Namami Gange Programme

Topic: Geographical Issues: Pollution, Urban Waste, Slums and Land Degradation · NCERT: Class 11, Ch 3 "Drainage System"; Class 12, Ch 9 "Geographical Perspective on Selected Issues and Problems"

Meaning

Namami Gange Programme is the Union government's flagship (main) scheme, approved in June 2014, to cut pollution in the Ganga and its tributaries and to conserve and revive (rejuvenate) them. Its tools include sewage treatment, checks on factory waste, river-front work, cleaning the river surface, tree planting, protecting river wildlife, awareness drives and Ganga Grams.

• The Ganga basin holds about 40% of India's population [2], so the river's health affects a very large number of people.
• The programme marks India's shift from cleaning one town at a time to planning for the whole river basin.

Explanation

Why the programme was needed: how the Ganga gets dirty

• City sewage:
• Big towns on the river (Kanpur, Prayagraj, Varanasi, Patna, Kolkata) produce more sewage than their treatment plants can handle.
• Untreated sewage flows into the river through open drains.

• Result: BOD and faecal coliform rise downstream of each city.

• Factory waste (industrial effluent):

• Effluent is waste water let out by factories.

• Kanpur's tanneries (leather units) use chromium salts to tan hides. Their waste water carries chromium, salts and rotting animal matter into the river.

• Too little water:

• The Farakka barrage (a low dam with gates) in West Bengal sends Ganga water into the Bhagirathi–Hooghly.

• Waste builds up in the slow water behind the barrage, and less water flows below it.

• Other sources: cremation, flowers and idols thrown in, mass bathing at fairs, and fertiliser and pesticide washed off farms.

• Earlier efforts fell short:
• GAP-I (1985) slowed the decline in water quality, but its overall success was limited [7].
• GAP worked town by town, and states often did not run or pay for the plants.

Key water-quality terms (used to judge results)

• Dissolved oxygen (DO): the oxygen gas dissolved in water. Fish need it to breathe. More DO means a healthier river.
• Biochemical oxygen demand (BOD): the oxygen that bacteria use up while breaking down waste. A high BOD means a lot of sewage.
• Faecal coliform: bacteria from human and animal gut. Finding them means human waste is in the water.
• Bathing-water standard: BOD ≤ 3 mg/l, DO ≥ 5 mg/l, total coliform 10,000 per 100 ml, faecal coliform 2,500 per 100 ml [2].

Parts of the programme

• Sewerage treatment in towns along the river.
• Monitoring of industrial effluents.
• River-front development: ghats, crematoria and walkways.
• River-surface cleaning: removing floating waste.
• Afforestation (tree planting) along the banks to support biodiversity.
• Ganga Grams: villages on the riverbank that are made free of open defecation and given proper waste disposal.
• Public awareness to stop pollution from rituals.
• Biodiversity: protecting the Gangetic dolphin, gharial, freshwater turtles, otters and native fish [4].
• Dolphin surveys covered 8,507 km on 28 rivers and counted 6,324 Ganges dolphins across India [4].
• India's first Dolphin Rescue Ambulance was launched on 13 January 2026 at the Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun [4].

Newer tools, money and results

• Hybrid annuity model (HAM) for STPs (sewage treatment plants):
• The government pays part of the cost while the plant is being built.
• The rest is paid over 15 years, and only if the plant keeps working well.

• Result: payment is linked to how well the plant performs, not just to building it.

• Ecological flow (e-flow): the minimum amount of water that must stay in a river to keep it alive. The norms were notified in October 2018, and NMCG says they have been enforced [4].

• Arth Ganga: linking the river to the local economy, for example through natural farming, selling sludge and treated water, and tourism.
• Namami Gange Mission-II: approved with ₹22,500 crore till 2026 [3].
• ₹11,225 crore is for older, ongoing projects. ₹11,275 crore is for new projects [3].

• Target: a total sewage treatment capacity of 7,000 MLD (million litres per day) by December 2026 [8].

• Progress: 218 sewerage projects worth ₹35,794 crore, with a capacity of 6,610 MLD, were taken up. 138 STP projects (4,050 MLD) were completed and running [9].

• Results:
• An early round of checks found DO better at 27 locations, BOD at 42 and faecal coliform at 21 [9].
• A later round found DO better at 39 locations. BOD fell at 42 locations and faecal coliform at 47 [10].
• DO has improved overall. But faecal coliform is still above the bathing limit on many stretches, because sewage is still not fully treated.

Where it occurs

• River covered: the Ganga and its tributaries. The Ganga rises as the Bhagirathi from the Gangotri glacier (Gaumukh), at about 4,100 m [2]. It becomes the Ganga at Devprayag, where the Bhagirathi meets the Alaknanda, and flows about 2,525 km to the Bay of Bengal [2].
• States: Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal. These are also the five Ganga Gram states.
• Problem stretches it targets (NCERT Table 9.2): downstream of Kanpur, downstream of Varanasi, and at the Farakka barrage (Murshidabad district, West Bengal).
• Yamuna (the Ganga's longest right-bank tributary):
• The worst reach is the 22 km from Wazirabad to the Okhla barrage in Delhi. Here BOD rises to 4.8–40 mg/l [5].
• Of 22 drains monitored, 14, including Najafgarh, were untapped, meaning their sewage was not caught and treated [5].

• STP works in the Najafgarh drain catchment (Dhansa to Keshopur) were approved at ₹344.81 crore [6].

• Who runs it:

• The National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) carries it out. NMCG is a registered society set up in 2011.

• NMCG is the working arm of the National Ganga Council, formed under the River Ganga (Rejuvenation, Protection and Management) Authorities Order, 2016.

• Year: approved in June 2014. Mission-II runs till 2026 [3].

Don't confuse with

• Ganga Action Plan (GAP-I, 1985): India's first river-cleaning plan. Its main idea was to intercept, divert and treat sewage in 17 towns [2]. It worked town by town. Namami Gange plans for the whole basin and links payment to results through HAM.
• GAP-II (1993): extended the work to the tributaries Yamuna, Gomti, Damodar and Mahananda, in 59 towns across five states [7]. It came before Namami Gange and is not part of it.
• National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG): this is the body (a registered society, 2011) that carries out the programme. It is not the programme itself, and it is not a statutory body (a body created by an Act of Parliament).
• National Ganga River Basin Authority (NGRBA, notified 20 February 2009) [7]: this was the earlier planning authority. The National Ganga Council (2016) replaced it.

Prelims Hooks

• Namami Gange was approved in June 2014. Mission-II has an outlay of ₹22,500 crore till 2026 [3].
• Order of events: GAP-I (1985) → GAP-II and Yamuna Action Plan (1993) → National River (2008) → NGRBA (2009) → NMCG (2011) → Namami Gange (2014) → National Ganga Council (2016) → e-flow notification (October 2018).
• Ganga Grams are in five states: Uttarakhand, UP, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal. Trap: Haryana and Delhi are not included.
• NMCG is a registered society, not a statutory body. It is the implementing arm of the National Ganga Council.
• NCERT's polluted Ganga stretches are downstream of Kanpur, downstream of Varanasi, and the Farakka barrage. Trap: Haridwar and Rishikesh are not on the list.
• Bathing-water standard: BOD ≤ 3 mg/l, DO ≥ 5 mg/l, faecal coliform ≤ 2,500 per 100 ml [2].

Mains Points

• Policy shift from GAP to Namami Gange (GS-III):
• GAP worked town by town and failed because states did not run or pay for the plants.
• Namami Gange plans for the whole basin. It uses HAM, so payment depends on results, and adds e-flow, biodiversity and Arth Ganga.

• It also has a stronger structure under the 2016 Authorities Order.

• Results are mixed:

• DO and BOD have improved at many points [10].
• But untapped drains such as Najafgarh, untreated sewage and STPs running below capacity keep faecal coliform above the bathing limit.
• What is still missing: sewer connections to homes, reuse of treated water and control of factory waste.

• Upstream water is also taken out at Hathnikund and Wazirabad, so in the lean season the Yamuna below Delhi is mostly sewage. Building STPs alone cannot fix this, so e-flow has to be part of the answer.

• Urban link (GS-I):

• River pollution grows with fast urban growth, slums without sewers and weak solid-waste management.
• So Namami Gange works together with the Swachh Bharat Mission and AMRUT in any answer on urban waste.

Related concepts

• Ganga pollution
• Yamuna pollution
• Ganga Action Plan
• National Mission for Clean Ganga

Read more

• The Ganga and the Yamuna: polluted stretches and river cleaning