Page 2 - 2. Lesson Notes - Ganga Action Plan 5Rs

Pollution of Water:
 Pollution is an undesirable change in physical chemical and biological characteristics
of soil, water and air.
 This is harmful for all humans as well as other organisms on the Earth.
 The awareness about the problems has lead to the conservation of the environment
and natural resources.

For example - The Ganga Action Plan.

 The pollution of water is caused by the dumping of untreated sewage and
industrial wastes into it.
 The contamination of river water can be usually found from two factors :
1. The presence of coliform bacteria in river water.
2. Measurement of pH of river water.

Ganga Action Plan (GAP):
 It is a multi crore project that came in 1985 to improve the quality of Ganga water.
Ganga Action Plan (GAP) was formulated to reduce the pollution load of river Ganga
by more than 75%.
 It was noticed that due to continuous dumping of waste into river Ganga, the number
of coliform bacteria increased to an alarming level.
 This bacteria is otherwise found in human intestine.
 This has led to pollution of the river. As people use the water for bathing, washing
clothes and many other activities that affects the pH level of water and makes it
contaminated.
 Accordingly, a survey was conducted and data was collected for total coliform (a
group of bacteria found in human intestine) between 1993-1994 which was as below:

MPN – Most Probable Number.

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