Firuz Shah Tughlaqhad

Firuz Shah Tughlaqhad many canals built, the longest of which, 240 km (150 mi), was built in 1356 on the Yamuna River. Now known as the Western Yamuna Canal, it has fallen into disrepair and been restored several times. The Mughal emperor Shah Jahan built an irrigation canal on the Yamuna River in the early 17th century. Sony VAIO VGN-AW72JB Battery

It fell into disuse until 1830, when it was reopened as the Eastern Yamuna Canal, under British control. The reopened canal became a model for the Upper Ganges Canal and all following canal projects.

The first British canal in India—with no Indian antecedents—was the Ganges Canal built between 1842 and 1854. Sony VAIO VGN-AW73FB Battery

Contemplated first by Col. John Russell Colvin in 1836, it did not at first elicit much enthusiasm from its eventual architect Sir Proby Thomas Cautley, who balked at idea of cutting a canal through extensive low-lying land in order to reach the drier upland destination. However, after the Agra famine of 1837–38, during which the East India Company's administration spent Rs. Sony VAIO VGN-AW80NS Battery

2,300,000 on famine relief, the idea of a canal became more attractive to the Company's budget-conscious Court of Directors. In 1839, the Governor General of India, Lord Auckland, with the Court's assent, granted funds to Cautley for a full survey of the swath of land that underlay and fringed the projected course of the canal. Sony VAIO VGN-AW80S Battery

The Court of Directors, moreover, considerably enlarged the scope of the projected canal, which, in consequence of the severity and geographical extent of the famine, they now deemed to be the entire Doab region.

The enthusiasm, however, proved to be short lived. Auckland's successor as Governor General, Sony VAIO VGN-AW80US Battery

Lord Ellenborough, appeared less receptive to large-scale public works, and for the duration of his tenure, withheld major funds for the project. Only in 1844, when a new Governor-General, Lord Hardinge, was appointed, did official enthusiasm and funds return to the Ganges canal project. Sony VAIO VGN-AW81DS Battery

Although the intervening impasse had seemingly affected Cautely's health and required him to return to Britain in 1845 for recuperation, his European sojourn gave him an opportunity to study contemporary hydraulic works in the United Kingdom and Italy. By the time of his return to India even more supportive men were at the helm, Sony VAIO VGN-AW81JS Battery

both in the North-Western Provinces, with James Thomason as Lt. Governor, and in British India with Lord Dalhousie as Governor-General. Canal construction, under Cautley's supervision, now went into full swing. A 350-mile long canal, with another 300 miles of branch lines, eventually stretched between the headworks in Hardwar, splitting into two branches belowAligarh, Sony VAIO VGN-AW81YS Battery

and its two confluences with the Yamuna (Jumna in map) mainstem in Etawah and the Ganges in Kanpur (Cawnpore in map). The Ganges Canal, which required a total capital outlay of £2.15 million, was officially opened in 1854 by Lord Dalhousie.

A major barrage at Farakka was opened on 21 April 1975,Sony VAIO VGN-AW82DS Battery

It is located close to the point where the main flow of the river enters Bangladesh, and the tributary Hooghly (also known as Bhagirathi) continues in West Bengal past Kolkata. This barrage, which feeds the Hooghly branch of the river by a 26-mile (42 km) long feeder canal, and its water flow management has been a long-lingering source of dispute with Bangladesh. Sony VAIO VGN-AW82JS Battery

Indo-Bangladesh Ganges Water Treaty signed in December 1996 addressed some of the water sharing issues between India and Bangladesh.^[85]

Tehri Dam was constructed on Bhagirathi River, tributary of the Ganges. It's located 1.5 km downstream of Ganesh Prayag, the place where Bhilangana meets Bhagirathi. Sony VAIO VGN-AW82YS Battery

Bhagirathi is called Ganges after Devprayag.^[87] Construction of the dam in an earthquake prone area^[88] was controversial.^[89]

Bansagar Dam was built on the Son River, a tributary of the Ganges, for both irrigation and hydroelectric power generation. Sony VAIO VGN-AW83FS Battery

The Ganges Basin with its fertile soil is instrumental to the agricultural economies of India and Bangladesh. The Ganges and its tributaries provide a perennial source of irrigation to a large area. Chief crops cultivated in the area include rice, sugarcane,lentils, oil seeds, potatoes, and wheat. Along the banks of the river, Sony VAIO VGN-AW83GS Battery

the presence of swamps and lakes provide a rich growing area for crops such as legumes, chillies, mustard, sesame, sugarcane, and jute. There are also many fishing opportunities to many along the river, though it remains highly polluted. Kanpur, largest leather producing city in the world is situated on the banks of this river. Sony VAIO VGN-AW83HS Battery

Tourism is another related activity. Three towns holy to Hinduism – Haridwar, Allahabad, and Varanasi – attract thousands of pilgrims to its waters. Thousands of Hindu pilgrims arrive at these three towns to take a dip in the Ganges, which is believed to cleanse oneself of sins and help attain salvation. Sony VAIO VGN-AW90NS Battery

The rapids of the Ganges also are popular for river rafting, attracting hundreds of adventure seekers in the summer months. Street vendors sell homemade bowls of flowers with tea light for visitors to set on the water at sunset.

The Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna basin has a huge hydroelectric potential, Sony VAIO VGN-AW90S Battery

on the order of 200,000 to 250,000 megawatts, nearly half of which could be easily harnessed. As of 1999, India tapped about 12% of the hydroelectric potential of the Ganges and just 1% of the vast potential of the Brahmaputra.

The Ganges suffers from extreme pollution levels, which affect the 400 million people who live close to the river. Sony VAIO VGN-AW90US Battery

Sewage from many cities along the river's course, industrial waste and religious offerings wrapped in non-degradable plastics add large amounts of pollutants to the river as it flows through densely populated areas.^[13][94] The problem is exacerbated by the fact that many poorer people rely on the river on a daily basis for bathing, washing, and cooking. ^{Sony VAIO VGN-AW91CDS Battery}

The World Bank estimates that the health costs of water pollution in India equal three per cent of India's GDP.^[95] It has also been suggested that eighty per cent of all illnesses in India and one-third of deaths can be attributed to water-borne diseases.

Varanasi, a city of one million people that many pilgrims visit to take a "holy dip" in the Ganges, ^{Sony VAIO VGN-AW91CJS Battery}

releases around 200 million litres of untreated human sewage into the river each day, leading to large concentrations of faecal coliformbacteria.^[94] According to official standards, water safe for bathing should not contain more than 500 faecal coliforms per 100ml, yet upstream of Varanasi's ghats the river water already contains 120 times as much, 60,000 faecal coliform bacteria per 100 ml. ^{Sony VAIO VGN-AW91CYS Battery}

After the cremation of the deceased at Varanasi's ghats the bones and ashes are thrown into the Ganges. However, in the past thousands of uncremated bodies were thrown into the Ganges during cholera epidemics, spreading the disease. Even today, holy men, pregnant women, people with leprosy/chicken pox, people who had been bitten by snakes, ^{Sony VAIO VGN-AW91DS Battery}

people who had committed suicide, the poor, and children under 5 are not cremated at the ghats but are floated free to decompose in the waters. In addition, those who can not afford the large amount of wood needed to incinerate the entire body, leave behind a lot of half burned body parts.

After passing through Varanasi, and receiving 32 streams of raw sewage from the city, ^{Sony VAIO VGN-AW91JS Battery}

the concentration of faecal coliforms in the river's waters rises from 60,000 to 1.5 million,^[10][97] with observed peak values of 100 million per 100 ml.^[94] Drinking and bathing in its waters therefore carries a high risk of infection.^[94]Between 1985 and 2000, Rs. 1,000 crore (Rs. 10 billion, around US$ 226 million, or less than 4 cents per person per year) ^{Sony VAIO VGN-AW91YS Battery}

were spent on the Ganga Action Plan,^[13] an environmental initiative that was "the largest single attempt to clean up a polluted river anywhere in the world."^[15] The Ganga Action Plan has been described variously as a "failure,"a "major failure,^[11] a "colossal failure,"^[12] and a "widely recognized failure."According to one study, ^{Sony VAIO VGN-AW92CDS Battery}

The Ganga Action Plan, which was taken on priority and with much enthusiasm, was delayed for two years. The expenditure was almost doubled. But the result was not very appreciable. Much expenditure was done over the political propaganda. The concerning governments and the related agencies were not very prompt to make it a success. ^{Sony VAIO VGN-AW92CJS Battery}

The public of the areas was not taken into consideration. The releasing of urban and industrial wastes in the river was not controlled fully. The flowing of dirty water through drains and sewers were not adequately diverted. The continuing customs of burning dead bodies, throwing carcasses, washing of dirty clothes by washermen, and immersion of idols and cattle wallowing were not checked. ^{Sony VAIO VGN-AW92CYS Battery}

Very little provision of public latrines was made and the open defecation of lakhs of people continued along the riverside. All these made the Action Plan a failure.

The failure of the Ganga Action Plan, has also been variously attributed to "environmental planning without proper understanding of the human–environment interactions, ^{Sony VAIO VGN-AW92DS Battery}

"Indian "traditions and beliefs,"^[ "corruption and a lack of technical knowledge"^[14] and "lack of support from religious authorities."^[17]

In December 2009 the World Bank agreed to loan India US$ 1 billion over the next five years to help save the river. ^{Sony VAIO VGN-AW92JS Battery}

According to 2010 Planning Commission estimates, an investment of almost Rs. 7,000 crore (Rs. 70 billion, approximately US$ 1.5 billion) is needed to clean up the river.In November 2008, the Ganges, alone among India's rivers, was declared a "National River", facilitating the formation of a Ganga River Basin Authority that would have greater powers to plan, implement and monitor measures aimed at protecting the river. ^{Sony VAIO VGN-AW92YS Battery}

The incidence of water-borne and enteric diseases – such as gastrointestinal disease, cholera, dysentery, hepatitis A and typhoid – among people who use the river's waters for bathing, washing dishes and brushing teeth is high, at an estimated 66% per year.^[94]