In conformity with the demands of environmentalists and social organisations, the government today decided to declare Ganga as a national river and also to set up a high-powered Ganga River Basin Authority to protect the most revered river in the country from further pollution and other degradation.

The decision was taken at a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to review the Ganga Action Plan. Ministers of water resources, environment and forests and urban development attended the meeting.

Among major rivers in India, Ganga has the longest stretch and is also one of the most polluted in terms of biochemical oxygen demand load.

It is also one of the rivers most threatened by climate change, according to the IPCC report.

The river continues to be polluted despite the government till date spening a huge amount on pollution control projects.

Under the new plan, current piecemeal efforts will be replaced with a new model that will see the river as an ecological entity and address issues of quantity in terms of water flows along with its quality.

With this, Ganga becomes India’s first national river with a separate river basin authority to monitor its cleanliness.

The proposed authority will be chaired by the Prime Minister and will have as its members chief ministers of the states through which the 2,510 km river flows.

According to the PMO, the Prime Minister strongly stressed the need to set up a model for cleaning of rivers through the new institutional mechanism.

“It was decided that there is a need to replace the current piecemeal efforts taken up in a fragmented manner in select cities with an integrated approach that sees the river as an ecological entity and addresses issues of quantity in terms of water flows along with issues of quality,” the PMO said.

The details of the authority to be vested with appropriate powers would be worked out in consultation with state governments and Central ministries.

The proposed authority will promote intersectoral coordination for comprehensive planning for the river.

Various agencies working on different aspects of river conservation and pollution management will be brought together under it.

In the meeting, the Prime Minister referred to the special place Ganga has in hearts and minds of all Indians and stated that this emotional link needs to be recognised.

It was also recognised that the spirit of the Ganga Action Plan, as conceived in 1985 by then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi of making the cleaning of the Ganga a people’s movement, should be restored.

The Prime Minister also directed that detailed final proposals would be prepared within two months after necessary consultations.

Ganga begins at the Gangotri glacier in Uttarakhand and drains into the Bay of Bengal through its vast delta in Sunderbans. Official figures suggest that it receives about 5,044 million litres a day (MLD) of sewage.

Of this only about 1,095 MLD passes through sewage treatment plants (STPs) at different places while bulk of pollutants remain untreated.

Environmentalists and religious organisations have been stepping up efforts to save the Ganga.

Recently, a delegation led by Shankaracharya Swami Swaroopanand Saraswati and Magsaysay award winner Rajendra Singh also met the Prime Minister, pressing for making the Ganga a national river.