Cleaning Ganga: Now, IITs jump to the rescue

For the first time, seven Indian Institutes of Technology will prepare a comprehensive river basin management plan for Ganga. The plan is being prepared for the National Ganga River Basin Authority (NGRBA) which is headed by the Prime Minister and includes riparian state chief ministers besides relevant union ministers and officials.

The plan will outline comprehensive measures for restoration of the Ganga, with regard to the issue of competing water uses in the river basin.

The Union environment and forests minister, Jairam Ramesh told TOI, “This is an important early step in our Mission Clean Ganga, which aims to ensure that no untreated sewage enters the river by the year 2020. I am happy that the IIT consortium has been given this task. It is for the first time that a consortium of 7 IITs is coming together for a project of this magnitude and importance. An important co-benefit of this project will be the opportunity it will give young Indian scientists to apply their technical skills to a project of such national importance, while further honing their abilities”.

The seven IITs involved comprise Kanpur, Delhi, Madras, Bombay, Kharagpur, Guwahati and Roorkee and the consortium will be lead by IIT Kanpur.

While earlier the Union Ganga River Basin Authority was looking upon international agencies to produce the plan which would include not only a blueprint of the sewage systems along the basin but also the dams that are being planned, the joint bid by IIT swung it in favour of Indian engineers. The river basin plan will aim to have adequate provision for water and energy in the Ganga basin to accommodate the pressures of increased population,
urbanization, industrialization and agriculture while ensuring the sanctity of the fundamental aspects of the river system are protected. The twin demands of perennial flow and clean waters would be the two benchmarks to be met.

The plan is to be submitted to the government within a year. For the purpose, the IITs have decided to work along several thematic sections including environmental science and engineering, water resources engineering, fluvial geomorphology, ecology and biodiversity, socio-cultural aspects, legislative aspects, institutional capacity building and public participation, etc.