Copyright infringement not intended
Picture Courtesy: dtnext
The Ganges River, a lifeline for over 650 million people, is drying at an unprecedented rate due to climate change, human over-extraction, and damming, threatening water security, food, livelihoods, and the ecological health of the region.
It is a trans-boundary river that flows through India and Bangladesh.
Source: The river's main stem begins at Devprayag, Uttarakhand, at the confluence of the Alaknanda and Bhagirathi rivers.
Course and flow: The Ganges flows for about 2,525 km across the Gangetic plain in northern India before entering Bangladesh.
Major tributaries: Significant tributaries include the Yamuna (its largest by volume), Ramganga, Gomti, Ghaghara, Gandak, and Kosi..
Delta: The Ganges forms the world's largest delta, the Sundarbans, as it merges with the Brahmaputra (Jamuna in Bangladesh) and Meghna rivers before emptying into the Bay of Bengal.
The River faces a multidimensional crisis—driven by environmental degradation, overuse, and poor governance—threatening the livelihoods, food security, health, and cultural heritage of over 650 million people.
Climate Change
Glacial Retreat: The Gangotri glacier, a key source of the Ganges, has receded nearly 1 km in just two decades. The Himalayas, often called the "water towers of Asia," are melting faster than ever, reducing dry-season flows.
Erratic Monsoons: Monsoon rainfall has become unpredictable, leading to prolonged droughts. Climate projections suggest future monsoons will be more intense yet irregular, causing both floods and longer dry spells.
Over-Extraction of Water
Groundwater Depletion: Over the last 30 years, groundwater contribution to the Ganges’ summer flow has fallen by 50%, and may reach 75% depletion compared to the 1970s. The Ganges-Brahmaputra basin is among the world’s fastest-depleting aquifers.
Surface Water Diversion: More than 80% of the river’s water is diverted for irrigation, industrial use, and urban consumption. Extensive canal networks and urban growth exacerbate the depletion.
Dams and Barrages
Flow Disruption: Structures like the Farakka Barrage reduce dry-season flow into Bangladesh, trap essential sediments, and cause recurrent floods in states like Bihar.
Habitat Fragmentation: Barrages create barriers that divide aquatic populations. For example, the Ganges River dolphin has been isolated into vulnerable subpopulations since the Farakka Barrage became operational in 1975.
Urbanization and Pollution
Wastewater Discharge: Around 2.9 billion liters of untreated sewage and industrial wastewater enter the river daily. Major cities alone discharge 1.3 billion liters, but treatment covers only one-third of this.
Industrial Effluents: Factories, tanneries, and paper mills release toxic heavy metals such as chromium, lead, and mercury. In some areas, chromium levels exceed safe limits by 70 times, creating a toxic river environment.
Intensified Pollution
With less water to dilute contaminants, pollutants become highly concentrated.
Industrial effluents, untreated sewage, and agricultural runoff containing chemicals like DDT accumulate, creating “dead zones” where dissolved oxygen falls below the 4 mg/L threshold required for most aquatic life.
This not only kills aquatic organisms but also reduces the river’s self-purification capacity.
Habitat Destruction and Fragmentation
Drying wetlands, floodplains, and tributaries eliminate critical ecosystems that sustain aquatic and terrestrial life.
Sand mining disrupts counter-currents essential for species like dolphins, further degrading habitats.
Habitat loss is the primary driver of biodiversity decline in the basin.
Severe Biodiversity Loss
Ganges River Dolphin (GRD): Population has fallen 73% since 1980s. As a top predator, its decline signals a collapse in the aquatic food chain. It is now among the world’s most endangered cetaceans.
Fish Species: Native fish diversity has dropped from over 150 species to fewer than 90 in many stretches, due to pollution, overfishing, and habitat degradation.
Other Keystone Species: Species such as the gharial crocodile face existential threats as water quality deteriorates and habitats shrink.
The Ganges basin supports 43% of India’s population, making the river’s decline a direct threat to food security, livelihoods, and economic stability.
Agrarian Crisis and Food Insecurity
Projections suggest that continued water scarcity could threaten food availability for 115 million people in coming decades, endangering national food security.
Collapse of Livelihoods
Fisheries: Declining fish populations, in both quantity and diversity, have forced fishing communities to abandon traditional livelihoods. The Hooghly estuary’s fish and prawn production is under threat due to pollution and habitat loss.
Navigation and Transport: Reduced water levels make stretches of the river impassable for large boats, disrupting inland water transport and cargo movement.
Tourism: Pollution and foul odors along the river deter spiritual and recreational tourism, hitting local economies that depend on pilgrimages and river-based tourism.
Public Health Costs
Pollution has caused a public health emergency. Waterborne diseases like cholera, typhoid, and dysentery result in 1.5 million cases of diarrheal disease annually among children.
Over-extraction of groundwater has led to arsenic poisoning, affecting 77 million people in the Bengal Delta—described by WHO as the “largest mass poisoning in history.”
Fragmented Authority and Lack of Coordination
Water governance in India is highly decentralized, with multiple ministries—irrigation, power, pollution control—operating independently.
States hold primary jurisdiction over water resources, complicating basin-wide planning and integrated management.
The fragmentation prevents coherent policies and timely interventions across the Ganges basin.
Weak Enforcement and Policy Shortcomings
Pollution Laws: Existing regulations suffer from weak enforcement, sporadic monitoring, and political interference, shielding major polluters from accountability.
Government Initiatives: Programs such as the Ganga Action Plan (1985) and Namami Gange (2014) have struggled to deliver results. While Namami Gange adopted a more integrated approach, it focused more on pollution treatment than restoring the river’s ecological flow.
The Politics of Federalism
State vs Centre: States wield substantial influence over transboundary water governance. The central government cannot ratify treaties like the Teesta River agreement without state consent. West Bengal’s opposition exemplifies such challenges.
Inter-State vs Transboundary Conflicts: Domestic water disputes often overshadow transboundary cooperation with Nepal or Bangladesh, consuming political capital and limiting regional collaboration.
Flawed International Agreements
The 1996 India-Bangladesh Ganges Water-Sharing Treaty, set to expire in 2026, focuses on volumetric water allocation alone.
It neglects ecological flow requirements, sediment transport, and public health consequences, such as arsenic contamination.
Scientific and Technical Interventions
Restore Ecological Flows: Mandate and enforce environmental flow requirements for all dams and barrages to maintain river health.
Regulate Groundwater: Strictly monitor and ration groundwater pumping to allow aquifers to recharge, reversing decades of over-extraction.
Embrace Technology: Deploy real-time monitoring systems (sensors, satellites) and bioremediation techniques such as constructed wetlands to tackle pollution efficiently.
Enhance Biodiversity: Implement river ranching programs to restore native fish stocks and revive aquatic ecosystems.
Agricultural and Economic Reforms
Improve Water Efficiency: Shift from water-intensive crops (e.g., paddy) and adopt drip irrigation, to reduce agricultural water demand.
Economic Instruments: Enforce the polluter-pays principle, introduce tradable discharge permits, and leverage green financing (blue bonds) to incentivize conservation economically.
Legal and Institutional Reforms
Integrated Basin Management: Establish a powerful, integrated River Basin Organisation for the entire Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna system, overcoming political resistance.
Strengthen Enforcement: Grant autonomy and resources to regulatory bodies for unbiased enforcement of environmental laws.
Legal Innovation: Advance the “Rights of Rivers” concept, giving the Ganges legal personhood through a National Ganga Rights Act, following global precedents and rulings like those of the Uttarakhand High Court.
Social and Community Engagement
Empower Local Communities: Promote community engagement through citizen science, water harvesting, and awareness campaigns.
Stakeholder Involvement: Ensure the consistent participation of local bodies, religious leaders, and fishing communities in planning and implementation, creating shared responsibility for river health.
International Cooperation
Revise Treaties: Renegotiate the Indo-Bangladesh Ganges treaty under a “planetary health” framework, emphasizing ecological integrity, sediment flow, and public health alongside water allocation.
Promote Data Sharing: Establish transparent data-sharing protocols among all basin countries—India, Bangladesh, Nepal—to enable joint management and evidence-based policy decisions.
Conclusion
The Ganges’ decline is severe but not irreversible. Global examples like the Thames and Rhine show rivers can recover with political will, integrated governance, and societal participation.
The challenge lies in moving from fragmented, short-term fixes to holistic, long-term solutions. Protecting the Ganges is crucial not just for water security but for India’s ecological balance, cultural identity, and global environmental responsibility.
The river is a living system. Saving it requires science, governance, culture, and cooperation to converge.
Source: dtnext
|
PRACTICE QUESTION Q. How do human activities like damming and excessive groundwater extraction contribute to the degradation of the Ganges River? 150 words |
The primary reasons are a combination of climate change, shifting monsoon patterns, and extensive human activities like damming and water extraction.
Climate change is leading to erratic and shifting monsoon patterns, which directly impact the river's water supply.
Environmental flow refers to the amount of water required to maintain the river's ecological health and services.
© 2025 iasgyan. All right reserved
