New Delhi (NVI): National environmental experts and their global peers on October 22 converged at a key Green workshop organised as part of India-EU Water Partnership to find ways and measures for ensuring healthy river ecosystems with the Ganga at the centre of focus.
The two-day workshop, organised by National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) here, aims to discuss e-flows implementation in India and review environmental flows assessment and sustainable river basin management.
Relevant Indian implementers and stakeholders along with national experts and International experts including those from Germany, Austria, United Kingdom, Bhutan, Poland, Netherlands and South Africa were present at the workshop.
The workshop, that will facilitate exchange of Indian, European and other international experiences in river management, has been conceptualised by NMCG along with Indo-German Cooperation as part of the project “Support to Ganga Rejuvenation” (SGR).
As the Chief Guest on the occasion, Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat also released a draft guidance document on the ‘Assessment of Environmental Flows in India’, which is being developed as part of the India-EU Water Partnership Action Plan.
Describing the current scenario of River Ganga, Shekhawat said, “We are committed to protect these lifelines for our future generations. We have the identified aim of Aviral and Nirmal Dhara- continuous and clean flows as our tribute to Mother Ganga and we intend to extend this to all other rivers in the country.”
“Maintaining Environmental-Flows in rivers is very important not only for the country but worldwide since water has become a global challenge. We have to come together and act together to tackle this global challenge,” he added.
“Under the Namami Gange programme, we have been quite serious about maintaining the continuous flow of Ganga. Last year, we recognized the minimum river flow to be maintained and also notified. We have started monitoring for its implementation as well,” said Rajiv Ranjan Mishra, DG, NMCG.
It is increasingly recognized that the goal of attaining healthy river ecosystems can best and most sustainably be reached by integrated environmental management.
In order to advance the successful e-flows implementation in India, this workshop aims to bring Indian, European and international experiences together. A rich variety of cutting- edge topics and expert speakers from various backgrounds serve to promote challenges and solutions regarding e-flows assessment and implementation.
–PS
