Government initiatives for the Ganga

 History of Cleaning Ganga process

Ganga Action Plan(GAP) Phase I & II:

•  Phase I was launched in 1985, covering 25 Ganga towns in three states.
•  Phase II launched in 1993 covered 59 towns in five states;
•  Rivers such as Yamuna, Gomti, Damodar, Mahananda had separate action plans.

NGBRA

• Setting up of National Ganga River Basin Authority NGRBA in 2009
• Focused on a basin-specific approach; 43 towns were covered in five states.

National Mission for Clean Ganga

• National Mission for Clean Ganga(NMCG) was registered as a society on 12th August 2011 under the Societies Registration Act 1860.
•  It acted as implementation arm of National Ganga River Basin Authority (NGRBA).

Why they failed:

• Increase in population, urbanization, industrialization was much more than cleaning efforts.
•  Lack of concerted efforts by all the stakeholders.
•  The plan was not able to connect with the population at the ground level.
•  Gap in capacity creation for sewage treatment and daily discharge. Also a lot of this capacity has remained underutilised or non-functional.
•  The discharge of urban sewage is only one of several interventions required to rid the river of pollution.

Namami Ganga Programme

1.>In May 2015, the Centre had approved the Namami Gange Programme with an outlay of Rs 20,000 crores for five years i.e. till 2020.
It has three components: ‘aviraldhara’ (uninterrupted flow), ‘nirmaldhara’ (clean flow) of Ganga; and ensuring ecological and geological integrity.   2.>Following are proposed to be taken up under NamamiGange:

•  Ensuring ecological rejuvenation by conservation of aquatic life and biodiversity.
•  Promotion of Tourism and Shipping in a rational and sustainable manner.
•  Knowledge Management on Ganga through Ganga Knowledge Centre.

Mechanism/ functioning of Namami Gange Programme
Institutional mechanism:
1.>The program would be implemented by the National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) and State Program Management Groups (SPMGs).
2.> A three-tier mechanism has been proposed for project monitoring comprising of –

•  High level task force chaired by Cabinet Secretary assisted by NMCG at national level
•  State level committee chaired by Chief Secretary assisted by SPMG at state level
•  District level committee chaired by the District Magistrate.

 Administration:

•  Centre will provide for operation & maintenance of the assets for a minimum 10 year period (unlike previous Ganga Action plans)
•  Adopt a PPP/SPV approach for pollution hotspots.
•  Focus on pollution abatement interventions namely Interception, diversion & treatment of wastewater through bio-remediation, appropriate in-situ treatment, innovative technologies, sewage treatment plants (STPs) and effluent treatment plant (ETPs).
•  The River Ganga Authorities Order 2016 has created National Council for River Ganga under Prime Minister for superintendence of pollution prevention of Ganga basin.

Recent Initiative by the government under Namami Gange

•  Ganga Manthan- a national conference to discuss issues and solutions for cleaning the river.
•  Ganga Task force- first company of Battalion was deployed at Garhmukteshwar.
•  Ganga Gram Yojana: 1600 villages situated along the banks of river Ganga will be developed under this scheme.
•  MoU with Rotary India to implement ‘WASH in school’ program. The program includes the implementation of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene services in the targeted government schools

By: Arpit Gupta