Speed Post News Network
New Delhi : The National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) partnered with UN Habitat to organize a policy dialogue- ‘Urban Cafe: River for Habitat’ in New Delhi on the occasion of World Cities Day 2018 on October 31, 2018. Experts in the sector got together to discuss the deep association that rivers have with various aspects of human civilization – our cities, economy and various facets of daily lives, the challenges to maintaining healthy river ecosystems and ways to deal with the same.
Addressing the inaugural session, U P Singh Secretary, Ministry of Water Resources, River Development & Ganga Rejuvenation, expressed concern about people’s weakening connect with rivers in the modern times and the bad health of many of our rivers. He said that no untreated sewage of industrial effluent should be allowed to flow into rivers, there should be no dumping of solid waste on flood plains, and there should be focus on increasing water usage efficiency in agriculture and reducing extraction of groundwater. This will lead to better river health, he said.
Speaking on the occasion DG, NMCG, Rajiv Ranjan Mishra detailed the measures being taken by his organization for cleaning Ganga. He said, “Today, the challenge we face is urbanisation vis.a.vis rivers. A survey carried out on the main-stem of Ganga has identified 97 towns contributing to sewage/industrial pollution in the rivers.” Elaborating on the measures taken by NMCG to address these issues, Mishra said that innovations such as One City One Operator, Hybrid Annuity Model, 15 year Operations & Maintenance of sewerage infrastructure projects have been introduced. He also talked about the Urban River Management Plan developed by the Consortium of 7 IITs and emphasised that the connect between river and people is essential since the community needs to be involved as stakeholders to monitor the health of the river.
Yuri Afanasiev, UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Representative in India said, “Water is to this century, what oil was to the 20th century”, according to a PIB release.