New Delhi: All water quality parameters were “within permissible limits” for bathing during the Kumbh mela at Prayagraj in Uttar Pradesh, Union environment minister Bhupender Yadav told parliament on Monday (March 10), citing the Central Pollution Control Board’s (CPCB) comprehensive report to the National Green Tribunal (NGT) dated February 28.
Earlier, the Central Pollution Control Board had – citing water quality tests – said that the water in the Ganga at several locations including Prayagraj was not fit for bathing. This report, also submitted to the NGT, had said that fecal coliform levels were very high. And it came at a crucial time – on February 3, right in the middle of the Kumbh festival that lasted from January 13 to February 26 this year.
Among the rituals practiced by believers at the Kumbh are bathing in the water, and even consuming a few mouthfuls of it. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Adityanath had denied the CPCB’s February 3 findings, claiming that the water in the Ganga was fit to bathe in and take ritual sips of.
CPCB backtracks
In its latest report, which The Wire accessed, dated February 28 and submitted to the NGT, the CPCB has said that the water at several locations in the Ganga and Yamuna was within permissible limits for bathing from January 12 to February 22.
The CPCB has cited median values for water pH, dissolved oxygen, biochemical oxygen demand and fecal coliform (all crucial parameters to test water quality). All these values fall within permissible limits. According to the CPCB, this was based on monitoring of water quality at seven locations – five in the Ganga and two in the Yamuna – twice a week from January 12 to February 22, as well as three more locations in the Ganga in Prayagraj on February 21 and February 22. Specifically, the median value of fecal coliform quoted in the report is 1,700 MPN (most probable number) per 100 ml at Sangam, 1,700 at all mass-bathing locations that were monitored across these days, and 1,400 for all 10 monitored locations (of which data for three locations was only collected for two days). Permissible levels of fecal coliform in river water should be less than 2,500 MPN per 100 ml.
“It is submitted that as per the above-mentioned statistical analysis, median value of pH, DO, BOD and FC for the monitored stretches is within the respective criteria/ permissible limits for bathing water,” the report said.
Essentially, the CPCB has now backtracked on its findings.
The levels of fecal coliform listed by the CPCB in its report to the NGT on February 3 were nearly twenty times higher in magnitude than they should have been. At Sangam ghat in Prayagraj, for example, total and fecal coliform levels increased from 4,500 and 2,000 MPN/100 ml on January 12 to 49,000 and 11,000 MPN/100 ml on January 14. This again rose to a total coliform level of 7,00,000 MPN/ 100 ml and fecal coliform level of 49,000 MPN/100 ml on January 19. These were not median values.
In that report, the CPCB had said that “River water quality was not conforming with the primary water quality for bathing w.r.t. Fecal Coliform (FC) at all the monitored locations on various occasions”. It put down the increase in fecal coliform levels to the “huge number” of people bathing at Prayagraj during the Kumbh. However, as per the CPCB’s latest report to the NGT dated February 28, the reason for the differences in water quality parameters is “variability in the data”.
“It is humbly submitted that there is a significant variability in the values on various parameters, viz. pH, Dissolved Oxygen (DO), Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD), and Fecal Coliform Count (FC) for the samples taken from the same location on different dates. The values of the afore-mentioned parameters also vary at different locations for the samples collected on the same day,” it read.
As per the report, an “expert committee” at CPCB had “examined the issue of variability in data” and that they held the view that the data represents only “a snapshot of water quality at a specific location and time” and “may not fully represent the overall characteristics of the river”.
Yadav’s reply in Parliament
Union environment minister Bhupender Yadav quoted some of these details from this “comprehensive” report by the CPCB in his reply to questions posed by Anand Bhadauria (Member of Parliament from the Samajwadi Party) and K. Sudhakaran, a Congress MP from Kerala, regarding the quality of water in the Ganga and Yamuna at Prayagraj during the Kumbh.
However, though their questions also included whether “the CPCB has recently published any report stating that faecal coliform levels at all monitored locations were above the permissible limit of 2,500 units per 100 ml, indicating significant sewage contamination, if so, the details thereof and if not, the reasons therefor”.
Yadav’s reply had no mention of the CPCB’s February 3 report that provided details of high levels of fecal coliform. His response only quoted the CPCB report dated February 28, which provides median values for all water quality parameters across a varying date range for varying locations, and shows that all were within permissible limits.
In his reply, Yadav also informed the Parliament that the government of India had released a total of Rs. 7,421.60 from financial year 2022-23 to March 3, 2025, to the National Mission for Clean Ganga, under which the Namami Gange programme has been taken up for the “rejuvenation” of the river since June 2014, after the BJP came into power. Uttar Pradesh has received more than Rs. 2,500 crores during this same period to clean the Ganga.
