National Mission For Clean Ganga & National Institute Of Urban Affairs To Organise International Event On Urban Rivers

EE News Desk Feb 13, 2023

The inaugural DHARA 2023, a two-day international meeting on strategies for managing urban rivers, will be held in Pune, a member of the River Cities Alliance (RCA), starting on Monday, February 13.

The National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) and the National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA) under the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) are organizing the annual meeting of the members of the RCA on 13-14 February 2023, in Hyatt Hotel, Kalyani Nagar, Pune. This has been named DHARA 2023 (Driving Holistic Action for Urban Rivers).

DHARA 2023 will offer Alliance members a marketplace of solutions in urban river management that they can take back to their cities and put into practice. Case studies from throughout the nation on innovative river-related strategies and techniques for managing urban rivers, including groundwater management, flood control, lake and pond rejuvenation, and decentralised used water management, will be showcased. Principal Secretaries of different Indian states as well as experts in urban river management from Denmark, the United States, Israel, Germany, and Australia will showcase international best practices in the sessions.

Organised for the Municipal Commissioners of the member cities to spend dedicated time discussing and learning solutions for urban river management, DHARA 2023 has strong synergies with the Urban20 (U20) initiative under the ambit of India’s G20 Presidency. One of the thrust areas of U20 is to promulgate urban water security. Healthy rivers have a vital role to play in enhancing the overall water security of the city.

Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Hon’ble Minister of Jal Shakti will be presiding over the opening session of DHARA 2023. Kaushal Kishore, Hon’ble Minister of State, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs will also be attending the event.

Since 2019, the NMCG and the NIUA have been working on a joint initiative to propagate river-sensitive development in our cities. This is in response to the Prime Minister’s call for new thinking in river cities, in the 1st Meeting of the National Ganga Council (NGC) in December 2019.

One of the major achievements of the NIUA-NMCG collaboration is the establishment of a “River Cities Alliance (RCA)” of 95 river cities across India. The purpose of the RCA is to provide a platform for the Commissioners, Executive Officers, and senior officials of member cities to discuss and co-learn good practices for managing urban rivers.

Hitesh Vaidya, Director, National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA) said, “DHARA 2023 is a dedicated event for members of the RCA to deliberate on good practices and learn innovative solutions for urban river management. Since 2019, NMCG and NIUA have been leading the way in promoting river-sensitive development in our cities. During the two-day event, Municipal Commissioners and senior officials will interact with diverse experts and practitioners which will help our cities learn and adopt practical and tangible solutions to enhance the state of our rivers.”

Vikram Kumar, Municipal Commissioner, Pune, said “There will be presentations on the best projects related to rivers. Experts, scientists and social organisations working at national and international level will participate in it. The conference will hold discussions on everything related to water and it will help everyone with a water management strategy for their respective areas. Micromanagement of water is effectively done in Japan, Israel and many other countries and their experience will be discussed in the conference for implementation in the country.”