The Central Government on October 10, 2018 notified the minimum environmental flows for River Ganga that has to be maintained at various locations on the river.
- Environmental flows are the acceptable flow regimes that are required to maintain a river in the desired environmental state or predetermined state.
- Calling this a significant development, Union Minister for Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation Shri Nitin Gadkari said that the notification of e-flow for the river would go a long way in ensuring its Aviralta or continuous flow. Reiterating the Government’s commitment towards an Aviral and Nirmal Ganga, the Minister informed that the draft Ganga Act will soon be sent to the Cabinet for approval.
- The notification issued by the Government will ensure that the river has at least the minimum required environmental flow of water even after the river flow gets diverted by projects and structures for purposes like irrigation, hydropower, domestic and industrial use etc. This is an important step taken towards maintaining the uninterrupted or Aviral flow of the river.
Main Features of the Notification:
- The upper stretches of the Ganga — from its origins in the glaciers and until Haridwar — would have to maintain: 20% of the monthly average flow of the preceding 10-days between November and March, which is the dry season; 25% of the average during the ‘lean season’ of October, April and May; and 30% of monthly average during the monsoon months of June-September.
- For the main stem of the Ganga — from Haridwar in Uttarakhand to Unnao, Uttar Pradesh — the notification specifies minimum flow at various barrages: Bhimgoda (Haridwar) must ensure a minimum of 36 cubic metres per second (cumecs) between October-May, and 57 cumecs in the monsoon; and the barrages at Bijnor, Narora and Kanpur must maintain a minimum of 24 cumecs in the non-monsoon months of October-May, and 48 cumecs during the monsoon months of June-September.
- The above order will apply to the upper Ganga River Basin starting from originating glaciers and through respective confluences of its head tributaries finally meeting at Devaprayag up to Haridwar and the main stem of River Ganga up to Unnao district of Uttar Pradesh.
- The compliance of minimum environmental flow is applicable to all existing, under-construction and future projects. The existing projects which currently do not meet the norms will have to ensure that the desired environmental flow norms are complied with within a period of three years. The mini and micro projects which do not alter the flow characteristics of the river or stream significantly are exempted from these environmental flows.
- The flow conditions in these river reaches will be monitored at hourly intervals from time to time. The Central Water Commission will be the designated authority and the custodian of the data, and will be responsible for supervision, monitoring, regulation of flows and reporting of necessary information to the appropriate authority as and when required and also take emergent decisions about the water storage norms in case of any emergency.
- The concerned project developers or authorities will have to install automatic data acquisition and data transmission facilities at appropriate locations at project sites within six months. The Central Government through National Mission for Clean Ganga may direct release of additional water in the River Ganga to meet special demand as and when required.
- The notification also stipulates that the concerned Central and State authorities shall implement demand side management plans to reduce water withdrawal from River Ganga by adopting good and scientific practices such as efficient method of irrigation, reuse and recycle of water including monitoring and regulation of groundwater withdrawals for various purposes.
