Lok Sabha Question No. 801 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2016-07-21
Subject: Namami Ganga Yojana
Ministry: WATER RESOURCES, RIVER DEVELOPMENT AND GANAGA REJUVENATION
Asked by: DUSHYANT CHAUTALA, MEENAKASHI LEKHI

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF WATER RESOURCES, RIVER DEVELOPMENT & GANGA REJUVENATION

## LOK SABHA

## UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 801 ANSWERED ON 21.07.2016

## NAMAMI GANGA YOJANA

## 801. SHRI DUSHYANT SINGH SHRIMATI MEENAKASHI LEKHI

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

(a) the details of initiatives and projects being undertaken under the Namami Ganga Programme;

(b) the present status of the implementation of the Namami Ganga Yojana by the Government;

(c)  the  details  of  the  fund  allocated  and  utilized  under  this  project  since  its  inception  and  the achievement made thereunder;

(d) the details of the decrease in pollution level of the river Ganga presently in comparison to the levels of 2014 and earlier; and

(e)  the  details  of  the  mechanism  to  monitor  the  implementation  of  this  project  in  the  concerned States?

## ANSWER

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

(a) In view of the shortcomings in the approach followed in earlier Programme for cleaning river Ganga, it was felt necessary that a new holistic approach based on river basin as the unit of planning and institutional redesign needs to be adopted. Further in 2014, Namami Gange (Integrated Ganga Conservation Mission / Programme under National Ganga River Basin Authority) programme was introduced.  Namami  Gange  mission,  envisaged  as  an  umbrella  programme,  aims  at  integrating previous &  currently ongoing initiatives by enhancing efficiency, extracting synergies and supplementing them with more comprehensive & better coordinated interventions.

(b) As on 30th June 2016, 97 projects has been sanctioned under Namami Gange programme (including the existing projects sanctioned under NGRBA programme) in 53 towns at an estimated project  cost  of  Rs  8588.21  Crore.  Out  of  these  12  projects  are  sanctioned  exclusively  under  new components of Namami Gange programme with a sanctioned cost of Rs 351.42 Crore. Out of 97 projects, 32 are completed. The break-up of the projects are given below:

- Sewerage  and  Sanitation:  58  project  are  sanctioned  to  create  808.23  MLD  new  STP  and rehabilitation  of  1089.00  MLD  of  STP  and  laying  /  rehabilitation  of  3627.15  Km  sewer network. Out of these 7 projects are completed which created 126.5 MLD of STP and laid 833.24 km of sewerage network
- River  Front  Development  (RFD):  28  RFD  projects  which  include  creation  of  Ghats, Crematoria,  Public  and  River  interface  and  promenade.  Out  of  these  24  project  are completed.
- 3 projects on Water quality Monitoring of river Ganga
- 2 projects on Ganga Knowledge Centre;
- 1  projects  on  Educating  Schools  and  communities  for  conserving  habitat  of  Ganga  river Dolphin;
- 1 projects on DPR preparation for 'Forestry Intervention for river Ganga'. Completed.
- 1 project on Assessment of Water Quality and Sediment Analysis to understand the special property of river Ganga;
- 1 project on Assessment of fish & fisheries of the Ganga river system for developing suitable conservation & restoration plan
- 1 project on Rural Sanitation initiatives for Ganga Rejuvenation in Jharkhand-UNDP
- 1 projects Biodiversity Conservation and Ganga Rejuvenation given to WII

Apart from above, the other initiatives taken include:

- 'River  Surface  and  Ghat  Cleaning'  programme  using  thrash  skimmer  has  been  taken  up initially in 6 cities namely Mathura-Vrindavan, Kanpur, Allahabad, Varanasi, Patna and New Delhi under the Namami Gange programme.
- 5 central public sector units namely WAPCOS, EIL, NBCC, NPCC, EPIL have been recently engaged to carry out of work on condition Assessment & Feasibility Study and Entry level activities under Namami Gange Programme in their respective river stretches in Uttarakhand, UP,  Bihar,  Jharkhand  and  West  Bengal.  59  towns  have  been  surveyed  so  far  and  27  prefeasibility  reports  prepared  and  received.  The  other  activities  taken  up  under  entry  level activities  include  repair  and  modernization  of  Ghats,  provision  of  public  amenities,  village level  drain  (VLD)  treatment,  repair  and  modernization  of  crematoria  etc.  1242  ghats,  369 crematoria and 411 VLDs identified so far from the surveys and out of these 191 Ghats and 64 Crematoriums are recommended by ESC till date.
- The Government has decided the implement waste management in the towns/cities along the river  in  order  to  prevent  the  city  drains  from  discharging  into  the  river  Ganga.  The Government plans to include Private players under Hybrid Annuity arrangement to ensure effective  and  regular  sewage  management.  The  Government  has  invited  Expression  of Interest from innovative technology providers for taking up demonstration projects on insitu treatment of drains discharging into river Ganga.
- A project on  ghat cleaning at Varanasi has been entrusted to Varanasi Nagar Nigam at an estimated cost of Rs. 5 crore per year
- Re-habilitation and up-gradation of existing STPs;
- Creation of Rural sanitation facility in identified 1657 Gram Panchayats along river Ganga has been taken up with support from Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation. The 24.58 % of  Indian  House  Hold  Latrines  (IHHLs)  have  been  completed  till  end  of  June  2016.  979 villages of the total 4257 villages  along  Ganga declared as Open Defecation Free villages. Letter of Authority for Rs.263 Crore has been  has been issued to MDWS.
- UNDP has been engaged for rural sanitation initiatives for Ganga rejuvenation Jharkhand for (a) improved sanitation, b) sanitation linked livelihood activities, c) capacity building in 78 villages along Ganga in Jharkhand.
- The  guidelines  for  the  development  of  Ganga  Grams  (including  activities  pertaining  to IHHLs, decentralized waste treatment, awareness creation, capacity building etc.) has been published and distributed
- Forest  Research  Institute  (FRI)  Dehradun  was  engaged  for  development  of  a  DPR  on 'Forestry Interventions for Ganga Rejuvenation'. The main objective of the DPR is to make plantation in such a manner so that river flow may be improved and a biological feeder is created. In the 1st phase for the year 2016-17, 2700 hectare of plantation along banks of river Ganga  has  been  recommended  by  ESC  based  upon  the  annual  plan  of  operation  (APO) received from Forest Departments of the concerned 5 states along ganga. Out of these 1580 hectare  of  plantation  (with  special  focus  on  medicinal  plants)  will  be  made  in  Uttarkhand alone.
- Real time monitoring of water quality at specific locations along river Ganga in association with CPCB Real Time Effluent Monitoring Stations installed in 508 out of 764 GPI
- IIT  consortium  has  been  entrusted  the  work  of  development  of  urban  river  management action plans for different towns.
- DPR  prepared  for  construction  of  100  MLD  CETP  at  Jajmau  to  tackle  waste  load  from tannery  industries;  DPR  being  prepared  for  CETP  for  textile  5  textile  clusters  at  Ruma, Farrukabad, Bhadohi, Pilkhuwa & Mathura.
- Expression of Interest (EOI) has been invited to evolve innovative technologies to treat drains discharging into river Ganga
- Further other action points like development of model dhobi ghats, public amenities in char DhamYatra and Ganga Sagar, conservation of diversity of Gangetic aquatic life are also taken up on priority to improve the health of river.
- (c) the details of the fund allocated and utilized under this project since its inception is as below:
- (d) The decrease in pollution level of River Ganga is observed as under;
- Water  quality  monitoring  of  river  Ganga  is  being  carried  out  by  CPCB  from  Gangotri  to Diamond Harbour at 57 locations.
- The river water quality is conforming to the bathing criteria for DO at most of the locations from 2011 to 2015.
- The status of compliance of bathing water quality criteria is depicted below:

| Funds allocated and spent so far on Cleaning of Ganga since inception of National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) till 13.07.2016   | Funds allocated and spent so far on Cleaning of Ganga since inception of National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) till 13.07.2016   | Funds allocated and spent so far on Cleaning of Ganga since inception of National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) till 13.07.2016   | Funds allocated and spent so far on Cleaning of Ganga since inception of National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) till 13.07.2016   |
|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|                                                                                                                                    |                                                                                                                                    |                                                                                                                                    | Rs. In crore                                                                                                                       |
| FY                                                                                                                                 | BE                                                                                                                                 | RE                                                                                                                                 | Actual Expenditure by Govt. of India                                                                                               |
| 2011-12                                                                                                                            | 500.00                                                                                                                             | 216.61                                                                                                                             | 192.58                                                                                                                             |
| 2012-13                                                                                                                            | 512.50                                                                                                                             | 193.50                                                                                                                             | 191.52                                                                                                                             |
| 2013-14                                                                                                                            | 355.00                                                                                                                             | 309.00                                                                                                                             | 303.95                                                                                                                             |
| 2014-15                                                                                                                            | 2,137.00                                                                                                                           | 2,053.00                                                                                                                           | 326.00                                                                                                                             |
| 2015-16                                                                                                                            | 2,750.00                                                                                                                           | 1,650.00                                                                                                                           | 1,632.00                                                                                                                           |
| 2016-17                                                                                                                            | 2,500.00                                                                                                                           |                                                                                                                                    |                                                                                                                                    |
| TOTAL                                                                                                                              | 8,754.50                                                                                                                           | 4,422.11                                                                                                                           | 2,646.05                                                                                                                           |

|      | No. of manual monitoring locations   | No. of manual monitoring locations             | No. of manual monitoring locations   | No. of manual monitoring locations   | No. of manual monitoring locations                      | No. of manual monitoring locations   |
|------|--------------------------------------|------------------------------------------------|--------------------------------------|--------------------------------------|---------------------------------------------------------|--------------------------------------|
| Year | Data available                       | Meeting the bathing criteria for BOD (<3 mg/l) | % compliance                         | Data available                       | Meeting the bathing criteria for FC (<2500 MPN/ 100 ml) | % compliance                         |
| 2011 | 53                                   | 29                                             | 54.72                                | 54                                   | 20                                                      | 37.04                                |
| 2012 | 55                                   | 28                                             | 50.91                                | 49                                   | 17                                                      | 34.69                                |
| 2013 | 55                                   | 30                                             | 54.55                                | 46                                   | 20                                                      | 43.48                                |
| 2014 | 50                                   | 28                                             | 56.00                                | 40                                   | 11                                                      | 27.50                                |
| 2015 | 54                                   | 34                                             | 62.96                                | 43                                   | 15                                                      | 34.88                                |

The data analysis reveals that the compliance in respect of BOD is improving however the compliance of Fecal Coliform is decreasing.

The  primary  water  quality  criteria  for  bathing  reaches  in  rivers  notified  by  ministry  of environment & forests (MoEF & CC) is given in Annexure-I .

(e)  Effective  monitoring  of  the  activities  is  important.  Programme,  National  Ganga  Monitoring Centre (NGMC) is proposed to be set up under Namami Gange Programme to address the challenges of  weak  mechanisms  for  monitoring,  lack  of  a  central  platform  for  data  collection  and  analysis, inefficient use of state-of-the-art technologies for monitoring, etc.A Memorandum of Agreement was signed with National Remote Sensing Centre and Bhuvan- Ganga web portal & mobile app. BhuvanGanga web portals being used as a tool to support decision making and planning.

As per the NGRBA framework, the central government is responsible for appraising of projects and releasing of necessary fund for project implementation. The projects are monitored by the respective stateState  Project  Management Groups (SPMGs) namely; Uttarakhand, U.P, Bihar, Jharkhand and West  Bengal  and  submit  monthly  physical  progress  report  to  National  Mission  for  Clean  Ganga (NMCG).

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## Annexure referred to in reply of Lok Sabha starred Question No.801 due for reply on 21.07.2016

Annexure-I

## PRIMARY WATER QUALITY CRITERIA FOR BATHING REACHES IN RIVERS IS NOTIFIED BY MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENT & FORESTS (MOEF)

| CRITERIA                                                                     | RATIONALE                                                                                                                                                                                                                                |
|------------------------------------------------------------------------------|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 1. Faecal Coliform (MPN/100ml): 500 (desirable) 2500 (Maximum Permissible)   | To ensure low sewage contamination. Faecal coliform and faecal streptococci are considered as they reflect the bacterial pathogenicity.                                                                                                  |
| 2. Faecal Streptococci(MPN/100ml): 100 (desirable) 500 (Maximum Permissible) | The desirable and permissible limits are suggested to allow for fluctuation in environmental conditions such as seasonal changes, changes in flow conditions etc.                                                                        |
| 3. pH : Between 6.5-8.5                                                      | The range provides protection of the skin and delicate organs like eyes, nose, ears, etc. which are directly exposed during outdoor bathing.                                                                                             |
| 4. Dissolved Oxygen (mg/l) : 5 or more                                       | The minimum dissolved oxygen concentration of 5 mg/l ensures reasonable freedom from oxygen consuming organic pollution immediately U/s which is necessary for preventing production of anaerobic gases (obnoxious gases) from sediments |
| 5. Biochemical Oxygen (mg/l) Demand 3 day, 27 o C : 3 or less                | The Biochemical Oxygen Demand of 3 mg/l or less of the water ensures reasonable freedom from oxygen demanding pollutants and prevent production of obnoxious gases.                                                                      |

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