Gadkari: Hope to clean up 80% of Ganga by March ’19

New Delhi: Despite staring at a huge gap between sanctioned and completed projects, the Union water resources minister Nitin Gadkari on Thursday claimed that the result of Ganga cleaning works would be visible on the ground by March next year as the river (water quality) would be 70 to 80% cleaner (from 2014-15 level) by that time.

“It is a general perception that nothing significant is being done under ‘Namami Gange’ programme but this is not correct. Our works have even started showing results on the ground,” said Gadkari while sharing details of the government’s efforts to rejuvenate the river in the past four years. A total of 195 projects worth over Rs 20,959 crore have been sanctioned for various activities under the programme which is being implemented by the National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) in association with states.

The minister’s claim on results was substantiated by the water resources secretary U P Singh who asserted that water quality of the river has improved in terms of three key parameters — Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD), Dissolved Oxygen (DO) and Coliforms — which indicate health of any river.


“Water quality (monitored at 80 locations) showed improvement in 2017 as compared to 2016. The DO levels have improved at 33 locations and BOD levels at 26 locations while Coliform bacteria count is reduced at 30 locations,” said Singh.

The minister’s remark on March, 2019 deadline is, however, taken with a pinch of salt by experts. “Reducing pollution by 70-80% in next 11 months is a unrealistic target. Nothing that the government is doing, like building sewage treatment plants, will reduce pollution significantly. Ganga needs multi-dimensional approach, the most important being keeping fresh water in the river, to reduce pollution,” said Chandra Bhushan, deputy director general of the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE).