"If cigarette packets can have warning 'injurious to health', why not unfit Ganga water": NGT

A bench headed by NGT chairperson AK Goel, said that people use and drink the water out of reverence without knowing that it is harmful for their health. It stated that if Cigarette packets can contain warning saying it is ‘injurious to health’, why not the people be informed of the adverse effects of the river water.

(Picture: ABP News)

Expressing angst over the pollution level of river Ganga between Haridwar and Unnao in Uttar Pradesh, the National Green Tribunal today said that the water in it was unfit for drinking and bathing and directed the National Mission for Clean Ganga to install display boards at a gap of 100 kilometres indicating whether the water was fir for bathing. A bench headed by NGT chairperson AK Goel, said that people use and drink the water out of reverence without knowing that it is harmful for their health. It stated that if Cigarette packets can contain warning saying it is ‘injurious to health’, why not the people be informed of the adverse effects of the river water. It said that people who take a dip in the water and use the Holy water for performing rituals are vulnerable to serious health implications because of the unfit water. The bench said: “Do people of this country know that Ganga water is unfit for drinking and bathing? They perform achamana (purification ritual) thinking that they will go to heaven. Can you imagine which heaven will they if they drink this polluted water”, PTI reported. The Tribunal said that the board may be put at closer distances in area where there was habitation. It directed the NMCG and the Central Pollution Control Board to place on their website, within two weeks, a prominent map showing where the water was good for bathing and drinking. During the hearing, the tribunal was informed that the critical area in this segment is Jajmau in Kanpur where effluents are being discharged by the tanneries and they must strictly comply with the norms. "The common effluent treatment plant (CETP) was required to be upgraded and made functional so that discharge of toxic effluents can be stopped.The CETP at Unnao and Banthar are required to meet the prescribed standards. "The overexploited, critical, semi critical areas are to be identified with regard to water extraction. The industries have to undertake that they do not pollute ground water by injecting pollutants and plantation work along flood plains has to be implemented," the bench noted. The NGT also directed the CPCB and the state pollution control board to regularly take water samples from the river on a monthly basis. The tribunal was informed that at present 36 realtime water monitoring stations were operational while 94 manual stations were functioning and another 40 are proposed to be set up. The matter is now posted for next hearing on August 6. Voicing dissatisfaction over the steps taken by the Uttarakhand government to clean the Ganga, the NGT had on July 19 said the situation was extraordinarily bad and hardly anything effective has been done to clean the river. The green panel, in a detailed judgment, had passed a slew of directions to rejuvenate the Ganga, declaring as 'No Development Zone', an area of 100 metres from the edge of the river, between Haridwar and Unnao. (With PTI inputs)