National Council for Rejuvenation, Protection and Management of the Ganges River (also known as the National Ganga Council) carried out the National Mission for Clean Ganga. This mission was incorporated as a Registered Association on August 12, 2011, under the Societies Registration Act of1860. NMCG under the National Ganges Council is supported by the State Level Program Management Group (SPMG) in Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Bihar and West Bengal. This is the Indian government?s initiative to combat pollution of the Ganges through technical and financial assistance.
Objectives of NMCG
NMCG focuses on actions to reduce pollution, such as diverting, capturing and treating wastewater flowing through open drains. It aims to reduce pollution through proper field treatment, biological restoration, sewage treatment plants (STP), advanced technology and wastewater treatment plants (ETP).
Some of the main goals of the NMCG are to repair and improve existing STP and take immediate short-term measures to control pollution at riverside exits to control sewage inflow. To maintain water flow continuity without changing the natural seasonal fluctuations. To maintain and restore surface currents and groundwater. To maintain and regenerate natural vegetation surrounding the area. Regeneration and conservation of aquatic biodiversity and embankment biodiversity in the Ganges basin. To enable public participation in the process of river protection, management and rejuvenation.
Initiatives
Prior to the establishment of the NMCG, many initiatives were undertaken to reduce pollution and cleanse the Ganges River.
- Ganga Action Plan: Launched in the year 1985 by the Ministry of Environment & Forests. This was the first river action plan introduced to improve water quality through the diversion, collection and treatment of domestic wastewater. The plan was to prevent toxic and industrial chemical waste from entering the river.
- National River Ganga Basin Authority: The National River Ganga Basin Authority was established under the control of PM of India by the central government in the year 2009 under Article 3 of the Environmental Protection Act of 1986 and declared the Ganges to be the “national river” of India.
- National River Conservation Plan: This conservation plan was created as an extension of the GAP with the aim of covering all major rivers in the country.
- In the year 2010, a government clean-up campaign was launched to prevent untreated city or industrial wastewater from flowing into rivers.
Namami Gange
This is an integrated conservation mission approved by the Government in the year 2014 as a “flagship program” to achieve the two goals of effectively reducing pollution, maintaining and rejuvenating the Ganges. Department of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation under the Ministry of Jal Shakti implements this mission. This program is supported by the NMCG and its government counter organization which is State Program Management Group (SPMG).
It has a centrally funded, corruption-free corpus of Rs 20,000 crore and consists of nearly 288 projects. The main pillars of the program are wastewater treatment infrastructure and industrial wastewater monitoring, river front development and river surface clean up, biodiversity and replanting, and public awareness.
Challenges Faced
Poor governance due to lack of proper supervision and supervision, less use of funds allocated under the program. According to the Central Water Commission (CWC), four of the 11 hydropower projects upstream of the Ganges tributary violate the Ganges’ ecological flow standards and are of the river’s nature. It’s further confusing the flow. Most of the Ganges is polluted because there are five states in the main stream of the river. The main cause is industrial pollution by distilleries, paper mills and sugar mills in the catchments of the Kanpur tanning mills, the Ramganga, Kosi and Kali Rivers. The problem of illegally rampant buildings near the riverbed is a major hurdle to cleaning the river.
Conclusion
The government’s Namami Gange program has revitalized the nation?s efforts to revitalize the Ganges. In that regard, the World Bank’s first loan will help build critical wastewater infrastructure in 20 polluted hotspots along the river, and current funding will help clean up tributaries of the Ganges. It will also help the government strengthen the institutions needed to manage river basins of the size of the Ganges. Successful implementation of the plan requires a strategic blueprint that includes rigorous surveillance, public awareness campaigns, the use of digital media, and the conservation of the Ganges River’s biodiversity.
