Stockholm World Water Week 2022 : NMCG Elaborating On Arth Ganga Concept Through Virtual Session

New Delhi, August 25 National Mission for Clean Ganga organized a virtual session on the first day of the Stockholm World Water Week 2022 (August 24-September 01). The keynote address was given by G. Asok Kumar, Director General, National Mission for Clean Ganga on ‘Arth Ganga: Model for Economic River-People Connect for Sustainable River Rejuvenation using Economic Bridge’. The World Water Week is an annual event organized by Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI) to address the global water issues and related concerns of international development.

Giving his keynote address, G. Asok Kumar, DG, NMCG gave a detailed presentation on Arth Ganga elaborating the Model and the interventions made so far. “Arth Ganga has ushered-in a paradigm shift in the River Basin Management,” Shri Kumar said while highlighting the significance of Arth Ganga.

He said that Arth-Ganga concept, espoused by the Prime Minister during the 1^stNational Ganga Council meeting in 2019 in Kanpur, is being developed into an economic model for sustainable river rejuvenation. The central idea of “Arth Ganga” is linking people and Ganga through the bridge of economics in line with the slogan of “Banking on River Ganga”. “Arth Ganga Model strives to contribute at least 3 percent of the GDP from the Ganga Basin itself”, he informed while also adding that the interventions envisaged and being implemented are in line with the country’s commitments towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Elaborating on the six verticals of Arth Ganga, he said that the most important aspect is Zero Budget Natural Farming that envisages chemical-free farming for 10 kms on either side of the river, generating “more income, per drop”, and ‘Gobar Dhan’ for farmers. “We are planning to promote natural farming in a big way and will be conducting ‘shibirs’ on natural farming in Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh in the coming days to nudge the farmers towards natural farming,” he added, while informing about the recent event in Shirdi, Maharashtra where 30 farmers were facilitated by NMCG to attend the 5-day Subhash Palekar Natural Farming workshop.

He said that collaborations with various ministries and organisations are being made for monetization and reuse of sludge & wastewater that envisages reuse of treated water for irrigation, industrial purposes and revenue generation for ULBs. He cited the example of arrangement with Indian Oil Corporation for selling of treated water from Mathura refinery.

“Livelihood Generation Opportunities such as ‘Ghat Mein Haat’, promotion of local products, Ayurveda, medicinal plants, capacity building of volunteers like Ganga Praharis is also being done under Arth Ganga,” he said, adding, “NMCG plans to launch 75 Jalaj Kendras across the Ganga basin to create livelihood opportunities for the local people, out of which 26 were launched on 16^th August.”

He emphasized on the need for public participation to ensure increased synergies between stakeholders and spoke on various steps being taken to promote cultural heritage & tourism along River Ganga through interventions like boat tourism, community jettis, promotion of yoga, adventure tourism, Ganga Artis etc. “Over 20,000 Ganga Doots have been deployed in different states and associated awareness generation programmes along with the initiatives like ‘Har Hafte Hoga, Ghat Pe Yoga’, ‘Ganga Quest’ and administrative setups like District Ganga Committees, to name a few, have been bringing wondrous results in the direction of success of the Mission,” he added. The last vertical of Arth Ganga is Institutional Building that looks to enhance the local capacities for better decentralized water governance. Shri Kumar said that the Namami Gange Mission has been bringing the unprecedented outcomes as regards attaining the goals of Aviralta and Nirmalta in the river Ganga.