Institute of Environment and Sustainable Development, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, 221005, India.
USIEF FullBright Fellow, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, USA.
Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. 2020 May;27(13):15912-15924. doi: 10.1007/s11356-019-06526-8. Epub 2020 Mar 14.
Rivers support life of Indian population but water pollution threatens human health. There is no consensus data for water quality (WQ) of rivers in India including River Ganga. For robust stakeholder participation and community involvement and governance, a consolidation of WQ parameters for River Ganga from different data sources is essentially needed. The priority to combat environmental, economic, and social dislocations due to river pollution also necessitates WQ data convergence, its availability in public domain for policy makers, citizens, researchers, etc, and mapping with respect to the flowing river. Lack of real-time data limits civic involvement in river management. This paper is a novel attempt to consolidate the WQ data available in literature for River Ganga at Varanasi during 1992-2016. Results indicate water of River Ganga to have high coliform and BOD levels due to direct discharge of sewage waste from Varuna and that from Varanasi city. Categorization of ghats based on WQ parameters reveal pollution status of ghats to vary from low to highly polluted (coliform data excluded as it changes the category of all the ghats to highly polluted). More urban population with lack of readiness of authorities to follow the law appear to be major contributors towards failure of river management strategies. The consolidated information mapped with demographic data can be used as data management tools for sustenance of River Ganga. A need for change in policy framework and publicizing the real-time data seem key solutions for improving water quality of River Ganga at Varanasi.
印度河流支撑着印度人民的生活，但水污染却威胁着人类健康。印度河流的水质（WQ）数据尚未达成共识，包括恒河。为了让利益相关者、社区更好地参与和治理，有必要整合来自不同数据源的恒河 WQ 参数。由于河流污染造成的环境、经济和社会混乱，也需要对 WQ 数据进行收敛，使其在公共领域供决策者、公民、研究人员等使用，并根据河流的流动进行映射。缺乏实时数据限制了公民对河流管理的参与。本文旨在对 1992 年至 2016 年期间恒河瓦拉纳西段的文献中提供的 WQ 数据进行整合。结果表明，恒河水中的大肠菌群和 BOD 含量很高，这是由于瓦伦纳和瓦拉纳西市的污水直接排放造成的。根据 WQ 参数对恒河码头进行分类，显示码头的污染状况从低污染到高度污染不等（由于大肠菌群数据的变化，所有码头的类别都变为高度污染，因此不包括该数据）。更多的城市人口，以及当局缺乏遵守法律的准备，似乎是河流管理策略失败的主要原因。与人口统计数据相关联的综合信息可以作为维持恒河的数据库管理工具。政策框架的改变和实时数据的公开似乎是改善恒河瓦拉纳西段水质的关键解决方案。
