The rejuvenation of the Ganga River in India

The Ganga River is the source of livelihood for over 450 million people in India. Yet, despite its importance, the river and many of its tributaries, such as the Ramganga river, are heavily polluted, overexploited, and disturbed in their environmental flows, impeding the provisions of key ecosystem services. Additionally, the groundwater resources in the Ganga Basin are threatened due to uncontrolled usage, mining activities and increases in surface sealing.

To face these problems, the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) is supporting the Indian government programme "Namami Gange" with the project “Support to Ganga Rejuvenation”. The programme has the the aim of restoring the river to its natural and pristine condition. For that, District Ganga Committees (DGC) have been constituted along the main stem of river Ganga to take measures to prevent, control and combat pollution of the river Ganga and to ensure continuous adequate flow of water. adelphi has been commissioned by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) to support the respective DGCs in the development of district water plans. In detail, the objectives of the service are:

• preparation of two district plans with gender-sensitive planned measures for implementation by respective DGCs in two districts in the Ramganga basin
• development of a guidance document in the form of a practical handbook for District Planning, based upon the process adopted for the preparation of district plans.
• to provide Technical support to DGCs for upscaling and implementation of District Ganga Plans by means of workshops