‘Making Water Sensitive Cities in Ganga Basin’ initiative Launched

A new capacity-building initiative is launched on ‘Making water sensitive cities in Ganga basin’ under the National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG).

About the initiative

The initiative is launched by National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) in association with the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE).
This is the first of its kind capacity-building program for river conservation.
It is aimed at improving river health/flows.
It is Water Sensitive Urban Design and Planning (WSUDP) program.
This initiative is part of the series of ongoing efforts by NMCG which aim to ensure the convergence of the NamamiGange Mission with national flagship urban missions (AMRUT, Smart Cities, Swachh Bharat Mission, HRIDAY, NULM) and some other missions (AtalBhujalYojana, JalJeevan Mission, Jal Shakti Abhiyan) at state /city level across Ganga basin states.
The key focus areas of the program will be:

The aim of the program is capacity building and action research for promoting sustainable urban water management for improved river health in Ganga basin cities.
Under the initiative, there will be more than 40 training programs that are supported with the development of learning material/ practitioner’s guides and spread over 3 years.
This will include residential training, field visits, online training, and webinars, etc.
Initially, the project will be implemented in the 3-4 pilot cities in the Ganga basin.
Technical support will be provided to the urban local bodies (ULBs).

Water Sensitive Urban Design and Planning (WSUDP)

It is an emerging urban development paradigm that is aimed to minimize hydrological impacts of urban development on the environment.
This includes methods of planning and designing the urban areas for optimum utilization of water, to reduce the harm caused to rivers and creeks.
It focuses on the entire management of water systems (drinking water, stormwater run-off, waterway health, sewerage treatment, and recycling).

National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG)

National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) is registered as a society under the Societies Registration Act 1860.
It was established in 2011.
It acts as implementation arm of National Ganga River Basin Authority (NGRBA) that was formed under the Environment (Protection) Act (EPA),1986.
The Act envisages five tier structure as below:
- National Ganga Council under chairmanship Prime Minister
- Empowered Task Force (ETF) on river Ganga under chairmanship of Jal Shakti (Department of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation).
- National Mission for Clean Ganga(NMCG)
- State Ganga Committees and
- District Ganga Committees