Hi!

Ganga is one of the most polluted rivers of the world. In this report I've written about the 'Namami Gange Project', its features and how it has been progressing.

Ganga Basin is the largest river basin in India in terms of its area which is spread over 11 states that constitutes nearly 27% of the country's land mass and supports about 40% of its population.

The 'Namami Gange Project' is an ambitious project undertaken by the Central Government of India. It aims to comprehensively clean the Ganga. The project is officially known as 'Integrated Ganga Conservation Mission project' or 'Namami Ganga Yojana'. In its first budget the Government announced Rs. 2037 crore towards this project. About 20,000 crore has been sanctioned in the year 2014 as the budget of this project for the next 5 years (Till 2020).

Some of the features of this project are as follows:

•  The project covers 8 states, 47 towns & 12 rivers.
•  Several ministries are working in unison to successfully implement this project.  
• The primary aim of this initiative is to involve the people residing on the river's banks in this project. Several local bodies such as Gram Panchayats and municipalities have also been made a part of this project. They are supposed to implement the plan on the grass root level.
•  'river –centric' urban planning commission to facilitate better citizen engagement, through awareness camps at Ghats and River fronts.
•  Expansion and improvement of sewerage infrastructure in 118 urban habitations on banks of Ganga.
• Enforcement of 'River Regulatory Zones'.
• Development of rational agricultural & efficient irrigation methods and practices. Setting Ganga Knowledge Centre to aid the local community and make them aware.

Progress of the Namami Ganga Yojana:

• The state governments have taken up River floor cleaning making use of trash skimmer to implement the Namami Gange programme. Tendering approach for River surface cleansing pursuits at other precedence towns has also been accomplished.

• Five key industrial sectors, which contribute 90% of inorganic wastes into the river basin, have been issued instructions and appropriate course corrective measures to reduce their discharge into the river. These sectors have a deadline of March, 2017 to initiate the changes.

• Instructions have been issued to nearby urban bodies for establishing STPs of ample capability and furnish underground sewerage method to cover the complete urban areas and bridge the new water demand gap. Instructions have also been issued to 118 cities in Ganga basin for medication and utilization of sewage for restoration of water of rivers.

Thank you for reading! Please share your views!
Picture courtesy: mapsofindia.com