Paper: GS – II, Subject: Governance, Topic: Government Policies, Issue: Significance of the Yamuna cleaning initiative.
Context:
Delhi’s Yamuna cleaning initiative highlights potential to leverage this effort through the Namami Gange Programme (NGP) for broader river rejuvenation across India.
Key Highlights:
Policy Alignment:
The Yamuna cleaning project benefits from being part of the Namami Gange Programme (NGP). This allows for reciprocal learning and could shape a comprehensive policy ecosystem for rejuvenating India’s rivers.
About the Namami Gange Programme:
- Launched in 2014 as a flagship programme of the Government of India.
- Achievements:
- Improved water quality and ecological status of the Ganga.
- Return of keystone species like Gangetic dolphins.
- Clean and pure Maha Kumbh and enhanced biodiversity.
Key features:
- Institutionalisation: Shift from the Ganga Action Plan to a more robust institutional model.
- Basin approach: NGP uses a river basin approach, informed by a knowledge plan from the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and European models like the Rhine River restoration in Germany.
- Governance shift: Shift from regulatory approach (Environment Ministry) to executive-led approach (Ministry of Jal Shakti).
- Execution: National Ganga Council (NGC):
- Headed by the Prime Minister.
- Includes Chief Ministers of riparian states and 10 Union Ministers.
- Functions through empowered task forces and director-general with regulatory powers.
- Incorporating sub-national governments: Subnational governments’ role is crucial in NGP. It involves State-level Ganga committees, District-level committees and Inter-governmental coordination.
- Mission mode approach: Emphasis on pollution abatement and ecological restoration.
Challenges with Delhi’s Yamuna:
- Unique situation: Entire cleaning initiative stretch lies within Delhi city.
- Weak Urban governance: Urban governance model lacks traditional river basin coordination mechanisms.
- Siloed approach: Urban agencies often work in silos, limiting the effectiveness of river rejuvenation.
- Limited participation: Participation by urban local bodies (ULBs) remains weak especially in the rural region of Delhi.
| Global Case Studies: Europe took decades to implement transboundary river frameworks.For e.g., the International Commission for the Protection of the Rhine (ICPR) helped transform Rhine River quality after the Sandoz disaster (1986).India can draw from these for inter-jurisdictional cooperation and shared river basin governance. |
Conclusion:
Delhi’s Yamuna project should be seen not in isolation but as part of integrated river systems. Namami Gange Programme (NGP) can use this as an opportunity to build an institutional ecosystem across river systems. It urges a shift from localised efforts to coordinated, systemic collaboration for India’s rivers.
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