Cleaning of Ganga and Yamuna Cleaning of river Ganga was initiated in 1985 under Ganga Action Plan (GAP). The Yamuna Action Plan (YAP) was started in 1993. Various works related to sewerage/interception and diversion of drains, sewage treatment plants (STPs), low cost sanitation/community toilet complexes, electric/improved wood crematoria were taken up. Since pollution problem of river Ganga could not be addressed fully by these interventions, the Government, therefore, revamped the river conservation strategy to promote a holistic and integrated river basin approach. The Central Government has set up the National Ganga River Basin Authority (NGRBA) in 2009 as an empowered planning, financing, monitoring and coordinating authority for the Ganga River, to ensure effective abatement of pollution and conservation of the river Ganga by adopting a holistic approach with the river basin as the unit of planning. Cabinet approved the Namami Gange program on 13th May, 2015 as a comprehensive approach to rejuvenate the river Ganga and all its tributaries under one umbrella by consolidating the existing ongoing efforts and planning for a concrete action plan for the future. The primary focus of the program is on pollution abatement through construction of Sewage Treatment Plants, Common Effluent Treatment Plants, Ghat Development, Solid Waste Management and other activities to prevent contamination of river Ganga. Besides this, the other activities like Bio-diversity conservation, large scale tree plantation, making villages along river Ganga Open Defecation Free (ODF), research studies and public outreach programmes have also been envisaged. No separate scheme for rejuvenation of river Yamuna has been made since the Namami Gange programme includes all the tributaries of Ganga, Yamuna being one of the tributaries is included under the Namami Gange programme. The YAP Phase-III project for Delhi has been approved with an estimated cost of Rs. 1656 crore under the Japan International Cooperation Agency(JICA) assistance for rehabilitation and up-gradation of existing STPs (950 mld) and trunk sewers.Two projects have been sanctioned in Sonepat and Panipat towns at a cost of Rs. 217.87 crore for pollution abatement of river Yamuna. The main project components include construction of new STPs of 70 mld capacity and rehabilitation of existing STPs of 75 mld capacity. The works are being implemented by Public Health Engineering Department (PHED), Haryana. In addition, under Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM), an interceptor sewer project costing Rs. 1357 crore is being implemented by DJB to intercept sewage flowing into river Yamuna from three major drains, namely Najafgarh, Supplementary and Shahdara in Delhi. This information was given by Union Minister for Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation Sushri Uma Bharti in a written reply in Rajya Sabha today. Samir/jk
