July 24, 2024
📰 FEATURE STORY
Can India replicate the Seine River model for the Ganga and Yamuna?
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The Olympics are about to begin in Paris. The run-up to the sporting extravaganza included several discussions about a river. The Seine River in Paris, to be precise. It has come under the spotlight since the city has spent plenty of time and money to clean it up. It’s a 100-year-old river that holds significance for the city and its residents.
Back home, India has its own clean-up-the-rivers conundrum concerning the Ganga and Yamuna. These historic rivers have been polluted for quite some time, and plenty of time and money have been spent trying to clean them up. What did Paris do, and can India follow their example?
Context
Hosting the Olympic Games is a massive undertaking for any city, including one as historic and advanced as Paris. The sporting world will converge on Paris. Ensuring everything’s prim and proper takes a lot of time and money. That’s facilities, stadiums, transportation, hospitality, security, etc.
The Seine River came into focus almost immediately after Paris was awarded the Games several years ago. It will serve as the stage for the opening ceremony and be the venue for three swimming events.
The river’s history is storied. For centuries, it has been a dumping ground for laundry, human waste, and animal parts by medieval butchers. A new sewer system in the second half of the 19th century was revolutionary for the city but toxic for Seine.
In 1991, the European Union passed legislation to address the main source of water pollution – urban wastewater. Paris authorities took steps to modernise the sanitation networks. In 2015, the city launched the “Plan Baignade”, or swimming plan, to clean up the river and make it swimmable for the Olympics. It was a centrepiece project in the city’s bid to host the games.
The Bassin d’Austerlitz is the cornerstone of the plan to keep the river safe for swimming. It’s an underground stormwater cistern near the Austerlitz train station that holds the equivalent of 20 Olympic-size swimming pools.
Back home, India has struggled to clean up its holiest rivers – the Ganga and Yamuna. The former is one of the world’s largest and is worshipped by millions of Hindus. The water is so sacred that Ganga Jal is like a souvenir. Sadly, hundreds of factories, some dating back to the British period, discharge toxic effluents like arsenic, chromium, and other metals.
It’s a similar story for the Yamuna. The 22-km stretch between Wazirabad and Okhla accounts for 75% of its pollution load thanks to untreated wastewater from unauthorised colonies and common effluent treatment plants.
Given Paris’ success with the Seine, can India adopt similar methods at home?
VIEW: A lot to learn
One thing Paris realised is that just one project won’t clean up a massive river. There needs to be a multi-pronged approach. India can draw inspiration from Paris’ achievements. The Ganga and Yamuna bear some resemblance to the historical struggle to clean up the Seine. They’ve all faced pollution challenges from industrial waste and untreated sewage.
In India, the 2014 Namami Gange project initially focused on only building sewage treatment plants. That evolved into a holistic approach by incorporating cultural aspects and developing the rural economy along its banks. What Paris did was have extensive regeneration projects that tackled multiple aspects of pollution. There’s a lot for India to learn from this – upgrade sewage plants, control industrial effluents, and implement strict regulations.
Paris had its ‘single-system’ drainage infrastructure that contributed to water pollution. The vast underground reservoir can store excess water during heavy rain. India can modernise its drainage system and invest in green infrastructure. One important thing that India has to adopt from Paris is public awareness. Without public support and engaging citizens in having a stake, the rivers will remain filthy.
COUNTERVIEW: Much more complicated
While Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo swam the Seine River to prove it’s clean, don’t expect anything like that to happen in the Ganga or Yamuna anytime soon. Since the 1980s, three big projects have been launched to clean the Ganga. Between 1986 and 2014, about ₹20,000 crore has been spent. Since 2014, another ₹13,000 crore was allocated and spent. There’s not much to show for it. All we have is the Jal Shakti Ministry saying the Ganga has seen “varying degrees of improvement”.
The Ganga is one of the most densely populated river basins. It provides water to almost 600 million people. The Seine doesn’t have this high of a burden on it. The problem in the Global South, India included, is that sewers were never really there in the first place. The rosy image of the project to clean up the Ganga often doesn’t match the ground reality. Despite treatment plants and new sewer systems, the river is far from clean.
The problem in India is that planning large-scale projects takes time. Implementing them is a whole other story. Once they’re up and running, then come the eventual delays. That’s what’s happening with the effort to clean up the Yamuna. Several projects to clean up the river are behind schedule. As far as public awareness is concerned, it’s going to be hard to convince millions of devout religious people to not undertake any of the usual practices in the rivers.
Reference Links:
- The Seine River, the romantic lifeblood of Paris, is set to reopen for swimming after 100 years. But its cursed clean-up is a lesson for future Olympics – Fortune
- Paris mayor swims in Seine as river is cleaned up just in time for Olympics – The Guardian
- Swimming in the Seine? Paris Olympics highlight the challenge of cleaning urban rivers – Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
- Inside India’s Gargantuan Mission to Clean the Ganges River – Wired
- Major Delay In Several Key Yamuna Cleaning Projects In Delhi: Report – NDTV
- From Pollution To Possibility: River Seine’s Revival In Paris Inspires Global Environmental Solutions – Outlook
What is your opinion on this?
(Only subscribers can participate in polls)
a) India can replicate the Seine River model for the Ganga and Yamuna.
b) India can’t replicate the Seine River model for the Ganga and Yamuna.
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