The concluding day of the two-day Summit of Solutions for Ganga being hosted by Global Interfaith WASH Alliance and Ganga Action Parivar, Parmarth Niketan, in Rishikesh, saw the State Urban Development Minister Madan Kaushik exhorting those present which included leaders, administrators, experts, citizen volunteers and Ganga lovers to come up with specific technical models and innovation suitable for each State and region.
The Summit was inaugurated by the Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat on Saturday. It was attended by Mayors, magistrates and officers from the cities, towns and villages stretching across 2500 km length of the holy river.
Kaushik said that Haridwar was on the verge of becoming the first city in the State to have 100% underground sewerage. Commenting on the great strides made in the last four/five years for the rejuvenation of the Ganga, he added, “The Ganga cannot become clean and free-flowing by the efforts of the Ganga alone. The participation of citisens and communities is a must.”
The second day witnessed top officials from the National Mission for Clean Ganga, experts from the Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun and nearly 250 volunteers from Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal for the inauguration of the Biodiversity and Ganga Rejuvenation Training Programme.
Notably the Biodiversity and Ganga Rejuvenation Training Programme, conducted by the Wildlife Institute of India and the National Mission for Clean Ganga under the rubric of the Government of India’s ambitious Namami Gange programme, aims to create a cadre of trained community volunteers or Ganga Praharis (Guardians of the River Ganga) to monitor and safeguard the Ganga and the remarkable variety of life-forms it supports across the five Indian states through which river flows. The focus of the programme is on community participation for the conservation of the aquatic animals that play a vital role in maintaining the health of the Ganga, but whose existence is threatened by the alarming levels of pollution in the river water.