India's pollution control boards have failed completely, as the number of polluted river stretches has gone up 14 times in the last 26 years.

Worse, the intensity of pollution in areas already identified for clean-up has also shot up.

Documents accessed by Mail Today show the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) first identified polluted stretches in 1989 and put the number at 22.

More than two and a half decades and thousands of crores of rupees later, this number has gone up to 302 now. The revelation has environmentalists up in arms.

India's pollution control board has miserably failed to effectively clean up the dying rivers

Manoj Misra of civil society group Yamuna Jiye Abhiyan said the job of these boards was not just to assess pollution and prepare reports.

“Is CPCB a mere data aggregator? Who will do the clean-up then? The deplorable state of rivers is a sad reflection on the all-round failure of the pollution control bodies led by CPCB.”

River expert Himanshu Thakkar blames the laws and out-of-touch babus.

“Despite so much expense and such huge bureaucracy with so much powers, not a single river stretch has been cleaned up in the last 40 years. That’s primarily because there is zero community participation,” he says.

Rs 15,000 crore is said to have been spent on Ganga clean-up alone all these years without any results.

The data accessed by Mail Today shows that after the evaluation of river water quality for 2002-2008, 150 polluted stretches were identified on 121 rivers.

More money was pumped into river cleaning. But the latest report based on the data of 2009-2012 takes the number polluted stretches to 302 on 275 rivers.

The sewage generated from cities and towns along the polluted river stretches has also increased

The CPCB, under the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF), is defensive.

“When you do more, you know more. The data you are referring to has much to do with our vastly expanded pollution monitoring network.

"Today, we know about 302 polluted river stretches because we have 1,700 monitoring stations. When we identified 22 stretches, we had much fewer stations,” said a top official of India’s apex pollution watchdog.

While not denying the fact that untreated waste flow was damaging the rivers alarmingly, he claimed the data does show the state of pollution but not necessarily the exact increase over a certain period of time.

But those who have been involved in the functioning of the watchdog refuse to buy this argument.

Retired CBCB scientist Mahendra Pandey said: “Since 1989, several river-cleaning programmes were launched that cost lots of money. Is there a single success story?

"The problem is these back-to-back reports do not have any action plan for restoration.”

Misra said the pollution story across the board seems to be a steep downhill journey with no respite in sight.

“Established way back in the 1970s, much better performance was expected from the CPCB and state pollution control boards than what the figures tell.”

As already reported by Mail Today, the number of polluted river stretches has doubled in the last five years - from 150 in 2009 to 302. The number of polluted rivers has also more than doubled from 121 to 275 during the same period.

Out of 445 rivers monitored by the CPCB in 29 states and six Union Territories, 275 have been polluted, the study reveals.

The sewage generated from 650 cities and towns situated along the 302 polluted river stretches has also increased from 38,000 million litres per day (MLD) in 2009 to 62,000 MLD today.

The already massive gap between waste inflow and cleanup capacity is further widening. BD Tripathi, member of the National Ganga River Basin Authority (NGRBA) headed by Modi himself, says the government’s focus is misplaced.

“We are not seriously dealing with the problem of decreasing water flow in rivers. As the river flows down the plains, more and more water is taken out and is replaced by sewage and industrial waste,” he said.

Tripathi said rivers will never be cleaned up unless there is sufficient water to increase their pollution dilution and self-purification potential.

The picture is grim even on the ground

It's not just the river cleanup where India’s pollution control boards have failed. They have been equally shoddy in containing industrial pollution contaminating both air and water.

The number of clusters identified by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) with inputs from state boards as ‘critically polluted areas’ has now gone up from 24 a few years ago to 43 now.

Delhi's pollution board has been giving the nod to various projects, though MoEF has banned it

What is shocking is that all the earlier 24 areas remain critically polluted despite whopping sums of money spent on clean-up.

Attributing the increased numbers to greater pollution monitoring, a top CPCB official told Mail Today: “We have adopted new approaches like 24x7 pollution monitoring. States also imposed embargo on new industries in certain areas. This financial year (2015- 16), we are going to again review the situation.”

However, he failed to respond as to why the situation in earlier 24 clusters has not improved.

“The CPCB may claim wider monitoring, but the fact that those 24 clusters have not been taken off the list tells the whole story. They failed to chalk out strategy for new areas as well,” former CPCB scientist Mahendra Pandey said.

RAPID FIRE: Himanshu Thakkar, river expert How do you react to the data that shows exponential increase in river pollution? Himanshu Thakkar There is absolutely no doubt that river pollution is increasing. This is partly because of increasing release of untreated sewage and industrial waste, but majorly because of failure of laws, pollution control boards and also the judiciary. While the emergence of new polluted areas can be partly attributed to greater monitoring, but what is really worrying is the increasing intensity of pollutants in areas already identified for improvement. Who do you blame for what is happening? Pollution control mechanism has completely failed. And it’s a collective failure of the central and state boards. Despite so much expense, such huge bureaucracy with so much powers, and monitoring in the last four decades, there has been not a single success story where they can show a river stretch cleaned up. Boards’ job is not just to assess pollution and make reports. More important is to look into why the system failed. Why do you think the system has failed? Pollution is not only government business, but the government has made it their monopoly. There is zero community participation. Involvement of other independent and non-governmental persons and organisations is nonexistent. People whose lives are affected have no role. Government babus and political appointees whose salaries, promotion and careers are not affected by pollution are the ones in charge and they have clearly failed. Can you pinpoint when the rot started? The central and state pollution boards came into being through the Water (prevention and control of pollution) Act, 1974. The first indication of failure emerged in 1985 when the Centre launched the first leg of Ganga Action Plan. It showed the failure of pollution boards. These boards are dens of corruption and undemocratic functioning. Advertisement

In Delhi, the Najafgarh drain basin is a critically polluted area, where the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) has banned grant of fresh environment clearances (ECs).

But Delhi’s pollution board has been granting ECs to various construction projects, including those of hotels. ECs are needed for projects with built-up areas of 20,000 sqm or more.

On January 13, 2010, the MoEF ordered the freeze, but the State Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA) granted ECs to 112 projects, including many in the drain basin.

The Central Pollution Control Board in March 2011 made a plan to take the drain basin off the list of critically-polluted areas through pollution- control measures. But that did not happen. On September 17, 2013, the MoEF said the situation continues to be dismal, justifying the ongoing freeze.

Wastewater management in the 374-sqm drain basin is key to controlling pollution in the Yamuna. The 61.8-km drain - from Wazirabad to Najafgarh - is one of the three major drains discharging sewage, both treated and otherwise, into the Yamuna.

The basin is severely polluted as many secondary sever lines from a number of industrial and residential areas in Delhi terminate there.

The projects allowed in the basin area include luxury hotels towards the Delhi airport, hospitals, colleges, parking complexes and group housing in areas such as Dwarka, Rohini, Raja Garden and Vasant Kunj.