Kumbh Raises A Stink

A city that celebrated the festival of faith months ago, is on the verge of an epidemic.

- Banjot Kaur Prayagraj

THE 240 million people who thronged Prayagraj to take a dip in the river Ganga between January 4 and March 14 this year, were presented a “swachh” picture of Ardh Kumbh. It was the cleanest ever in the history of modern India, said Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The Union and Uttar Pradesh governments spent a massive 4,200 crore to organise the world’s largest gathering of faith. But faith and filth don’t go together. On April 22, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) said Prayagraj was on the verge of an epidemic and must be dealt with “on an emergency basis”.

The Kumbh Mela generated more than 2,000 tonnes of unsegregated solid waste. This was dumped into the city’s only solid waste treatment plant at Baswar village. This, despite the fact that the administration knew the plant has been closed since September 2018. The waste now lies in the open—untreated and uncovered. The NGT order was based on the report submitted by retired judge Arun Tandon, chairperson of the supervisory committee set up by the tribunal to review how Kumbh had affected the Ganga.

When Down To Earth (DTE) visited the plant at Baswar, about 10 km from the city, a mountain of untreated solid waste stood behind the boundary wall (see photograph). Anil Kumar Shrivastava, representative of Hari Bhari, the private firm engaged by the Allahabad Municipal Corporation to treat waste, did not allow DTE to enter the premises. But at the back of the plant, a huge cavity in the boundary wall clearly revealed how it was making way for untreated waste to fall directly into the nearby Yamuna river, which finally flows into the Ganga.