International and national environmentalists and experts mull over ensuring the perennial flow of river Ganges at a workshop organised by National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) here on Monday.
The two-day workshop aims to tackle the challenges in terms of management of water quality and quantity in river basins in India. The ways and means for the scientific integrated river basin management were at the core of discussions.
"We are having a workshop on environmental flows assessment as well as the implementation of environmental flow. Environmental flow is the minimum flow which river needs and what is the minimum level of water which should be left in the river, for it to perform its ecological and eco-service functions effectively," said Rajiv Ranjan Mishra, Director-General NMCG.
"In Namami Gange we are committed to ensuring that Ganga is rejuvenated in 'Nirmal Flow' (clean flow) as well as 'Aviral Flow' (perennial flow). So, environmental flow is one of the most important things to make the river perennial," he said.
A guidance document on the 'Assessment of Environmental flows in India' is being developed as a part of the India-EU Water Partnership Action Plan.
"In every state, there is wetland conservation authority so we are trying to strengthen those authorities. Recently, we have taken up a project in Uttar Pradesh. It is a very major project because five Kilometers along both sides of river Ganga in UP is roughly 1000kms long," said Mishra.
Stefan Schmutz, Deputy Head, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna said, "The objective of this workshop is to discuss the possibilities to release ecological flow to the rivers in India. It is a very big question because many ways of life depend directly on water like agriculture depends on water for irrigation, hydropower production depends on water and also fisheries in freshwater eco-system depend on the river which is available in the river. So setting a target of environmental flow is a big issue for the whole society in this country".
Rivers in India are a critical natural resource, crucial for human well-being.