Ganga water was fit for bathing during Maha Kumbh: Govt tells Parliament

New Delhi: The Central government on Monday cited a new report from the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) in Parliament and said the water in the Ganga at Triveni Sangam in Prayagraj was fit for bathing during the recently concluded Maha Kumbh.

Triveni Sangam is where the Ganga meets the Yamuna and Saraswati rivers.

The Government also said it had provided a total of Rs 7,421 crore to the National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) for cleaning the river in 2022-23, 2023-24 and 2024-25 (until March 9).

In response to a question from Samajwadi Party MP Anand Bhadauria and Congress MP K Sudhakaran, Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav said that according to the CPCB report, the median values of pH, dissolved oxygen (DO), biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) and faecal coliform (FC) at all monitored locations were within the permissible limits for bathing.

DO refers to the amount of oxygen in water, BOD measures the oxygen needed to break down organic matter and FC is an indicator of sewage contamination. These are key indicators of water quality.

In a report dated February 3, the CPCB had informed the National Green Tribunal (NGT) that water at several locations in Prayagraj during the Maha Kumbh did not meet the primary bathing water quality standard due to high faecal coliform levels.

However, in a new report submitted to the tribunal on February 28, the CPCB said statistical analysis showed that the water quality during the Maha Kumbh was fit for bathing.

The report said that the statistical analysis was necessary due to the “variability of data” in samples collected from the same locations on different dates and even from different spots on the same day. This variability meant the samples did not fully reflect the “overall river water quality throughout the river stretch”, it said.