National Mission for Clean Ganga’s (NMCG) Executive Committee report

2555 SHRI VINCENT H. PALA
                DR. AMAR SINGH
                DR. A. CHELLAKUMAR

Will the Minister of JAL SHAKTI be pleased to state:-

(a) whether the Government has taken cognizance of the National Mission for Clean Ganga’s (NMCG) Executive Committee report endorsing the consideration of European and US-based models for the management of the Ganga Basin;

(b) if so, whether the Government is aware that the NMCG had previously advised against using foreign river cleaning models for the Ganga programme, due to factors including the rain-fed nature of Indian rivers and the dependency of lakhs of people upon their waters for survival and if so, the details thereof;

(c) whether the Government proposes to further consider the aforementioned foreign models in substitution of existing river management strategies under the Namami Gange programme; and

(d) if so, the details thereof and if not, the reasons therefor?

(a) Executive Committee (EC) of NMCG has approved the project on “How relevant are the European River Rejuvenation experience for NGP and Indian Rivers” to Centre for Policy Research (CPR) in its 43rd meeting held on 13th July 2022. The project was developed in pursuance of the objectives of the MoU signed between NMCG and CPR on 14th December 2021. The objectives of the proposal are as follows:

• Scoping and identification of focus areas of knowledge exchange between Europe and India (NGP).
• Implement CPR-NMCG Collaborative Programme for institutionalized Research and Knowledge Exchange between Europe and India.

(b) to (d) Namami Gange programme being implemented by NMCG is based on Ganga River Basin Management Plan prepared by consortium of seven IITs. The technologies adopted for implementation of various sewerage projects under Namami Gange are based on Central Public Health and Environmental Engineering Organization Guidelines of Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs. However, NMCG has entered into MoUs with many countries such as Germany, Netherland, Israel, Denmark, Japan etc for knowledge exchange on models of river rejuvenation. National Mission for Clean Ganga by implementation of above research oriented study of CPR intends to analyze learnings from European experiences in rejuvenation of rivers from broader policy and institutional aspects leading to collaborative knowledge exchange programmes with European institutions.

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