On December 9-14, 2021, the 6th edition of the India Water Impact Summit (IWIS) 2021 was organized by the National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG), and Centre for Ganga River Basin Management and Studies (c-Ganga) in a hybrid mode. Physically it was held at NMCG office, New Delhi and IIT (Indian Institutes of Technology), Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh.
- This 5-day event was themed at ‘River Resources Allocation “Planning and Management at the Regional Level’.
- It was inaugurated by Union Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Ministry of Jal Shakti (MoJS) along with Rajiv Ranjan Mishra, Director General NMCG; and Dr Vinod Tare, Founding Head, c-Ganga.
- It saw the participation of experts from the scientific community across the globe.
Key Points:
i.This year, the Summit enlightened the participants on the complexities and management of all rivers and the water sector in India.
- In this regard, IWIS invited participation of small and large stakeholders in upstream and downstream regions in the context of select Ganga Basin states, namely Delhi, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and West Bengal.
- The summit hosted sessions on Science, Technology & Policy, Finance & Economics, Technology & Innovation, Policy, Law & Governance and International Cooperation.
iii.The international focus of IWIS 2021 was on collaborations with the European Union (EU), Denmark, Netherlands, Norway, US (United States), UK (United Kingdom), Australia and the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) countries.
Signing of Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs):
The IWIS saw the signing of following MoUs:
i.An MoU between NMCG and the Centre for Policy Research (CPR), New Delhi was signed under which both organizations will work together in research and knowledge production activities for rejuvenating rivers in India.
ii.An MoU between cGanga and British Water was also signed to promote the development of 21st century infrastructure in water and the environment sector.
iii.Two MoUs have also been signed with Innovation Centre Denmark and UPS Hungary to encourage knowledge sharing and increase participation of Hungarian industry in the Ganga River Basin Restoration and Conservation Program.
iv.An MoU was also inked between C-Ganga and Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research (NIBIO) for the development of a sludge management framework.
Releases:
Four important releases were launched during the event viz. ‘Uttarakhand River Atlas’; ‘Alaknanda and Bhagirathi River Basin Atlas’; ‘Yamuna River Basin Atlas’ and the ‘Samarth Ganga Report’.
Recent Related News:
MoJS is set to deploy sensor-based IoT (Internet of Things) devices to monitor the implementation of Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) in more than six lakh villages. With this, it aims to monitor the rural drinking water supply systems in villages.
About Ministry of Jal Shakti (MoJS):
Union Minister– Gajendra Singh Shekhawat (Constituency- Jodhpur, Rajasthan)
Ministers of State (MoS)- Prahlad Singh Patel (Constituency- Damoh, Madhya Pradesh); Bishweswar Tudu (Constituency- Mayurbhanj, Odisha)
