Ganga lament to Centre from Nitish

Patna:  Chief minister Nitish Kumar on Sunday virtually put a question mark on two ambitious schemes of the Centre, cleaning the Ganga and developing waterways on full throttle, and said they cannot succeed without addressing the Ganga's silt problem.

Speaking at the inaugural function of the East India Climate Change Conclave, he maintained that dredging the river was not the solution.

"The goal of cleaning cannot be achieved without ensuring incessant flow of water in the river," Nitish said, with Union minister of environment, forest and climate change Harsh Vardhan also on the dais.

Steps are needed to let the silt flow into the sea, he said: "To keep the silt away, give the silt way."

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Taxonomy

• River Engineering
• River Basin management
• River Restoration
• Dredging

3 Comments

1. Dredging is always an excellent idea and routine practice. I am convinced there is a larger issue here that is being sidestepped. Per all of the Data and tons of reports on India it is obvious multiple difficulties are present which would be resolved with collective thinking. May I suggest for your consideration. INDIA: 1.5 BB people, over farmed land, massive droughts, disease, food nutrient density and variety low, uneducated population still live like forest or cave people roads and pollution out of hand. You may want to combine all of these issues into one natural process.  An intracoastal water highway system. Dredging, cleaning, building of flood control devices, merchants access to world markets, all waste at all levels  are ground up and mixed with dredge residue, given to farming community. Slowly building up the river banks for safety and visual delight. The increased crop yields will cause a new export industry and long term health and food supply for INDIA. Reviewing your water supply indicates there is more water in INDIA that you will ever need. Just need to modify your connection with nature and her natural process and long term cycles. When common sense is here to stay, climate change fades away.

2. Readers:

   Siltation and removing silt is an on going maitainance task. If not done in 3 to 4 occasions. then it accumulates to an unbearable stage and causing many other problems. Also the silt and bottom sludges are respected as valuable nutrient for farms. etc.. Also NRCD practices on O & M calls for 1. periodical dredging and re sale of bottom sediments etc.. 2. Special dug-out deep trenches are provided along road-ways / rail -heads to ease removal of dredged sediments etc.. The State should look for revenue generation on these proceeds. The notes are issued for Social good of the communities.. w wshs  .. Prof Ajit Seshadri . Vels University. Chennai . INDIA . 

3. It is a basic requirement for any river that extends its width due to more flow wrt low natural gradient and when flow velocity goes below self scavenging velocity, deposits heavier particles that tend to form deltas. Desilting the river to allow smother flow is important and it should be scientifically done without any disruptions or addition of contaminants. Dredging in certain sections should be attempted and sand should be marketed with some recovery of costs of dredging.