Context: 10 of the 100 sewage infrastructure projects commissioned after 2015 under the Namami Gange mission, according to records.

Background:

Commissioning of sewage treatment plants (STP) and laying sewer lines are at the heart of the mission to clean the Ganga. Nearly Rs. 23,000 crore has been sanctioned of the Rs. 28,000 crore outlay for sewage management work. River-front development, cleaning ghats and removing trash from the river — the cosmetic side of the mission — make up about for Rs. 1,200 crore of the mission outlay.

About Namami Gange Programme:

• Namami Gange Programme – is an umbrella programme which integrates previous and currently ongoing initiatives by enhancing efficiency, extracting synergies and supplementing them with more comprehensive & better coordinated interventions. Government of India is supplementing the efforts of the state governments in addressing the pollution of river Ganga by providing financial assistance to the states.
• Need: Each day, more than 500 million liters of wastewater from industrial sources are dumped directly into Ganga. In many places, this wastewater entering the rivers is completely raw, completely untreated.

Main Pillars of the Namami Gange Programme are:

• Sewerage Treatment Infrastructure
• River-Surface Cleaning
• Afforestation
• Industrial Effluent Monitoring
• River-Front Development
• Bio-Diversity
• Public Awareness
• Ganga Gram

Its implementation has been divided into:

1. Entry-Level Activities (for immediate visible impact),
2. Medium-Term Activities (to be implemented within 5 years of time frame) and
3. Long-Term Activities (to be implemented within 10 years).

About NMCG: National Mission for Clean Ganga, endeavors to deploy best available knowledge and resources across the world for Ganga rejuvenation. Clean Ganga has been a perennial attraction for many international countries that have expertise in river rejuvenation.