Rejuvenating Ganga in Uttarakhand

The town of Chamoli, situated at an altitude of 4,600 feet above sea level, is set amidst astounding scenic beauty.

The adjoining Garhwal Himalayas and the Alaknanda River give it a heavenly appearance.

This beauty, however, places greater responsibility on those in charge to maintain its pristine character.

It is absolutely essential to keep the river clean as it is one of the two headstreams of the Ganga River.

Shiv Prasad Khanduri, a resident of Gram Kuhed in Chamoli said, "An appreciable job has been done by the 'Namami Gange' program under the Central Government. The STPs that have been built are operational now. Also, small water conservators have been built in our village. For rural women and for each household in our area a tub, a spade and a dustbin have been provided under the 'Namami Gange' initiative. It is a very good project by the government."

Swati S. Bhadoriya, District Magistrate of Chamoli said, "Chamoli district is situated on the banks of the Alaknanda. To prevent the river from becoming polluted, 17 sewerage treatment plants are being constructed. Most of them are already operational. Many riverfronts and ghats in Karanprayag, Nandprayag and Chamoli have been built. Through the construction of STPs and riverfronts, our objective of 'Pure Ganga' has been accomplished to a great extent".

Keeping in view the terrain and the localities, many STPs with low capacities have either been built or are under construction in the region.

Rajiv Ranjan Mishra, Director General of National Mission for Clean Ganga said, "Uttarakhand is very special because that is the origin of the river. Unless you keep it very pristine there will be no chance in the plain area. So, that is why we have not left even a small town, habitation."

"Chamoli is still bigger, even much smaller towns in Uttarkhand we have actually taken up our programme of construction of STPs and also improving the river banks. So, Chamoli, we have around 4.5 MLD STPs under construction and we hope to complete them in the next three to four months," he added.

The NMCG is also laying emphasis on the development of ghats and riverfronts in Uttarakhand to cater to a large number of tourists and devotees.

Many project goals have been met and remaining are on the verge of completion.

Rozy Agarwal, Director (Finance) at National Mission for Clean Ganga said, "In Uttarakhand, the National Mission for Clean Ganga has sanctioned 34 projects out of which 23 projects of sewerage treatment have been completed and the other projects are at the first stages of implementation and grounding."

"All these projects have a total cost of around Rs 1100 crores and out of which, Rs 500 crores of expenditure has been done on these projects. Apart from these, we have also taken up projects of ghat development and crematoria development in various parts of Uttarakhand," Agarwal added.

Along with the projects undertaken by NMCG, efforts are being made to involve the people of Uttarakhand in cleaning the Ganga through various awareness programmes.

The hard work has paid off. Now, there is not only a tangible change in the state but also the people are motivated to work for a cleaner Ganga.