Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated sewage treatment plants (STPs) worth over Rs 500 crore in Uttarakhand under the Namami Gange mission.

The STPs are: 

• A 68 million litres per day (MLD) STP has been established at Jagjeetpur in Haridwar which is an upgradation of a 27 MLD STP. 

• 18 MLD STP at Sarai in Haridwar.

• 26 MLD STP at Lakkadghat in Rishikesh. 

• The country’s first four-storeyed STP has been set up at Muni-ki-Reti near Rishikesh with a capacity of 7.5 MLD. 

• 5 MLD STP at Chorpani.  

• Two STPs with capacities of 1 MLD and 0.01 MLD have been set up at Badrinath.

A total of 30 projects are now complete in Uttarakhand for taking care of pollution from 17 towns near river Ganga. 

The PM inaugurated ‘Ganga Avalokan’, the first museum on the river located at Chandi ghat in Haridwar. It is aimed at showcasing the culture, biodiversity and rejuvenation activities done in the river.

Modi launched a pictorial book on the river, titled ‘Rowing Down The Ganges’, illustrating what one would see while rowing down from Gaumukh to Ganga Sagar. 

He released the logo of the Jal Jeevan Mission. The PM also unveiled ‘Margdarshika for Gram Panchayats and Paani Samitis under Jal Jeevan Mission’ (Guidelines for the Village Panchayats and Water Committees). 

What is Paani Samiti?

Paani Samiti is constituted in Gram Panchayat to plan, implement, manage, own, operate and maintain village water supply system. 

Paani Samiti/Village Water and Sanitation Committee (VWSC)/User Group, etc are sub-committees of Gram Panchayat. It is envisaged under Jal Jeevan Mission that the community will play a lead role in planning, implementation, management, operation and maintenance of in-village water supply infrastructure thereby leading to Functional Household Tap Connections (FHTCs) to every rural household. 

The willingness of the community, reflected through Gram Sabha resolution and community contribution, will be the foremost criterion for planning of water supply system in villages.

Gram Panchayat or its sub-committee — Village Water and Sanitation Committee (VWSC)/ Paani Samiti/User Group, etc function as a legal entity as envisaged in the 73 Amendment to the Constitution.

VWSC/ Paani Samiti/User Group may consist of 10-15 members comprising elected members of panchayat up to 25 per cent of the composition, 50 per cent women members and remaining 25 per cent consist of representatives of weaker sections of the village (SC/ST) proportional to their population.

The tenure of sub-committee is kept at 2-3 years and the Gram Sabha during the JJM period will have an option to reconstitute the subcommittee.

Namami Gange Mission

River Ganga has significant economic, environmental and cultural value in India. Rising in the Himalayas and flowing into the Bay of Bengal, the river traverses a course of more than 2,500 km through the plains of north and eastern India. 

The Ganga basin – which also extends into parts of Nepal, China and Bangladesh – accounts for 26 per cent of India’s landmass, 30 per cent of its water resources. Over 40 per cent of India’s gross domestic product is generated in the densely populated basin. 

The river is facing pressures from human and economic activities that impact its water quality and flows.

Over 80 per cent of the pollution load in the Ganga comes from untreated domestic wastewater from towns and cities along the river and its tributaries.

Following the declaration of Ganga as the National River in 2008, there was a paradigm shift in the efforts at cleaning the river.

National Ganga River Basin Authority (NGRBA) started the Mission Clean Ganga in 2009 with the objectives of: 

* Ensuring effective abatement of pollution and conservation of the river Ganga by adopting a river basin approach to promote inter-sectoral coordination for comprehensive planning and management. 

* Maintaining environmental flows in the river Ganga with the aim of ensuring water quality and environmentally sustainable development. 

In 2011, National Ganga River Basin Project helped set up the National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) as the nodal agency to manage the river, and financed sewage treatment infrastructure in several riverside towns and cities.

Namami Gange Programme, is an integrated conservation mission, approved as a flagship programme by the Union government. It was launched in May 2015 to accomplish the twin objectives of effective abatement of pollution, conservation and rejuvenation of national river Ganga.

NGRBA was dissolved in 2016, consequent to constitution of National Council for Rejuvenation, Protection and Management of River Ganga (referred as National Ganga Council).

The main pillars of Namami Gange are:

* Sewerage treatment infrastructure

* Riverfront development

* River surface cleaning

* Biodiversity

* Afforestation

* Public awareness

* Industrial effluent monitoring

* Ganga Gram.

In 2019, the ministry of jal shakti was formed by merging ministry of water resources, river development & ganga rejuvenation and ministry of drinking water and sanitation. 

Now, NMCG falls under the department of water resources, river development & ganga rejuvenation in ministry of jal shakti.

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