Indo German Agreement on Namami Gange Signed

An agreementhas been signed for Ganga Rejuvenation under the Namami Gange Programme in New Delhi, between the Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation and German International Cooperation.

• The agreement was signed in the presence of the German Ambassador to India, Martin Ney and Secretary, and Shashi Shekhar, Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation
• The initial activities will focus on Uttarakhand, with scope of expansion to other states along the upstream stretch of the river.

The objective of the agreement:

• The MoU enable to implement integrated river basin management for the rejuvenation of the river Ganga in line with the successful river basin management strategies used for Rhine and Danubeat national and state levels.
• This will be based on practical experience on strategic river basin management issues, effective data management system and public engagement of both the sides.
• The project duration is three years from 2016 to 2018 and the German contribution in the project will be Rs. 22.5 crore.

Namami Gange Scheme:

• Namami Gange programme, is a flagship Programme of Government of India to decrease river pollution and conserve the river.
• This project aims at Ganga Rejuvenation by combining the existing ongoing efforts and planning under it to create a concrete action plan for future.
• The Ganges basin is about 200 to 400 miles (322 to 644 km) wide. It is the largest river basin in India in terms of catchment area which is spread over 11 states that constitutes 26% of the country’s land mass and supports about 43% of its population.