Lok Sabha Question No. 698 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2016-07-21
Subject: Sewage Treatment for Cleaning Ganga
Ministry: WATER RESOURCES, RIVER DEVELOPMENT AND GANAGA REJUVENATION
Asked by: RAMESH POKHRIYAL NISHANK

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA

## MINISTRY OF WATER RESOURCES,

## RIVER DEVELOPMENT & GANGA REJUVENATION

## LOK SABHA

## UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 698

ANSWERED ON 21.07.2016

## SEWAGE TREATMENT FOR CLEANING GANGA

## †698. DR. RAMESH POKHRIYAL "NISHANK":

Will  the  Minister  of  WATER  RESOURCES,  RIVER  DEVELOPMENT  AND  GANGA  REJUVENATION    be pleased to state:

(a) whether the Government has formulated any time bound action plan in order to monitor disposal of sewage in the river Ganga without treatment;

(b) whether the Union Government has formulated any action plan for better coordination with States;

(c) whether foreign assistance is being sought for ensuring purification, cleaning and free flow of the water of the river Ganga; and

(d) if so, the details thereof?

## ANSWER

## THE MINISTER FOR WATER RESOURCES, RIVER DEVELOPMENT AND GANGA REJUVENATION (SUSHRI UMA BHARTI)

(a) As per NGRBA framework, it is envisaged that no untreated sewage shall be disposed to Ganga by the year 2020. Accordingly Namami Gange programme has been launched which provides necessary actions towards achieving the objective.

(b )As per the National Ganga River Basin Authority (NGRBA) framework, the chief ministers of the 5 states namely Uttarakhand, UP, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal are members of Nationa Ganga River Basin Authority (NGRBA).

In order to seek assistance from these states, the present Government has taken the following steps:

- ii) High  Level  Task  Force  (HLTF)  has  been  formed  with  Chief  Secretaries  from  the  state  government  as members.  Regular  HLTF  meetings  are  held  in  which  necessary  coordinations  desired  from  the  state government are discussed. Till date 5 such meetings of HLTF have been completed.
- iii) 3 NGRBA meetings (namely 4th, 5th and 6th) have been conducted.
- iiii) Chief Secretaries of state government are the members of Empowered Steering Committee (ESC). ESC meetings (10th to 15th) has been conducted in for appraisal of projects.
- ivi) 1st General Body meeting conducted in which all the states participated.
- vi) 6th  and  7th  Governing  Council's  (GC)  meeting  has  been  conducted  in  which  representatives  of  state government participated.
- vii) Additionally, for participatory approach to the Namami Gange programme, various open programmes and workshops are conducted to encourage participation from state government, ULBs and Gram Panchayats. Ganga Manthan, Swachh Ganga Sahbhagita and Swachh Ganga Gramin Sahbhagita programmes have been conducted.

(c) & (d) The currently ongoing 'Namami Gange  Programme' has not received any grant / aid from foreign countries. It is fully funded by Government of India.  However, scheme for cleaning river Ganga, prior to Namami Gange, has availed  financial  assistance  in  the  form  of  developmental  loans  granted  by:  a)  World  Bank  (WB)  amounting  to  1 Billion USD and b) Japan International Corporation Agency (JICA), amounting to Rs. 496.90 Crore.  Also, several countries  has  offered  technical  assistance  for  Namami  Gange  Programme.  At  present,  Germany,  has  committed  3 Million Euro for information, knowledge exchange, capacity building and data management.