No place to take a holy dip in Ahmedabad

Residents of Dudheshwar Ghat have fond memories of the Sabarmati River of yore. Till the mid-'70s, they used to take a holy dip in the river colloquially known as 'Shuddh Snan' at various spots on the riverbanks. Today, such a sight would be a rare one indeed and for good reason. Anyone trying to take a dip today would be seared in chemical toxins and drenched in the city's sewage. As several stinging remarks in the latest CAG report have pointed out - the Sabarmati riverbed is being used and abused as the ultimate dumping ground for all kinds of
excesses of the city for years together now.

The historic river, which was the identity of Ahmedabad, has taken the brunt of the city's fast-paced urbanization and industrialization of the last two decades. The once smooth-flowing river dividing the city now stomachs dark brown more or less stagnant waters imported from Narmada -- a far cry from the blue river a child might typically visualize on a drawing board - and what the Sabarmati once looked like. The sewage and industrial effluents from four industrial estates - Vatva, Narol, Naroda and Odhav - have practically killed the river. This abuse has been magnified with successive establishments and officials who inherited the responsibility of controlling the contamination of Sabarmati River showing their indifference to
its deterioration.

 Rules are in place; myriad methods and mechanisms are in place to ensure contaminated water is not discharged into the river. But all these rules are violated and mechanisms fail when confronted with greed.

Cleaner Sabarmati in 3 years’ time?
The good news, however, is that this abuse of the river may finally come to an end - hopefully in the next three years itself. The primary caretaker of the river -- Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation's incumbent officials are extremely conscious about this problem. Reacting to the allegations in the CAG report about pollution in Sabarmati, municipal commissioner Guruprasad Mohapatra says, the information in the report is slightly old. "We are conscious of the issues the river is facing. Many more measures have been taken since the CAG conducted the ground assessment on which their report is based. No untreated sewage is being dumped into the river anymore," he said. The IAS officer, who has taken over the reins of AMC about nine months ago, is confident AMC will ensure a clean, smooth flowing river very soon.

"Last, but not the least, it is the basic requirement for the success of the ambitious Sabarmati Riverfront project. We want water sports and floating restaurants in the river. This is not possible till the water is clean," he adds.
 The task of cleaning up the river is indeed Herculean and the nuances are technical. But for Amdavadis who have grown up looking at the sun rising on the river, understanding the subject might help. Here is a lowdown on the issues that ail the river.

Sewage
For a city which has a 5.5 million population, needless to say, sewage discharge is going to be staggering.
The CAG report says, "We observed that sewage discharged from Sewage Treatment Plants (STPs) was not confirming to the norms stipulated by Gujarat Pollution Control Board. Accordingly, GPCB issued notice to AMC to improve the treatment level in the STPs and treat all the sewage generated from city instead of by-passing it to the river."  
 
There are seven sewage treatment plants to treat the city's sewage - three each at Vasna and Pirana and one at Vinzol. The capacity of these treatment plants is 83.5 crore litre per day and the city's official drainage is 78 crore litre per day. Moreover, with the stated purpose of beautification and cleaning up the river under the Riverfront Development Project, the drainage outlets have now been moved to beyond Vasna barrage downstream of Ahmedabad city. Three more STPs have been added under the JNNURM scheme. Anything downstream of Gandhi Bridge goes beyond Vasna.
 
Impressive, but the problem continues. Because the city hosts an obscene number of illegal drainage connections, typically in the form of slums or encroachments. Senior AMC officials claim there are 41 outlets in the city of storm water drainage pipelines built to flush out rain water into the river.

"Rain water is not contaminated and flushing it in the river is healthy. It also avoids flooding on city roads. But the problem is millions of illegal connections have been attached to these pipelines which flush out untreated sewage. It is not practically feasible for AMC to monitor so many illegal connections. Moreover, their multiplication on a daily basis is mind-boggling," a senior official in the know of the issues revealed, but requested anonymity.

 Ahmedabad-based activist Mahesh Pandya has often raised this issue with the establishment but to no avail. "I continue to see industrial effluents and sewage discharged from near Vadaj. The AMC cannot say they do not know about it. We have brought it to their notice often enough. Besides, are the sewage treatment plants working?" he said.
 
A few years ago, Sabarmati was amongst the rivers included in the Prime Minister's National River Conservation project. Its implementation has also come under fire from the CAG. "The life of Sabarmati River Conservation Project has been fixed as 20-25 years… As such after spending Rs 95 crore on the creation of these assets, the government was unaware whether the project was performing effectively," the report states.
 
"The implementation of the NRCP in the state left much to be desired. Sampled pollution control programme of Sabarmati River at Ahmedabad though seemingly working did not succeed in bringing down pollution levels to the prescribed norms. Present status of Sabarmati shows the presence of fecal related disease causing pathogens as well as organic pollution at the outskirts of the city limits. Continuous monitoring of water quality through the creation of an adequate monitoring mechanism was also missing," it further points out.
 
Industrial effluents
 This is the biggest price of urbanization. The bustling financial and industrial hub of Ahmedabad hosts scores of highly polluting industrial units in its periphery.

They are supposed to treat their effluent discharge before draining into the river but the effluents are dumped into the riverbed without any treatment. Proving the point, when MoEF put a moratorium on 88 cities for new permissions or expansions in industrial estates due to excessive pollution, perhaps not surprisingly, Ahmedabad was amongst them.

There has been a blanket ban for two years on any new development in all the four industrial estates of Ahmedabad - Vatva, Narol, Naroda and Odhav -- till they build capacities to strictly adhere to the pollution norms.

 The CAG has rapped the role of Gujarat Pollution Control Board (GPCB) in checking untreated industrial discharge. In its conclusion and recommendation, the CAG report says, "Sewage and effluent treatment infrastructure should be strengthened and existing STPs and CETPs should be upgraded to match
level of contamination."

Illegal connections
 Over and above the fact that (Common Effluent treatment Plant (CETP) capacities are not at par with the level of pollution discharged, the problem is also illegal connections.

Significantly, some of the illegal connections from residential and semi-residential areas also include small scale industrial effluent dischargers. The biggest contributor here has been Danilimda area.

Highly placed sources claim that according to a very recent survey of AMC at the GPCB's behest, 550 illegal industrial units have been
identified in Danilimda area that directly discharge their untreated effluents into the river.

 "This area had never been surveyed so far because of various social reasons. Despite being in the heart of the city, there is no town planning (TP) scheme. Last year, after being pursued by GPCB for two years, AMC conducted its first survey there and discovered 550 small and medium scale industrial units operating from their houses.

Around 22 of them were immediately shut down as they were intense polluters. After being threatened with complete shutdown, the SMEs have finally formed an association called Ahmedabad Hand Printers Association. They are now building a CETP of their own at a cost of Rs 120 crore, partially funded by the AMC. It has now been declared an industrial area and AMC has prepared a draft TP scheme for it too," a senior official said.
 
These units release around 2 crore litre untreated water per day in the drainage pipeline of AMC which contains acidic, alkaline, metallic and solid effluents leading to corrosion. The big chemical companies in industrial estates outsource their jobs to these units so that they can remain clean while small units harm the environment.

GPCB’s hollistic plan
GPCB meanwhile accepts that their house is not in order, but asserts that actions are well under way. "In the last two years we have worked out a holistic plan for Ahmedabad. The pipeline laid in 1998 is not sufficient. There has been a lot of industrial expansion since then. Moreover, lot of illegal drainage of Nikol area comes through the industrial lines. Stern warnings have been given to all GIDCs and in January, GPCB forfeited Vatva GIDC's bank guarantee of Rs 50 lakh. They are all now building new additional effluent treatment capacities which should be ready to operate in the next two to eight months. We have put CCTVs on all chimneys in Narol," says member secretary of GPCB, Hardik Shah. He further highlights other ultimatums they have given the associations like induction of 4-5
independent professionals on the board of their body formed for the management of CETPs.

They have also asked them to appoint a CEO and implement internal disciplinary policy, in addition to regular monitoring by third party. GPCB is now planning to open an office in Vatva itself for better monitoring.

 "Even as we accept CAG's report, it must be noted that we are far better than other industrialized states. In fact, our
pollution levels have only been improving over the last few years and they will get better in years to come," Shah adds.

 The river is the heart of the city. It practically flows through the centre of the city with the commercial hub of Ashram Road on the West Bank and Walled City on the East side. Like a human's cardiac system, the Sabarmati needs to have itself cleaned of the blockages — and pump new life into our booming city.    
    
(With inputs from Jitendra Dave)