Cleaning of six major river basins on cards, govt ropes in 12 institutes to conduct study

Union Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat on Wednesday announced that the government will undertake the work of cleaning six major river basins on the lines of Ganga and has roped in 12 leading technical institutions to conduct extensive studies and formulate management plans for these crucial water bodies.

Building on the achievements of the Ganga River Basin Management Plan, crafted by a consortium of seven IITs led by IIT Kanpur, the government inked agreements with various technical institutes to outline river basin management plans for the Narmada, Godavari, Krishna, Cauvery, Periyar, and the Mahanadi.

These agreements, signed between the institutes and the National River Conservation Directorate (NRCD) under the Ministry of Jal Shakti, signify a joint effort to address the environmental challenges faced by these rivers.

Each river basin management plan will be executed by specific institutions: IIT Raipur and IIT Rourkela for Mahanadi, IIT Indore and IIT Gandhinagar for Narmada, IIT Hyderabad and NEERI Nagpur for Godavari, IISc Bengaluru and NIT Trichy for Cauvery, and IIT Palakkad and NIT Calicut for the Periyar River Basin.

Union Minister Shekhawat, speaking at the event, highlighted that the initiative was first introduced by former President Ram Nath Kovind in 2019 during a joint sitting of Parliament. Kovind emphasized the government’s commitment to cleaning up the rivers and announced the endeavor to work on six river basins at a scale comparable to the Ganga basin.

“This marks the beginning of a new era in river basin management,” Shekhawat stated, emphasizing the need to complete studies of the basins with unprecedented speed and scale. He praised the holistic approach India has taken in addressing water-related issues, citing initiatives related to drinking water, river cleaning, and groundwater recharge as among the largest globally.

The Minister pointed to the Centre for Ganga River Basin Management and Studies, established in 2016 at IIT Kanpur, as the benchmark for the upcoming work in these river basins. He underscored the significance of collaboration between academia and the government for effective river basin management.