Can Green Crematoriums Really Help Clean Up The Ganga?

The Ganges may be considered the most holiest river by the Hindus but it has become a frighteningly toxic river over the years. With the dumping of untreated industrial sewage from surrounding industries, Hindu rituals that involves the dumping of idols, beads, flowers, carcasses and corpses into the river and the cremation of dead bodies along its bank.

In a report by the Times Of India the National Ganga River Basin Authority, plans to build eco-friendly green crematoriums in villages along the river at Rishikesh, Haridwar, Uttarkashi and Gangotri. While 600 kgs of wood is usually used in the cremation process the green crematoriums will limit the amount to 100 kgs by use of a specially designed “pyre oven”, which though using decreased amount of wood still generates enough amount of heat to burn the body effectively. In this process the green crematoriums plan on saving more trees and reducing carbon emission.

Though a closer look at the frighteningly high levels of pollution in the Ganga put into perspective the overall possible role green crematoriums can offer to clean the once pristine river.

All About India states that the Ganges river pollution is almost 3000 times over the limit suggested by the WHO as ‘safe’. Numbers tell you why. According to a report by the Economic Times 1,500 million litres of raw sewage is discharged into the river every day. Add to that 500 million litres of industrial waste from 700 highly polluting industries and thousands of tonnes of non-biodegradable solid waste. A 2013 report published by the Times Of India says the water samples collected by the Kanpur Jal Sansthan indicates that 24 lakh coliform bacteria are present in per 100 millilitre water of the Ganga. This is 48 times higher than the standard value. Similarly, the quantity of poisonous chemical nitrite has been found to be double the standard value. While a report by the The New York Times in 2012 claims that one of the biggest factors in the Ganges’ decline is the volume of water diverted to irrigation: an alarming 90 percent. Getting farmers to switch to water-efficient crops and methods posts major challenge. While the dumping of idols, beads and corpses in the river, only amount to 5 percent of the river’s total pollution level.

Suddenly eco-friendly crematoriums don’t seem drastically promising for the cleaning of the Ganges.

The Indian Government also has a long shameful history of failed attempts to clean the Ganges. According to The New York Times the 1985 Ganga Action Plan cost $250 million over 20 years and succeeded in treating only 35 percent of the raw sewage then pouring into the river. The Government also once released 25,000 flesh eating turtles into the Ganges in the hope that they would devour the dead bodies dumped into the river. Corruption and mismanagement ensured that this plan was a huge failure.

The Economic Times says that the Modi government approved a five-year, $3 billion budget for a project called the Namami Gange Program (an initiative to clean the river).We hope that the resources from this budget for the green crematoriums will be effectively managed and contribute, even if minutely, to the purification of the Ganga.

Feature Image Courtesy: The Daily Mail