Livelihood and Health Challenges of Riverine Communities of the River Ganga
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LIVELIHOOD AND HEALTH CHALLENGES OF RIVERINE COMMUNITIES OF THE RIVER GANGA Supported by July 2020 NATIONAL COUNCIL OF APPLIED ECONOMIC RESEARCH Parisila Bhawan, 11 Indraprastha Estate, New Delhi 110 002, India Tel: +91-11-61202698, Fax: +91-11-23370164 [email protected] www.ncaer.org NCAER | Quality . Relevance . Impact © National Council of Applied Economic Research, 2020 All rights reserved. The material in this publication is copyrighted. NCAER encourages the dissemination of its work and will normally grant permission to reproduce portions of the work promptly. Published by Professor Anil K. Sharma Secretary and Operations Director, NCAER The National Council of Applied Economic Research Parisila Bhawan, 11, Indraprastha Estate New Delhi–110 002 Tel: +91-11-61202698 Fax: +91-11-2337-0164 [email protected] www.ncaer.org Page | iii Foreword The river Ganga has for centuries been considered India’s holiest river, with millions believing that its waters offer salvation to its devotees. Beyond its spiritual significance, the river offers livelihoods to many riverine communities along its banks, and its waters are widely used for bathing, drinking and fishing. In recent times, there has been mounting concern about the levels of pollution in the river and the deteriorating quality of its water. Several flagship government programmes and projects in the past three decades have sought to clean the Ganga, including the Ganga Action Plan Phases I and II and the Namami Gange National Mission for Clean Ganga launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2015. These projects have sought to tackle pollution and to rejuvenate the river’s waters. Government agencies and research institutions have been tracking the effectiveness of these projects by monitoring data on the river’s water quality. This NCAER study represents a collaboration with the University of Chicago’s Tata Centre for Development (TCD) and explores the social and economic engagement of the riverine communities on the Ganga in Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. The conventional monitoring of river water is done by collecting water samples from specific locations on the river and analysing the samples in a laboratory. This location and time-specific measurement provides only a partial picture of a river’s health since the factors affecting water quality can vary greatly by location and time. In comparison, continuous, in-situ water quality monitoring systems provide real-time data that not only measures the river’s health but also provides the basis for significant riverine research. The continuous, in-situ data collection for the Ganga was undertaken in two phases across four upstream and downstream locations in the two States, breaking away from the conventional ways of measuring water quality. Such data makes possible in-depth socio-economic studies on the implications of river water pollution on the health and livelihood of riverine communities, as well as the economic costs of river water pollution. For this pioneering Water-to-Cloud study—meaning time-stamped and geo- tagged data from the water being shared on the cloud for further mathematical analysis of pollution spread, the sources of pollution, and for interpolating sparse data—a TCD team mapped water quality using multiple, submersible, automated sensors attached to a boat that would sail at different times of the day on a pre- defined route to gather high- resolution, spatially and temporally varying, water data. Dynamic mapping of river water quality using this high-frequency spatial and temporal data is helping understand how it changes with weather, pollution, fishing, and general use, and can help pinpoint pollution sources accurately and ensure regulatory compliance. The data makes possible powerful Page | iv visualisation through heatmaps to pinpoint pollution, control infectious diseases, and identify effective sanitation interventions. The NCAER team complemented TCD’s cyberphysical sensor network by collecting data on the health and livelihoods of the Ganga’s riverine communities using household interviews, focus group discussions, and participatory rural appraisal approaches. The NCAER team also used contingent valuation techniques to understand the willingness of these communities to participate in the Ganga’s rejuvenation. This NCAER study recommends the need to formally recognise the communities settled on river banks as part of the riverine ecosystem and to synchronise their local ecological knowledge with scientific knowledge for better water monitoring and control techniques. These communities should be integrated into river development and alternative skilling programmes to enhance their livelihood opportunities. The report recommends the establishment of cooperatives in riverine villages, recruitment of Ganga Praharis or Ganga guards to protect the river from exploitation by unscrupulous elements, and the promotion of decentralised regulation to prevent fishing malpractices. The NCAER study found that riverine communities were willing to join larger development efforts to improve and preserve the quality of the Ganga’s water. I am grateful to the UChicago TCD for collaborating with NCAER on this work, particularly Professor Supratik Guha, Professor at Chicago’s Pritzker School for Molecular Engineering, for his insightful comments on our work. I also thank all members of the Water-to-Cloud team for their support and close collaboration throughout the project. Most important, I am grateful to the NCAER team, expertly led by Dr Soumi Roy Chowdhury and Professors Devendra B Gupta and Sanjib Pohit. Mr Rishabh Singh and Mr Mohit Pandey, Research Associates, ably supported the study. I hope that this NCAER study will play a significant role in attracting policy attention to the crucial issue of water pollution in the Ganga and on the imperative to protect the lives and livelihoods of the communities that depend on the river for their sustenance. July 2020 Shekhar Shah Director General, NCAER Page | v Preface It gives me immense pleasure to share with you the Tata Centre for Development at UChicago and the National Council of Applied Economic Research report on a long-standing, yet not adequately researched problem: livelihood and health challenges of communities in the world’s most populous river basin—The Ganga. Lack of data has been a major deterrent to research in this field. I am glad that the Water-to-Cloud program’s sensor-based dynamic monitoring system helped in collecting and collating high-resolution temporal and spatial data, aiding the study’s objective of mapping the communities’ perceptions with the actual water quality parameters. Adopting a multidisciplinary approach, this study attempts at connecting data concerning the fishing community, with water quality measurements of the catchment area in trying to identify the river’s water quality impact upon the livelihood and perception within the local fishing community. The study involved multiple stakeholders, including engineers, medical professionals and local administrative bodies in West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh—the two states where selected stretches of the river were studied. I congratulate the entire team for the tremendous effort they have put in to bring out this report. I envisage that the findings of the report and ensuing recommendations will aid in designing effective future interventions and policies. Supratik Guha Professor, Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering, University of Chicago Page | vi Study Team NCAER1 Tata Centre for Development at UChicago2 Research Team Research Team Soumi Roy Chowdhury, PhD Nutan Maurya, PhD Associate Fellow Research Collaborator Devendra B. Gupta, PhD Anand Kumar, PhD Senior Advisor Water Research Lead Sanjib Pohit, PhD Saba Mundlay Professor Data Analyst Rishabh Singh Prashant Pandey Research Associate Project Associate Mohit Pandey Himank Sharma Research Associate Project Lead Technical Support Priyank Hirani Program Director Sadhna Singh Praveen Sachdeva Editor Reviewer Anupma Mehta Subhojit Goswami 1 We want to thank Siddhartha Mitra, Professor of Economics, Jadavpur University for his comments in the selected sections of the project. 2 We express sincere gratitude to fishermen of the Narora and Unnao (UP) and Jangipur and Tribeni (WB) for their enthusiastic participation in the study. Page | vii Acronyms BOD Biological Oxygen Demand CDOM Coloured Dissolved Oxygen Matter CHL Chlorophyll COD Chemical Oxygen Demand CPCB Central Pollution Control Board CSE Centre for Science and Environment DO Dissolved Oxygen EC Electrical Conductivity FC Faecal Coliform FEO Fishery Education Officer FGD Focus Group Discussion GDP Gross Domestic Product GPS Global Positioning System HH Households KMDA Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority MLD Million Litres per Day NIST National Institute of Standards and Technology NO2 Nitrite NO3 Nitrate RRA Rapid Rural Appraisal SANDRP South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People SO4 Sulphate TC Total Coliform TCD Tata Centre for Development TOC Total Organic Carbon WASH Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene Facilities WTA Willingness to Accept WTP Willingness to Pay W2C Water to Cloud Page | viii Table of Contents Foreword .................................................................................................................................. iv Preface ...................................................................................................................................... vi Study Team .............................................................................................................................