Sankat Mochan Foundation

Sankat Mochan Foundation (SMF) is a charitable organization devoted to cleaning and protecting the sacred Ganges river in India.

History

Sankat Mochan Foundation was founded in 1982 as a non-profit, non-political organization under the "Societies Act" of the Government of India by Veer Bhadra Mishra [http://www.sankatmochanfoundationonline.org/vision.html] . The vision of Sankat Mochan Foundation is to [http://www.sankatmochanfoundationonline.org/vision.html]
# Restore the Ganges by alleviating its fast deteriorating environmental conditions
# Promote education and health care programs for the less privileged
# Maintain and encourage the age-old cultural traditions of Varanasi, in tune with its current environmental needs

SMF runs the Swatcha Ganga (Clean Ganges) program, and so SMF is sometimes referred to as "Swatcha Ganga".

Ganga Action Plan: Failures

The Ganga Action Plan launched in 1986 by the Government of India has not achieved any success despite expenditure of over five billion rupees. The government claims that the schemes under the Ganga Action Plan have been successful, but actual measurements and scientific data tell a different story. The failure of the GAP is evident but corrective action is lacking.

The ineffectiveness of the current Ganga Action Plan could be found based on the results observed in the following table: [http://www.friendsofganges.org/html/s02_article/article_view.asp?id=132&nav_cat_id=133&nav_top_id=63&dsb=6]

Note:" The higher the Biochemical Oxygen Demand, the higher the pollution (conversely there is more dissolved oxygen needed to make the water safe)."

SMF AIWPS Solution

AIWPS has been developed by Professor William J. Oswald and his co-workers at the University of California, Berkeley over the past four decades. Advanced Integrated Wastewater Pond Systems (AIWPS) are potentially feasible for application in the developing world.

Each AIWPS facility designs and incorporates a series of low-cost ponds or earthwork reactors. A typical AIWPS facility consists of a minimum of four ponds in series. These are Advanced Facultative Ponds (AFP), Secondary Facultative Ponds or Algal High Rate Ponds (HRP), Algae Settling Ponds (ASP), Maturation Ponds. These systems would store sewage for 45 days, using bacteria and algae to eliminate waste and purify the water.

This is a low cost, highly efficient and effective mode of treating sewage, with nearly no power requirement, and it is well suited for a tropical location like the Gangetic Plains. Sankat Mochan Foundation, working alongside [http://www.oswaldgreen.com Oswald Green LLC] , had proposed this system for treating the sewage water that is being let in to Ganga near Varanasi. Though this solution was unanimously accepted by Varanasi Nagar Nigam (Varanasi Local Government Body, Municipal Corporation), based on the facts that this solution is more economical, superior in technology and requires very little maintenance, it has been stalled by the apathy and indifference shown by the central and state government bureaucracy.

SMF Milestones

Associated Organizations

* http://www.thames21.org.uk/
* http://www.asiafoundation.org/
* http://www.ozgreen.org.au/
* http://www.friendsofganges.org/
* http://www.sida.se/sida/jsp/sida.jsp?d=121&language=en_US

See also

* [http://www.sankatmochanfoundationonline.org Sankat Mochan Foundation Official Website with Contact and Volunteering details]
* [http://www.ecoworld.com/home/articles2.cfm?tid=363 Clean the Ganges - Ecoworld]
* [http://environment.harvard.edu/religion/religion/hinduism/projects/sankat_mochan.html Sankat Mochan Foundation (SMF) - Harvard Study]
* [http://www.ozgreen.org.au/FOGA/Friends%20of%20the%20Ganges%20(Australia).htm Friends of the Ganges - Oz-Green]
* [http://www.ozgreen.org.au/FOGA/SMF%2005.pdf Clean Ganga Campaign of SMF]
* [http://www.friendsofganges.org/files/XQ8GA8F6LA/GANGAGANGA.doc Challenges of SMF - Friends of Ganges]
* [http://www.abc.net.au/foreign/content/2005/s1432441.htm India Water Crisis - ABC Australia]
* [http://www.ecofriends.org/reports/019workshop.htm Corporators' Workshop by SMF]
* [http://www.crabgrass.org/site/friends.html SMF friends in San Francisco]
* [http://www.sacredland.org/world_sites_pages/Ganges.html Article about SMF in Sacred Land website]
* [http://members.tripod.com/sankatmochan/toc.htm Very old version of the SMF website]