prasad1
Active member
In spite of the symbolism and lip service Ganga is still filthy.
Leather tanning - even at the best of times - is not a pleasant process. First you have to scrape any remaining flesh from the hides. It seems they’ve been doing that here for days, but haven’t got round to cleaning up.
Beside a machine, a huge mound of rotten meat spills out on to the floor of the workshop. It is four days’ worth, one of the workers tells the inspector. And this is at a temperature of 30C (86F).
But I’m more worried by the blue-tinted water sloshing out of one of the great rotating wooden drums they use to process the hides. It was this they were trying to turn off.
That blue, the pollution inspector says, is the signature colour of the most dangerous of all the chemicals used in the tanning process, chromium.
He says the contaminated liquid is not going into the public drainage system, it is contained within the effluent treatment system of the tannery, but that it is not good practice to have so much washing around.
“I will recommend this place is closed,” the inspector tells me earnestly as we leave.
As he and his team walk off down the lane I’m left feeling confused.
He seems sincerely to want to clean up the industry, and appears to be empowered to do so, but how many of Kanpur's tanneries are like this one, and how come the effluent entering the river is so disgusting?
Cleaning the Ganges isn’t just a question of controlling what is going into the river, but also a question of controlling what is being taken out.
The river is a crucial source of water for a vast area. Its basin covers more than one million sq km (390,000 sq miles) and is home to more than 40% of India’s 1.3 billion-strong population.
All along the length of the river you see channels siphoning the flow for irrigation and for drinking water. Most of Delhi’s water, for example, comes to the city in two great canals, one from the Ganges and the other from one of its main tributaries, the Yamuna.
And the water taken directly from the main flow is just one part of the problem. More worrying still is the water that is taken from the ground.
The vast plains either side of the Ganges are the breadbasket of India. These hugely fertile flatlands have produced the food that has sustained India for millennia.
The rich alluvial soil is very productive, so long as farmers keep it well irrigated, says Rajesh Bajpai of the WWF.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/resources/idt-aad46fca-734a-45f9-8721-61404cc12a39#three-26706
http://blog.hawaii.edu/elp/files/2016/06/BBC-News-Indias-dying-mother-Ganges.pdf
I want to believe that Modiji is really doing something. It does not seem so. I am sorry, that it is so bad.
Leather tanning - even at the best of times - is not a pleasant process. First you have to scrape any remaining flesh from the hides. It seems they’ve been doing that here for days, but haven’t got round to cleaning up.
Beside a machine, a huge mound of rotten meat spills out on to the floor of the workshop. It is four days’ worth, one of the workers tells the inspector. And this is at a temperature of 30C (86F).
But I’m more worried by the blue-tinted water sloshing out of one of the great rotating wooden drums they use to process the hides. It was this they were trying to turn off.
That blue, the pollution inspector says, is the signature colour of the most dangerous of all the chemicals used in the tanning process, chromium.
He says the contaminated liquid is not going into the public drainage system, it is contained within the effluent treatment system of the tannery, but that it is not good practice to have so much washing around.
“I will recommend this place is closed,” the inspector tells me earnestly as we leave.
As he and his team walk off down the lane I’m left feeling confused.
He seems sincerely to want to clean up the industry, and appears to be empowered to do so, but how many of Kanpur's tanneries are like this one, and how come the effluent entering the river is so disgusting?
Cleaning the Ganges isn’t just a question of controlling what is going into the river, but also a question of controlling what is being taken out.
The river is a crucial source of water for a vast area. Its basin covers more than one million sq km (390,000 sq miles) and is home to more than 40% of India’s 1.3 billion-strong population.
All along the length of the river you see channels siphoning the flow for irrigation and for drinking water. Most of Delhi’s water, for example, comes to the city in two great canals, one from the Ganges and the other from one of its main tributaries, the Yamuna.
And the water taken directly from the main flow is just one part of the problem. More worrying still is the water that is taken from the ground.
The vast plains either side of the Ganges are the breadbasket of India. These hugely fertile flatlands have produced the food that has sustained India for millennia.
The rich alluvial soil is very productive, so long as farmers keep it well irrigated, says Rajesh Bajpai of the WWF.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/resources/idt-aad46fca-734a-45f9-8721-61404cc12a39#three-26706
http://blog.hawaii.edu/elp/files/2016/06/BBC-News-Indias-dying-mother-Ganges.pdf
I want to believe that Modiji is really doing something. It does not seem so. I am sorry, that it is so bad.
Last edited:
