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A number of people squat by the side of the National Highway-30 (Patna-Kolkata) selling vegetable. When you drive ahead 15 kms. East of the downtown Patna, the Patna Saheb this is the most common sight these days. People do think of it as a result of overproduction, stops their cars and buy vegetables back home. An idyllic picture? Sure. But no, this is the one part of the business. And it is just an excerpt of the story.
Thousands of houses and effluent from micro industries of the area directly put into the river. This chemical-laden water gets into the fields and the crops and contaminates the groundwater. The vegetables grown here are stinky and the local market and agents having no demand for it. "we are taught not to bother about our dustbin. You don't see ti and it doesn't exist for you", says Guddu Baba, an environment-social activist, who has been fighting in vain for more than a decade through litigation to clean the stretch in Patna/Bihar. He claims that the entire riverbed has been contaminated.
Similarly, there is a village called Umanath, some 65 Km East of Patna, in the Barh block of Patna district. Feces floats all around the ghats. Sewage of more than 350 homes of this single nondescript village of Bihar empties into the river as untreated waste. Bathing in the river here may relieve you of all your sins, but it is more likely to cause your skin rashes. Take a gulp or two of tits water and an upset stomach is guaranteed. The horrific condition is enough to frustrate the visitors despite it being a ghaat of historic and religious importance. Till the end of 90’s local farmers grew lauki, parwal, melon etc. on the Diara area but now there is strong smell all around.
What the Ganga needs for its rejuvenation is not a riverfront at Patna or Kolkata, But an accurate sewage planning for the towns and clusters along its course. On the basis of a research done by a team of IITians in 2010, almost thirty percent population of rural Bihar is dependent on the Ganga for their livelihood. Therefore, it is not only for those who helped Modi won the Varanasi seat, but this river of faith is the lifeline of the 5 states including Bihar. Therefore, those who voted Modi or not deserves a pristine Ganga.
During the last couple of years large scale construction of houses is witnessed on the squate of lands appeared as the gap between erstwhile bank and its new course widens. Multi-Storey apartment being constructed on the riverbed, illegal of course. The civic authorities has banned the construction and habitation but all this 'on paper only'. Ashish Gupta who resides in a rented flat in speaks about his experience of a stinky riverbed. “ jab pacchuaa(western wind) chalti hai toh 5th floor per mere flat mein badboo bhar jaati hai”, he says.
Furthermore illegal encroachments and haphazard construction, besides illegal dumping and khatals (cow sheds) growing rapidly on the riverbed. At the height of this monsoon when Ganga overflows. For years, tons of city's garbage being dumped daily on the banks by the municipality's dumper every night. From Baans ghats to Balupar one may easily witness the filth.
Definitely this is doing irreparable damage to its natural course. This dumping along the river bed is not only posing threat to aquatic life, flora and fauna, it is also posing threat to habitation located along the river downstream.
Amit Sinha is a bilingual writer and research Journalist. He can be contacted at facebook.amit
