearby villages came to ghats for bathing their pet animals. Cattle wallowing polluted the river and he appealed the authorities to put a blanket ban on the entry of animals in the ghats.

Ram Avtar (Creamator or Dhanuk) of Burhiya Ghat said that the floating of human and animal dead bodies directly into the river without their proper cremation was polluting the river. Addressing the gathering, he said that cremation was his traditional source of living earlier. He and other cremators of Burhiya Ghat used to assist the people who wanted to float the dead bodies into the river. However, now after Eco-Friends team members made him realise how polluting his profession was, he does not allow anyone to float the dead bodies. Further, the cremators of Burhiya ghat are spreading the word forward. They have started making the cremators of other ghats aware of the impacts of dead body dumping and trying to convince them to either bury the body at the banks or cremate it traditionally.

He demanded that the cremators should be empowered by the authorities so that they can impose a strict ban on dead body dumping at least in the 10 km stretch of Ganga at Kanpur. He complained that despite their efforts, there are many ghats which still allow the people to float the bodies. He also demanded that the traditional cremators should be employed at the electric crematoria. This will help solve the problem of pollution as well as the problem of earning a living for them.

Hari Om Shukla representing the panda community appreciated the efforts of Eco-Friends to keep Ganga clean. He pointed out that the pandas and Mahapatras who earn their living by performing rituals at the ghats were hit the hardest by the river pollution. He said that floating of bodies into the river should be banned immediately.

He suggested that Pandas or dhanuks should be given the contract of bringing the dead bodies to the electric crematoria for their cremation so that crematoria will remain functional and the community can earn their living as well.

Dariyai Lal of Bhagwatdas Ghat representing the navik (Boatmen)community told the gathering that tannery effluents have polluted Ganga beyond measure. People are now no more inclined to carry Ganga-Jal to their homes from the Kanpur stretch of the river. Earlier when the water of river was pure people used to come to the ghats and ferry on the boats. But nowadays the boatmen are left with their languishing boats. They wait for people to visit the ghat. Earlier he used to earn Rs 400 to 500 per day by carrying the people on the boats, now he earns a meagre Rs 15 per day and is unable to make ends meet. He has three children and a wife who are going through throes of poverty.

He urged the authorities to take notice of the pollution problem and arrive at a practical solution so that people start visiting the ghats as they used to do in the past. He urged the authorities to expedite the construction of Ganga Barrage so that Ganga could return to the ghats and brings back happiness in their lives.

Kishori Lal. of Siddhanath ghat representing Nishad community also spoke about the miserable condition of boatmen and fishermen community. He complained that the government has banned fishing in Ganga from Farrukhabad to Allahabad town but did not give any altrenative. While pointing out that the government had dislodged them of their livelihood, he requested the fisheries department to solve the problem of fishermen by some new option such as fish farming at the banks of the river Ganga.

Ram Kumar of Burhiya ghat told the audience that he had stopped dumping dead bodies in the river. He asked the authorities to rehabilitate them by giving them some type of employment in the electric crematoria. He shared his new and innovative way of collecting coins thrown into the river by passersby by diving near the Jajmau and Shuklaganj bridges. He said this was an act which he had to resort to due to desperation.

Babloo Nishad of Dapka Ghat spoke about the failure of Ganga Action Plan Phase I and expressed his angst against the implementing body of the GAP phase I. He was not at all satisfied by the claims made by the government regarding the success of GAP-I and demanded the proper tapping of the drains in GAP phase II.

Chhedi Lal of Dapka Ghat. also expressed his feelings about the river Ganga He was worried about the present status of the river. He requested the authorities to put a ban on defecation along the river and cattle wallowing along the riverbank. He demanded an immediate solution to the problem of dead body dumping in the river.

According to him, immersion of clay idols and washing of clothes using detergents also add the toxicants to the river water. Hence, he said that these polluting practices should be restricted.
After the individual presentations in the third session, resource persons were invited to share their views and react to the types of problem they have been made aware about. Following is the brief description of the views of resource persons-

Dr Tapan Routh (Ex-Scientist, NEERI) addressed the crowd and emphasized the role of locals in keeping the ghats clean. He said that the citizens of Kanpur are responsible for the present deplorable status of Ganga. Hence, rather than blaming the government, we should take the initiative to make the river clean and protect it from being polluted further. He asked the Ganga communities to pressurise the government to undertake ghat-friendly projects which would take care of their livelihood.

Mr S.B. Pathak (S.P.Crime) said that urgent measures should be taken to reduce the pollution in the river Ganga all along its bank. He noted that there are cities upstream of Kanpur which are throwing all their rubbish directly into the Ganga. There are sugar and paper and pulp factories and distilleries which are contaminating the river. He appreciated Eco-Friends movement and urged all the authorities and ghat people to support it.

While stating that Ganga is the lifeline of Kanpur, we all should chip in and join hands to save Ganga from further pollution. He mooted the idea of starting a movement against the problem of corruption in the government departments which are responsible for the failure of GAP. Appreciating the concept of Ganga Praharis, he enthused the Ghat community people to safeguard the Ganga and help Eco-Friends in spreading the message of Ganga depollution.

Smt. Chetana Sharma (Deputy mayor, Kanpur) remarked that she was aware of the problem and would convey the pathetic plight of the ghat people to the authorities and project implementing bodies. She assured the communities and Eco-Friends that the issues will be discussed with DUDA, Fisheries, Kanpur Nagar Nigam and Cantonment board to reach a long-term solution.

Sri B.B. Mathur (Representative, Fisheries) Discussed the negative fallout of water pollution on aquatic life. He also promised the people of the ghats that he will put forth the idea of fish farming to the higher authorities. He said that he personally felt that fish farming and turtle farming could go a long way in providing a livelihood to the suffering fisherfolk and enriching the river ecology.

Mrs. Suchitra Singh (Eminent citizen) talked about the urgency to tackle solid waste in Kanpur in order to stop the pollution in Ganga. She emphasized on the participation of communities and citizens together in protecting the river.

Dr Naim Hamid (Social Worker and President of Kanpur Private Nursing Homes Association) said that the government authorities have turned a blind eye to Ganga. They do not understand the backlash of Ganga pollution on people’s health, he added. He said that Ganga pollution was the main reason behind the outbreak of water-borne diseases in the city. He urged people not to throw cadmium-laced polybags and other waste materials into the river.

In the Fourth session, Mr. Rakesh K Jaiswal invited S.P.Crime, Mr. S.B. Pathak to distribute the Ganga Prahari I-cards to the volunteers of the ghats who have vowed to keep the Ganga river and their ghats clean. About 80 cards of Eco-Friends Ganga Praharis were issued on the day with the approval of DM Kanpur city.

Some DO’s AND DON’Ts for the Ganga Praharis as laid down by Eco Friends

DO’s-

• Assisting in various activities such as Ganga Cleaning, Physical monitoring, Public hearing etc. of Ganga river de-pollution campaign conducted by Eco-friends from time to time.

• Generating mass awareness about the importance of river Ganga and the adverse effects of polluting it.

• Mass mobilization for the depollution of river, especially during bathing festivals.

• Convincing people to cremate the dead bodies either at Electric crematoria or by traditional method.

• Convincing people for burial of body of children/animals at the river bank or cremate them in the crematoria instead of floating them in the river Ganga directly.

• Make the people aware of the long term impacts of Pollution in river Ganga.

• Make the people aware of the role of fishes, turtles alligators etc. in the river water ecosystem and thus encouraging the people to stop fishing and turtle poaching.

• Make the people aware of the ban on fishing and turtle poaching.

• Active participation in beautification and cleanliness of Ghats.

• Maintenance of the sites at Ghats where beautification have already been done either by the Nagar Nigam or Eco-Friends.

• Ganga Praharis are also expected to be responsible for making the people aware of impact of floating the idols, dry flowers and other pooja samagri into the river and convincing people to float them in small ponds (which are proposed to be created at the banks) or dumping them in the pits.

• They are also expected to give proper feedback regarding their work and problems they face in carrying out their work to the district administration through Eco-Friends once in a month. This will enable Eco-Friends to address the problems with the help of the government.

DON’TS

• Ganga Prahari is an identity given to volunteers for boosting the morale of those who are willing to make sincere efforts towards cleanliness of the River Ganga. These I-cards should not be mistaken for any identity given to them by the district administration but are only to be considered as a blessing from the administration to appreciate their work.

• No Ganga Prahari should force the crowd or create any dispute at the Ghats regarding burial/cremation/floating of the bodies, Floating flowers/idols etc.

• No Ganga prahari should be directly involved in any type of forcing activities at ghats or villages.

• They are supposed to create awareness regarding all the issues mentioned above but are not expected to impose their rules on the public as a whole.

• The tasks that are given to them are long term ones and are not supposed to be achieved in a single day/month. So their primary responsibility is to create mass awareness.

• They are expected to bring in a social movement through non-violent means, as propounded by Gandhi ji.

• Their overall responsibility is to “DEVELOP A GANGA VISION” in the society so that no more special Ganga Praharis will be required in future. We wish that each and every Indian will play the role of Ganga Prahari in the coming time.

• The traditions can’t be changed in a short span of time. So they are expected to try to convince the people first but should not force anybody to do the things in the way they want.

• As the river Ganga was not polluted in a day or two so it also can’t be de-polluted in a day. These tasks are challenging and stupendous requiring a high degree of PATIENCE that is expected from each and every Ganga Prahari.

• The idea behind distribution of Ganga Prahari card is –

“TO EMPOWER THE GOOD THOUGHT, NOT THE PERSON”