• The 62nd Executive Committee (EC) meeting of the National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) was held in New Delhi on May 6. It focused on sustainability in river rejuvenation.

• Conservation of critical wetlands and promoting the reuse of treated wastewater through city specific reuse plans and were deliberated in the meeting.

• The Committee approved projects that align with the mission’s objectives of ecosystem restoration across the Ganga basin. 

• It gave the green light to ‘Conserving and sustainably managing the Nathmalpur Bhagad (wetland)’ project in Bihar’s Bhojpur district was approved for an estimated cost of Rs 3.51 crore. 

• The project will adopt a two-tiered restoration approach, targeting both the sub-basin level — covering the confluences of the Ghaghara, Gomti and the Sone rivers — and the site-specific level to ensure long-term ecological sustainability.

• Earlier wetlands taken up under the programme include the Kalewada Jheel in Muzaffarnagar, Namiya Dah Jheel in Prayagraj and the Reoti Dah wetland in Ballia (all in Uttar Pradesh), and the Udhwa Lake — a Ramsar site — in Sahibganj, Jharkhand.

India’s National River

• The Ganga, one the longest rivers in the world, sustains more than 40 per cent of India’s population. 

• Rising in the Himalayas and flowing in to 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 Mission for Clean Ganga

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

i) 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. 

ii) 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. 

• The government of India launched the Namami Gange Programme (NGP) in 2014-15 for the rejuvenation of river Ganga and its tributaries with a budgetary outlay of Rs 20,000 crore, for five years, up to March 2021 and has been further extended to March 2026 with a budgetary outlay of Rs 22,500 crore.

Key Interventions:

i) Pollution Abatement (Nirmal Ganga): Addressing and reducing the sources of pollution in the river.

ii) Improving Ecology and Flow (Aviral Ganga): Enhancing the ecological health and continuous flow of the river.

iii) Strengthening People-River Connect (Jan Ganga): Fostering a deeper connection between the people and the river through community engagement and awareness.

iv) Facilitating Research and Policy (Gyan Ganga): Promoting diversified research, scientific mapping, studies, and evidence-based policy formulation.

Progress of the Mission:

i) A comprehensive total of 492 projects, valued at Rs 40,121.48 crore, have been launched.

ii) Among these, 307 projects have reached completion and are now operational.

iii) An impressive 206 projects addressing sewage infrastructure have been set in motion.

iv) A substantial fund of 33,003.63 crore has been sanctioned for these sewage infrastructure projects.

v) Of these, 127 sewerage projects have been successfully completed, playing a pivotal role in mitigating pollution.

vi) Additionally, 56 projects dedicated to biodiversity and afforestation have been undertaken.

vii) These projects have received a funding commitment of over Rs 905.62 crore.

viii) Notably, 39 projects focused on biodiversity and afforestation have been successfully concluded, augmenting the ecological equilibrium of the Ganga basin.

• In December 2022, the United Nations recognised Namami Gange as one of the top 10 world restoration flagships to revive the natural world.

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