Spending a week on a cramped boat with five strangers may not sound like fun to many but it was a dream come true for me. When I found a note in my inbox that said ”I want to travel down part of the Ganga by boat. Would you know of anyone who is interested”? , I jumped at the chance and set off on an unforgettable journey with five others. We travelled on a little rowboat that was about 20 feet long, cooked our meals in it, and camped at night. Truly unforgettable.
The Ganga's designation is National Waterway 1 (NW-1). A waterway is a river that also functions as a highway - a navigable river, if you will. The Ganga's label then possibly makes it the equivalent of the Grand Trunk Road. One would think that the automatic significance of that would be heavy traffic plying both passengers and cargo continuously but the reality was far from it. Small canoes ferrying villagers across the river and boats laden with sand were our only river-mates. I wondered if it had always been this way. Had the sandy and ever-changing plains that the Ganga flowed through always negated the possibility of heavy traffic? I decided to find out more about this important waterway.
Mr. Surendra Singh of IWAI (Varanasi) equated the Authority’s role in waterways to that of the Public Works Department's in roads. It was responsible for maintaining a particular depth throughout different parts of the river so that boats don't hit the bottom. For NW1, the depth is as follows for these particular areas:
The stretch of the Ganga designated as National Waterway 1 (Source: Inland Waterways Authority of India)
A knee-jerk reaction to maintaining this depth might be to create a neat channel in place of the river by encasing it in concrete. But ‘training’ a river by building concrete walls on its banks isn't always the best option for the river and those who live by it. Blocking off the river banks using man-made structures destroys the partially-submerged edges of the river, which provide a home to many plants and animals. This also affects other animals who eat these creatures. Further, the steep concrete banks also do not allow animals to drink water from the river and may drown them. To its credit, the Authority understands this and doesn't do anything to upset the eco-system. Instead it surveys the river bed, determines the deepest part of the channel over which boats can safely travel and maps this information. These maps are available with them and are crucial for pilots of large boats plying on the river. The Authority also ensures that this deep channel is maintained at the minimum depth mentioned before by regular dredging, which is to move out underwater sediments and soils.
Thanks to these maps, traffic on the waterway is steadily increasing. In 2009-10, NW1 saw 3308 tons carried against 672 tons in 2008-09. That’s almost a five-fold increase. Most of this was in the lower part of the river from Bengal to Bihar. This does not account for the informal cargo transport (largely sand and timber), which makes up the bulk of the traffic on the river, especially in the upper parts bordering areas such as Uttar Pradesh around Allahabad, Varanasi and Garhmukteshwar.
Today, sand and timber make up the bulk of the cargo being transported. Excavation of sand from the river banks for sale to the construction industry is common along the Allahabad-Varanasi stretch. While this is largely mechanised with JCBs doing the heavy digging, the design of the boats used for this purpose has not changed over centuries.
Most villagers who live by the banks of the river also own small boats. These boats are built by crafts persons like Anil, whose family has been building boats in Varanasi for three generations. He explained the process to me while I watched him work.
The photo below shows a 24 foot boat that carries tourists along the ghats. These boats are used for day-to-day tasks like fetching fodder or commuting to the weekly market.
The mechanics and finances of boat building (Photo: Chicu)
If properly managed, transporting by water is not only cheap but also energy-efficient. This could reduce the load on our national highways as well as the resultant pollution.
A better option would be to take a negotiated approach, which recognises that everyone stands to gain from a healthy river that has adequate flows that ebbs and flows with the seasons. A river that supports boats and wildlife, farmers and fisher folk. There are many terms for this – an integrated approach, a negotiated approach, a value- based dialogue etc. but what it boils down to is people listening to each other's point of view. This may be a difficult task, but the prize is well worth it.