The Centre is mulling to take a leaf out of the Sabarmati river front project in Gujarat to develop the river fronts of several urban localities situated on the banks of Ganga. It plans to kick-start short-term clean-up measures within 45 days.
The Minister for Water Resources and Ganga Rejuvenation Minister Uma Bharati decided on a series of measures, including focusing on polluting drainage systems, establishing Ganga Vahini to spread awareness on rejuvenation amongst others in her first meeting with the reconstituted National Ganga River Basin Authority on Monday.
The meeting was also attended by Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar, Surface Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari, Power Minister Piyush Goyal, Science and Technology Minister Jitendra Singh, Chief Minister of Uttrakhand Harish Rawat and Water Resources Ministers of UP, Bihar and West Bengal, besides other senior officials and experts.
Bharati appreciated Sabarmati River front as the best in the country.” It has solutions for sewer problems, chemical discharge, industrial pollution, beautification, besides providing work for people. Simultaneously, relentless flow is also ensured,” she said.The meeting decided that the initial work on Ganga Rejuvenation will focus on drainage. There are about 140 drains between Gangotri and Ganga Sagar, which are polluting the river. The efforts will also take into account certain adjoining rivers that have become like drains.
Greenery will also be stepped up from Gaumukh to Ganga Sagar. Measures will also be taken to tackle the chemical and industrial pollutants discharged into drains. To ensure that the drains are closed, sensors will be installed. The monitoring of those sensors will be done from the Ministry office, said Bharati. She further informed that the national volunteer force Ganga Vahini will be set up on the pattern of the Red Cross. It will comprise youth, students, ex-servicemen and others .
In another proposed measure, a pilot project will be started for recycling of polluted water for use in the industry. The water will be sold as a part of the project for river front development. For this the ministry has earmarked a stretch from Mathura to Vrindavan on river Yamuna, where dirty water from the drains will be sold to an industry.Bharati also asked the States to hold meeting of State Programme Monitoring Groups on regular basis and requested them to hold their next meeting within a month.
The Minister also held a meeting with the scientists of National Environmental Engineering Research Institute on Monday to deliberate on various locations considering the most polluted stretches of Ganga.She reviewed the activities related to water quality monitoring and sediment analysis for Ganga river from Gaumukh to Hooghly, proposed by NEERI.
After the review, Bharti suggested for inclusion of such parameters which have a direct bearing on human and aquatic life. She also directed the institute to include study of Arsenic, as it is also a major concern for human and aquatic life.