For the Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation, one of the major Swachhata challenges has been the cleaning of River Ranga to restore its Aviralta and Nirmalta – its continuous and unpolluted flow.

Ganga has multiple sources of pollution:

• The sewage treatment infrastructure in the many towns is inadequate, and in many cases defunct for want of proper maintenance. The problem will only get compounded as population grows in these towns, generating more waste.
• There are untreated effluents from industrial sources, solid waste from the towns and villages along the river banks, agricultural waste, open defecation waste, and polluted tributaries and nallahs emptying into the river, all contributing to the load of pollutants.

Namami Gange Programme:

• While earlier efforts to clean Ganga have not yielded much result, the recent government initiative, Namami Gange programme launched in 2015 has made good headway in this direction.
• For the first time a separate ministry was made for Ganga Rejuvenation in 2014 and Namami Gange was approved as a flagship programme.
• National Mission for Clean Ganga that is responsible for implementing the programme was declared as an Authority under Environment Protection Act 1986, giving it more powers in 2016, and State and District Ganga Committees were established in 2017.
• The projects under the programme include sewage infrastructure, ghats and crematoria, river front development, river surface cleaning, institutional development, biodiversity conservation, afforestation, and rural sanitation.
• The existing sewage treatment capacity will also be enhanced under the programme.

Comprehensive cleaning of the river requires infrastructure, systems and practices that can intercept pollutants from each of these sources regularly, and on a sustained basis. This calls for coordinated and concerted action from multiple agencies – central, state, private as well as the participation of people living along the river.

Innovation Models:

• Innovative models in the sector like the Hybrid Annuity Mode (HAM) and One-City One-Operator conceptwhere all new and existing STPs will be under charge of one private operator, ensuring better upkeep and maintenance, have been brought in.
• Many private companies are also taking up projects to clean Ganga, renovate the ghats and crematoria or do afforestation along the banks under their CSR activities.
• Many self-motivated individuals are also coming forward for afforestation, ghat cleaning and other such work. Known as Ganga Praharis, they motivate other people to help keep the river and its banks clean.

Swachhata in the Roads:

Swachhata is also a major priority in my two other ministries – Road Transport and Highways and Shipping.

• The use of waterways as a cheaper and more environment friendly mode of transport is being promoted.
• Around 111 waterways have been declared as National Waterways and will be developed for transport.
• The ministries are also trying to promote the use of cleaner fuel like Ethanol, Methanol, Bio-Diesel, Bio CNG and electricity in the transport sector as alternatives to petrol and diesel.

Green Ports:

• The Ministry of Shipping has also focussed on the setting up of ‘Green Ports’ for sustainable, environment-friendly and long term development of ports.
• Recently Visakhapatnam Port Trust was adjudged as the winner in the category of Outstanding Renewable Energy User in the service sector in India by the Indian Federation of Green Energy.

TID BITS:

STP Project in Mathura:

• The STP project coming up Mathura is a unique one. It has been awarded on HAM mode under One-City One-Operator Concept.
• The same private operator will build a new STP of 30 MLD capacity, upgrade three old STPs of 38 MLD capacity and be responsible for running and upkeep of all STPs.
• The IOCL refinery at Mathura will reuse the waste water, buying it at a rate of Rs 8.70 per litre.
• This will save 2 crore litres of Yamuna water that was being used by IOCL, and make it available for other usage.

PM receives UNEP Champions of the Earth Award:

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi was awarded the ‘UNEP Champions of the Earth’ award, the United Nations’ highest environmental honour.
• The Prime Minister was selected in the leadership category for his pioneering work in championing the International Solar Alliance and for his unprecedented pledge to eliminate all single-use plastic in India by 2022.
• The annual ‘Champions of the Earth’ prize is awarded to outstanding leaders from government, civil society and the private sector whose actions have had a positive impact on the environment.