a) Prepare a project on the topic – Ganga River System.
Note: Use maximum 6 A4 size papers in this project work.
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Explanation:
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The Ganga is India's most important and iconic river. It flows down from its glacial source in the high Himalayas to course through five states in the northern plains before draining into the swirling waters of the Bay of Bengal through the Sunderbans delta, the largest mangrove system in the world. Along its 2,500 km journey, the river enriches huge swathes of agricultural land and sustains a long procession of towns and cities.
The sprawling Ganga basin, an area of 860,000 sq km spread across 11 states, is the world’s most populous river basin. It is home to more than 600 million Indians, close to half the country’s population; and over 40 percent of the country’s GDP is generated in this region. The basin provides more than one-third of India’s surface water, 90 percent of which is used for irrigation. Paradoxically, this fertile region is also home to some of the poorest sections of India’s population, with more than 200 million people living below the national poverty line.
As India's holiest river, the Ganga has a cultural and spiritual significance that far transcends the basin’s boundaries. It is worshipped as a living goddess and, since time immemorial, people from across the country have flocked to the many historic temple towns the lie along the river’s banks to pray and bathe in its flowing waters.
Pollution in the Ganga
Despite this iconic status and religious heritage, the Ganga today is facing formidable pollution pressures, along with the attendant threats to its biodiversity and environmental sustainability. An ever-growing population, together with inadequately planned urbanization and industrialization, has affected the quality of the river’s waters. Today, the Ganga’s waters are sullied by the incessant outpouring of sewage, as well as by the large volumes of solid and industrial waste that are churned out by human and economic activity along the river’s banks.
The absence of adequate infrastructure, along with weak environmental governance and little technical expertise to manage these extreme pollution pressures, has resulted in the rapid deterioration of the water’s quality in recent decades.
The Ganga’s mainstem runs through 50 major Indian cities, almost all of which have a population of more than 50,000 people. These towns and cities generate some 3 billion litres of sewage every day, only a fraction of which is treated before it reaches the river. While domestic sewage accounts for 70-80 percent of the wastewater that flows into the Ganga, Industrial effluents add another 15 percent, with far-reaching impacts on human and aquatic health due to their toxic nature. And, in the absence of adequate solid waste management in most cities, mounds of uncollected garbage add to the pervasive pollution.
World Bank Assistance
The World Bank is supporting the Government of India in its effort to rejuvenate the Ganga River. The $1 billion National Ganga River Basin Project is helping the National Ganga River Basin Authority (NGRBA) build institutional capacity for rejuvenating the river. It is also financing key infrastructure investments in the five mainstem states - Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal.
The project has two key components: Component 1 ($200 million) supports institutional development that includes the operationalization of institutions at the central and state level; a communications and stakeholder engagement program; water quality monitoring; and technical assistance for city service providers and environmental regulators. Component 2 comprises a $800 million financing window for infrastructure investments in
