Only 13% of towns along Ganga are clean: Survey

Four out of five towns along the Ganga river have waste dumps along the banks and nearly 55 per cent of the towns have drains emptying into the river without any cleaning, according to a survey carried out by Quality Council of India for the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs.

QCI auditors, who gathered data in November and December months, found that only 19 towns had municipal solid waste (MSW) plants and only 7 towns in the plains can claim installation of a trash cleaner in their territory.

According to the survey, 72 per cent of towns have nullahs (drains) discharging into the river and 77 per cent of these drains do not have functional screens that filter out filth. Only 12 towns have scored A, 44 B-grade and the rest scored a poor C grade in performance. All poor-performing towns are in West Bengal, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.

While towns graded A had good cleanliness and waste management services, those with B-grade managed only a partial cleanliness around the ghats. C-grade towns have a lot to do to achieve over improvement in cleanliness, solid waste management and in setting up infrastructure at treating sewage flowing into the river.

There are 39 West Bengal towns on the banks of river, 20 in Uttar Pradesh, 17 in Bihar and 14 and two towns respectively in Uttarakhand and Jharkhand.

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