Sankat Mochan Foundation (80G approval) was founded in 1982 as a non-profit, non-political organization under the "Societies Act" of the Government of India by Dr. Veer Bhadra Mishra along with like minded people of Varanasi.
The vision of the foundation is
- Restoring the Ganges by alleviating its fast deteriorating environmental conditions
- Promoting education and health care programs for the less privileged
- Maintaining and encouraging the age-old cultural traditions of Varanasi in tune with the current environmental needs
SMF is working as a catalytic agent to arouse people’s interest in cleaning Ganga, the Sankat Mochan Foundation (SMF) drew the attention of the Government of India. In response, the Government created the Central Ganga Authority (CGA) and the Ganga Project Directorate (GPA) in 1985. In 1986, the Ganga Action Plan (GAP) was launched in a formal ceremony in Varanasi by the Prime Minister of India with the mandate to clean the Ganga River of pollution in Varanasi and other important cities. GAP was the biggest public welfare scheme launched by the government under Rajiv Gandhi. A huge sum of money (about 293 crores Rs.) was allocated for the GAP. When the GAP was officially completed in 1993, a total of about 400 crores Rs. (out of which 50 crores Rs. were spent in Varanasi) had been spent to intercept and divert the sewage coming into the river, to treat the sewage, and to create a distribution system to allow the treated sewage to be used by farmers for agricultural purposes. The SMF tried to cooperate with the government to help implement the GAP as successfully as possible. Unfortunately, the GAP was monopolized by the bureaucracy and there was no room for citizens or the SMF to participate effectively in implementation of the GAP.
In 1993, government spokesmen proclaimed the GAP carried out in Varanasi a successful scheme worthy of being copied in other river cities for cleaning the Ganga and other rivers throughout India. The SMF, along with its work as a catalyst in promoting creation of the original GAP, now started to act as a watchdog to find out whether the GAP had actually been successful. With support received from SBI and SNF, the SMF set up a first class water quality testing lab at Tulsi Ghat on the banks of the Ganga in Varanasi and started monitoring the river’s water quality, the quality of treated effluent coming out of the sewage treatment plant, and the overall performance of the GAP. The SMF’s monitoring activities between 1993 and 1995 and study of the GAP revealed the startling findings that the GAP had not been successful. These findings prompted the government to formulate a GAP phase II plan to complete the unfinished work started with the GAP (Phase I).
The SMF was the first organization to raise the issue of the need for fecal coliform control to protect public health and to point out that point sources of sewage (defined as higher concentrations of sewage flowing fixed into the river at fixed locations; e.g., sewage pipes) contribute more substantially to the river’s pollution compared to non-point sources (defined as individual human activity using the river in an irresponsible manner). Neither the Central Pollution Control Board, the State Pollution Control Board, other planning agencies, nor the implementers of the GAP had taken into account the need of fecal coliform control in planning the GAP. The result of this blunder was obvious in the failure of the GAP sewage treatment plants to control fecal coliform contamination. This failure of the GAP was only one of several failures successfully exposed by the SMF. The SMF also revealed the failure of the sewage interception and diversion system, and the failure of the disposal system for treated effluent being produced by sewage treatment plants. The overall finding by SMF that the GAP as implemented in Varanasi and touted by the government as a model to emulate was in fact a complete failure was a shock to everyone involved.
In the meantime, the local municipal government (Varanasi Nagar Nigam, or VNN) was empowered by an amendment of the Indian constitution (74th amendment) and by state municipal laws passed after the amendment to take care of the environment, to include overseeing sewage control activities and associated activities for the city. Having been so empowered, the VNN began to scrutinize the issues and failures associated with the GAP. The VNN appreciated the work of the Varanasi-based NGO SMF in helping to clean the Ganga. The SMF was requested by the VNN to make its own recommendations for an alternative plan for the GAP phase II for Varanasi. The SMF, working together with the NGO Friends of the Ganges (FOG-USA), approached USAID and technical experts from both India and the USA for help in preparation of a Project Feasibility Report (PFR) for its proposal for the GAP phase II for Varanasi.
This PFR was highly appropriate for the tropical climate and other conditions characteristic of India. Salient features of the SMF proposal for the GAP phase II include: a pond system (AIWPS) where microalgae produce abundant amounts of oxygen under the conditions of bright sunshine prevalent in India to allow for oxidative reduction control of fecal coliform numbers (such a pond system minimizes the use of electricity and the eliminates the need for electricity-dependent aeration devices); a total interception and diversion of the sewage currently flowing into the Ganges using a watertight interceptor running parallel to the river. This interceptor would use no electricity-dependent pumps and would depend on gravity for sewage removal to completely bypass the religious bathing areas.
The PFR prepared by the SMF was unanimously accepted by the VNN. The VNN forwarded the PFR to the state and central government with its recommendation that it be accepted. The VNN also asserted its legal right to implement the plan. This was a major accomplishment for the SMF and validation of its efforts. It should be noted that no other NGO along the whole length of the Ganga has acted in such an expert capacity to present an alternative plan for cleaning the river under GAP phase II. This work by the SMF has strengthened the hands of the VNN. The VNN is the only municipality which has been able to challenge the central government’s GAP and its past failure. The VNN has raised relevant objections to the government’s GAP phase II proposal. There are many other large and important cities upstream and downstream of Varanasi, such as Allahabad, Kanpur, Patna, and Lucknow where the municipality is in effect a silent supporter of the ineptness and/or wrong doings of the central government in their approach to cleaning the river.
Despite the constitutional amendment #74 and the change in state laws which empower the local municipalities to take charge of environmental matters such as sewage treatment and cleaning of polluted rivers, the municipalities have not been encouraged by higher authorities to accept and act on this mandate. It is only the SMF in Varanasi which has stepped forth in questioning the ineffective GAP and putting forth an alternative GAP phase II plan which is appropriate to the situation at hand. The government appears desperate to subvert the action of the VNN and maintain central control over GAP phase II and has resorted to going to court to maintain the status quo. It has brought false charges against the municipal councilors of Varanasi to coerce them not to work with the SMF and to leave the working of the GAP phase II for the central government to decide on. The collaboration between the VNN and the SMF represents a major accomplishment of creating a civil society partnership to address the problems of the environment and development.
The work to be accomplished
The goal of the SMF is that not one drop of sewage will enter the holy river Ganga in Varanasi. Accomplishing this goal is the only way to preserve a unique facet of the culture, tradition and heritage of India and to ensure the spiritual and physical livelihood of millions of citizens who use the Ganges River as their source of fresh water. In its fight to accomplish this goal, the SMF is now caught in a whirlpool of political activism and working with the media to educate the public and political leaders. We at the SMF would have been quite happy if the SMF and its expert team would have been given the necessary resources to make a Detailed Project Report (DPR) for GAP phase II in Varanasi, and to be allowed to work with the municipality as their partner to realize the common goal of cleaning the river at Varanasi which could then stand as a model for citizens living in other river basins throughout India to follow.
The proposed sewage treatment system described by the SMF is technically appropriate and is already working effectively in California and other parts of the United States and has been doing so for decades. At this point, we at the SMF need all the support that citizens and other organizations interested in the environment and development can provide in helping us achieve our goal of cleaning the Ganga. Currently, we need a much bigger infusion of resources to act effectively in the interest of the people and to succeed in protecting the Ganga at Varanasi from the city’s sewage.
In order to achieve our goals, the SMF needs to continue its political activism at both the local and state level. This activism includes continuing actions in the state and supreme courts, and in directing media attention to the plight of the Ganga and to our activities at all levels. SMF requires a core budget to sustain all its activities in India and at the international level. We anticipate the need for one and a half paid staff positions in the United States. SMF also needs to create and foster a public-private partnership to effectively implement a GAP phase II in Varanasi. Finally, SMF needs to be able to support the needed technical work to fully formulate the construction plans for the sewage collection and treatment systems. There is much to be done, but success is definitely in sight.
