Relook at ‘Namami Gange’

What is the issue?

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently inaugurated India’s first multi-modal terminal on the Ganga river at Varanasi.
• In this context, the government's approach in ‘Namami Gange’ (National Mission for Clean Ganga) raises serious environmental concerns.

What are the concerns?

• Lack of proper impact assessment due to development activities in the Ganga basin has resulted in deterioration of river Ganga.
• Reports and statements from various official sources including the CAG and NGT suggest the deteriorating nature of Ganga river.
• The government is, in fact, doing a lot that adversely affects the river.
• These include the

1. continued onslaught of hydropower projects
2. inter-linking of rivers, waterways, dredging, river front development
3. Char Dham Highway
4. even Swachh Bharat Abhiyan

• Unsustainable sand mining, river encroachments and extraction of groundwater and other resources are continuing at increasing rates.

What should be done?

• Government has to come up with a credible road map, and set up pilots.
• It should ensure that existing sewage and industrial effluent treatment plants work as per design, and also set up decentralised STPs (sewage treatment plant).
• Eco-friendly treatment options should be opted.
• The government should also take steps to reduce sugarcane cultivation and promote water-saving and yield-enhancing cultivation methods.
• These efforts, if taken, could have helped improve the state of flow in the Ganga river.
• Above all, the government must make river governance democratic, with clearly defined norms of transparency, participation and accountability.

Source: BusinessLine