Government may use telecom technology like SMS alerts for cleaning ganga

NEW DELHI: The Union government may turn to technology for its ambitious project to clean and protect the Ganga by using sensors that can monitor the level of chemical components in the river and send SMS alerts in real time when quantities are excessive. Union Minister for Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation Uma Bharti is quite "enthused" about the idea of using technology and has asked industry to come up with proposals, according to a top executive of a state-owned company.

The government is likely to rope in state-run Telecom Consultants of India, which has submitted a proposal to the ministry for the use of transducers to monitor effluent levels in the Ganga in real time. These devices convert chemical parameters into electrical information, process and transmit the data and are capable of sending automated SMSes through mobile networks to alert the authorities. "The status of Ganga water can be updated online to a centralised server and the regulator will immediately get an alert through SMS," TCIL CMD Vimal Wakhlu told ET. The public sector company wants to enter new IT-related initiatives with the government and is keen on contributing towards the clean Ganga mission by providing expertise through machine-to-machine technology. Untreated effluents from industries and sewage from municipalities along the route of the river are the main sources of pollution in the Ganga. To mitigate the contamination, the government has made it mandatory for companies and civic bodies to use treatment plants before discharging waste into the Ganga.

"We feel that effective monitoring to ensure that industries pump clean water back into the Ganga is an important facet and it can be done by utilising machine-to-machine technology. A chemical transducer can be placed at every outlet to check water quality," Wakhlu said.

The top TCIL executive said that an automated SMS would be generated to warn the company if any violation occurs. The government may revoke a factory’s licence if there are repeated breaches. The challenge, according to Wakhlu, is the availability of transducers in the country and their cost. About 100,000 units would be needed for the Ganga project and each imported transducer costs close to $30,000. TCIL expects the cost to go down if transducers are manufactured locally, in line with the government’s 'Make in India' initiative. "We are hopeful that in the course of three to four years, this would become effective and then can be extended to other rivers like Yamuna," a senior government official added.