Resolving the Ganges pollution paradox: A policy‐centric systematic review

Abstract

AbstractDespite the fact that it is one of the most sacred and holy rivers in the world, the Ganges River is paradoxically among the most polluted. Over the past decade, researchers have described various mechanisms and actions for improving the pollution problem within the Ganges watershed. The aim of this policy‐centric systematic review is to summarize these recommendations to make them more accessible for concerned citizen groups and planners while also critically appraising their findings. Using the Reporting standards for Systematic Evidence Syntheses (ROSES) framework, our findings indicate that there are a wide range of potential solutions for mitigating pollution in the river system that originate from 37 peer‐reviewed sources that encompass field studies, modeling analyses, and review articles. While we find that there are many actionable and thought‐provoking recommendations for improving water quality and pollution mitigation given by authors studying the Ganges, there are also areas for improvement. Notably, there is a heavy focus on state‐centric planning in the basin with only a few examples of policies that have been tailored toward encouraging community‐based solutions. This lack of community‐based planning may relate to the fact that there is also a missing social dimension to policy recommendations in the Ganges watershed, where most of the articles that we reviewed were published in natural science journals and were not interdisciplinary in nature. Better reporting standards for recommendations arising from reviews and a greater focus on the interrelations between different components of the Ganges system may also yield novel and more trustworthy policy findings for practitioners.