News Wrap : National Ganga River Basin Project

  • The Ganga is India's most important river. Its sprawling basin accounts for one-fourth of the country's water resources and is home to more than 400 million Indians. 
  • As India's holiest river, the Ganga has a cultural and spiritual significance also. It is worshipped as a living goddess, and since time immemorial, people from across the country have come to the many historic temple towns on its banks to pray and bathe in its waters.
  • But due to ever-growing population, inadequately planned urbanization and industrialization,Ganga is slowly dying. Today, the waters of the Ganga are  tainted by sewage, solid and industrial waste generated by human and economic activity along its banks.
  • Only one-third of the sewage generated by the towns and cities on the mainstem of the river is treated; and untreated or poorly treated industrial wastewater is responsible for 20 percent of all wastewater inflows into the river. In fact the Ganga is so severely polluted, especially in its critical middle stretch, that its waters are unfit not just for drinking but even for bathing.
  • Government of India has developed a comprehensive vision for clean-up and conservation of the Ganga, beginning with the establishment of the National Ganga River Basin Authority (NGRBA) in 2009. The NGRBA has the mandate to develop a multi-sectoral program for ensuring that after 2020 no untreated municipal or industrial wastewater will be allowed to flow into the Ganga.
  • The World Bank is supporting the Government of India in its efforts to achieve this national goal.The $1.556 billion National Ganga River Basin Project, with $1 billion in financing from the World Bank Group, including $199 million interest-free IDA credit and $801 million low-interest IBRD loan, was approved by the Bank's Board of Executive Directors on 31 May 2011 and will be implemented over eight years.
  • More about Ganga
Length: 2,525 sq.km
Source:Gaumukh (Gangotri glacier) at 4,100 metres above MSL.
Ganga basin: more than one million sq.km (1,060,000 sq.km).
Drainage area: 861,404 sq.km .
State: 11states - U.P, M.P, Uttarakhand, Rajasthan, Haryana, HimachalPradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Bihar, WestBengal and Delhi.
Rivers: 14Rivers - Betwa, Chambal,Damodar, Gandak, Ganga, Ghaghra, Gomti, Hindon, Kali, Khan, Kosi, Kshipra, Ramganga, and Yamuna.
Population Support:43% of its population (448.3 million as per 2001 census).
Average Rainfall: varies between 39 cm to 200 cm, with an average of 110cm.

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