The difficulties of cleaning Varanasi

Great expectations and challenges

People who work in these various projects say that the prime minister’s office is directly monitoring many of them. At least from their end fortnightly reports are sent. But, there are also concerns around frequent changes in officers in the concerned ministries affecting continuity. In an irony of sorts, while there is a feeling that all the money that is being spent is not reflecting on ground (and water), some contractors say payments to them are not that regular.

Thousands of pilgrims including foreigners visit the city every year. Many of them come with the belief that a dip in Ganga would relieve them of their ills. “This is as good as a superstition. Today, a dip in Ganga can only get you diseases. The monsoon water has long dried up. What you see now is mostly sewer from the city,” says Mishra.

The pilgrims also add to the pollution by adding Puja articles, flowers and washing clothes. With 120 festival days a year and the monsoon only add to the complexity. In addition to this are the wastes from the two burning ghats – Harish Chandra and Mani Karnika  -- where dead bodies are cremated. It is the religious belief here that the ‘jwala’ at these ghats must never go off, so cremation goes on round the clock.

It is not an uncommon sight to see locals bringing buffaloes for a bath in one of the main ghats. Unauthorised colonies that have come up on the slopes along the bank of the river have no option but to nudge their garbage and sewer into the holy river.
The greater challenges, though are to fight the beliefs and behaviour. S K Majumdar, a trade unionist and a resident for decades said, “People believe they will go to heaven only if they are burnt on wood. Therefore, the two electric crematoriums provided in Harish Chandra Ghat are sparsely used.” There are also entrenched interests around these practices, which need to be provided alternatives.  

Mohley says people never spit pan inside a mall. “But the mall discipline disappears once they step on the street. Japanese agency Japan International  Cooperation Agency (JICA) is advising the Nagar Nigam in running an IEC (information, education and communication) plan in coordination with other private players, who are now working on cleaning up Varanasi.

Private participation and solid waste management

It is not easy to miss the uniformed staff, stainless steel dustbins and banners calling for Swachch Varanasi and somewhere on these lies embossed the logo of IL&FS Environment.

A fully-owned subsidiary of the infrastructure giant Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services, Delhi-based IL&FS Environmental Infrastructure & Services inked a tripartite agreement with Union ministry of urban development and VNN to provide door to door garbage collection and street cleaning services for the 14 of the 90 wards of the city in May last year. These 14 wards border the ghats, are densely populated and receive a significant amount of floating population.

With its experience in managing similar areas elsewhere, IL&FS has been able to bring the much needed professionalism and an end to end approach to the waste collection system in what is known as ‘Pucca Mahal’ area.  

Of the about 550 tonnes per day (tpd)  waste generated in the city, about 55-60 tpd gets generated in this Pucca Mahal, according to IL&FS estimates. Another 6-8 tpd is generated in the 84 ghats.

IL&FS has also won a separate contract to clean up the ghats under the Namami Gange plan of the central government. Apart from the dustbins and routine cleaning, the firm has deployed pumpsets from which the river water is used to clean the ghats.
The company has a manpower of about 750 people and has started night sweeping of streets. Door-to-door garbage collection, cleaning of small drains, waste transportation come under its purview.

IL&FS executives said they have deployed 31 autos, three compactors, two static compactors, three excavators and 500-odd small vehicles such as wheel barrows and dumpers. All the garbage is brought to the centralised kooda ghar in Shivala and moved to the processing plant in Karsada in the outskirts, where it is converted into compost. Two other companies Kiana Solutions and Ecopol have taken up cleaning of other wards of Varanasi.

Mishra of the BHU said a similar plan to outsource the cleaning services for the 1,300-acre campus is being discussed by the University. He is miffed that his sanitary and support services department has not received a single rupee under Swachh Bharat Mission though he has been driving the campaign in the campus with existing resources.

New sewerage treatment plants

The existing plants in Divanpur, Bhagwanpur and DLW are compliant with effluent norms that date back to 1990s. “Modernising these could be more expensive than putting up new ones. Therefore, two new STPs (Sewage treatment plants) are coming up.”

Larsen & Toubro and VA Tech Wabag are building these plants which have capacities of 120 MLD and 140 MLD, respectively. While the former is a Rs 119 crore project taken up under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission, Namami Gange or the Clean Ganga Mission is funding the second project costing Rs 171 crore.

UPJN is currently conducting a tender process, under which another 50 MLD unit would be built in a nearby village called Ramana.

“The units which are under construction are expected to be ready by end of 2018. And, by 2019, with a total treatment capacity of 411.8 MLD we would be able to safely say that no untreated sewage is entering the Ganga at Varanasi. The capacity created would take care of population projections of 2035,” Singh added.   
 
That would be the time, when Modi would have to come asking for votes again.