GRBMP 2nd Newsletter_Final.pdf - GANGAPEDIA

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governance problems cannot be addressed using the policy and institutional ‘fixes’ either, as they cannot resolve such problems rooted in the ‘political bottom‐line’. In other words, the problems rooted in the adverse balance of political‐economic powers acting against the goals set for the governance of the sector can be resolved only through political action by the sections of society supporting the goals set for governance. Based on this, a related report presents an analysis of the ground‐level situation of the sewage conveyance and treatment systems in the Kanpur city in the state of Uttar Pradesh. The objective is to bring out important policy and governance related lacunas in the sector, causing continued release of partially treated or untreated sewage and faecal‐matter in the river Ganga. This report broadly follows the template presented in the first report of the group and provides background information on Kanpur with the focus on the activities of the Ganga Action Plan (Phase I and II) in the city. The findings focus on different deficiencies in the performance of the sewage system in the city of Kanpur. Further, it presents the review and analysis of various major Policy Instruments (PIs), the in‐depth analysis of the lacunas in the Governing Agencies (GAs) and provides a set of recommendations with a three‐pronged strategy. Studies on Environmental Clearance of Hydro Power Projects: Hydropower development as an activity, involves many stakeholders ranging from the state to the people and from commercial developers to the environmentalists, and their differential and often contradictory perspectives and interests. Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and Environmental Clearance (EC) for the government is a management tool that can show a pathway to achieve developmental goals without compromising environmental protection objective; for developers it is an essential procedural requirement to initiate project activities and for environmental activists and project affected people the only way to safeguard their interests. The first report pertaining to this aspect has systematically mapped the institutional structure for environmental governance in India and especially highlights the critical perspectives from the civil society angle. It has brought out the misalignment of goals and expectations from the EIA‐EC process that leads to violations of policies, bringing out the limitations of the existing institutional frameworks, procedures and implementation. The second report analyzes one important step in EC ‐the Public Hearing and Consultation (PC) process‐ which is mandatory for hydropower projects to ensure transparency, accountability and participation. It is an important vehicle in democratic environmental decision making by developing an arena where the views and suggestions of public are incorporated. Eight case studies of projects sampled for both the main tributaries of River Ganga (Bhagirathi and Alaknanda) were undertaken to understand the issues that illustrated the lacunas in the present PC process. Both reports provide a set of recommendations meant to be widely debated by all stakeholders to arrive at consensus solutions to this major issue threatening Aivarla Qaara of the river. Studies on Legal Aspects: The reports dealing with legal aspects analyze the legislations at the central and state levels, with specific reference to the portion of the state of West Bengal in Ganga River Basin. It is noted that these legislations have been enacted with different objectives and at different times, and have created provisions regarding the prevention and conservation of river resources. The processes like irrigation, preservation and distribution of the waters, issues of sanitation, water pollution, etc. have been addressed under these acts. All relevant acts, notifications, have been described and briefly discussed providing a preliminary analysis. N C Narayanan, Group Leader and Associate Professor, IIT Bombay Geo‐spatial Database Management (GDM): Under the Ganga River Basin Environment Management Plan (GRB EMP), different thematic groups have been identified that work together for achieving the goals of the project. A key component that binds all the groups together is the Geo‐spatial Database Management (GDM) group. This group is responsible for handling the data needs of all the other groups, and is therefore, central to the entire project. The main task of the group is to set up a data repository that stores and manages all information produced and used by scientists and researchers linked with the project. A geo‐spatial database server running at the backend provides much of the capabilities including data upload/download facilities, security, access control rights, querying and visualization. A GIS frontend has been created that allows different map layers to be overlaid, visualized, and downloaded. A new portal, http://www.gangalaya.in/, has been registered that serves as the entry point to the database. Facilities have also been put in place for common users to browse and download certain data. Harish Karnick, Group Leader and Professor, IIT Kanpur
Communication (COM): To achieve the goal of communication, mass awareness and information dissemination amongst the people, a websites namely, Gangapedia was launched. The English version of Gangapedia (GP) website (http://www.gangapedia.in) was first launched in July 2010, as the common public platform for public at large to interact, express, share and discuss their views and opinions. Though the quantum of data on the river system is voluminous, there are numerous lacunae in the information that still needs to be plugged. The repository of data and information should be such which is easily accessible and understandable by anyone. The group has come up with Cmaps which are pictorial representations easy to comprehend at a quick glance by anyone. The immense amount of data generated by many institutions and organizations is being visualized in the form of these knowledge based models. They form a very powerful visualization tool when it comes to comparing and understanding various aspects of the Ganga basin at a quick glance. For the community not so well versed with the English language, the need to have a Hindi version of the GP website was felt. The communication group has been able to co‐create contents in Hindi on the ‘read and write’ GP website. It is hoped that the numerous organizations involved in different aspects of Ganga river studies will also be assisted by such efforts. T V Prabhakar, Group Leader and Professor, IIT Kanpur Environmental Flows (EFL): The Environmental Flows or E‐Flows group has prepared state‐of‐the‐art report on E‐Flows in reference to the rivers of the Ganga Basin. After considerable debate within and outside the group following definition for E‐flows has been adopted. The group has decided to use Building Block Methodology (BBM), as this was successfully piloted through the Living Ganga Programme of WWF‐India in which many Faculty members from different IITs participated. The group has benefitted from the experiences and learning of that exercise. "Environmental Flows are a regime of flow in a river or stream that describes the temporal and spatial variation in quantity and quality of water required for freshwater as well as estuarine systems to perform their natural ecological functions (including sediment transport) and support the spiritual, cultural and livelihood activities that depend on these ecosystems" After several rounds of discussions with SEC, ENB, FGM and WRM groups, about three sites downstream of each of the important river confluences on Alaknanda/Mandakini (namely Vishnu Prayag, Karn Prayag, and Rudra Prayag), 16 sites from Gangotri to Farraka, and three sites on river Hugli have been identified for E‐Flows assessment. The IIT team has also taken up the survey work to get reliable data on cross‐sections at each of these sites. Although the socio‐cultural surveys and field visits are about to begin, the group is awaiting the hydrology data for the river Ganga from the Government of India. It is essential to have long‐term (at least for continuous 30 years) flow data for a river system for assessment of E‐Flows. First Set of Reports Nitin Kaushal, Convener and Senior Manager‐Water Resources at WWF India 001_GBP_IIT_GEN_DAT_01_Ver 1_Dec 2010: River Ganga at a Glance: Identification of Issues and Priority Actions for Restoration 002_GBP_IIT_EQP_S&R_01_Ver 1_Dec 2010: Guidelines for the Preparation of Urban River Management Plan (URMP) for all Class I Towns in Ganga River Basin 003_GBP_IIT_EQP_S&R_02_Ver 1_Dec 2010: Sewage Treatment in Class I Towns: Recommendations and Guidelines 004_GBP_IIT_EQP_S&R_03_Ver 1_Dec 2010: Guidelines for Implementation of Sewage Collection, Diversion, Pumping, Treatment, and Reuse (Sewage CDPTR) Infrastructure in Class I Towns 005_GBP_IIT_FGM_DAT_01_Ver 1_Dec 2010: Active Floodplain Mapping: Defining the “River Space”
Page 1 and 2: From the Coordinator’s Desk Grbmp
Page 3 and 4: Uppdates GRBMPP is now GRRB EMP: O
Page 5: Ecology and Biodiversity (ENB): A o
Page 9 and 10: Livelihood Aspects of the Gaanga Ri
Page 11 and 12: Bio‐monitoring should be emphasiz

GRBMP 2nd Newsletter_Final.pdf - GANGAPEDIA

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