Prahlad Singh Patel speaks about importance of rivers in tourism
12th December 2020: Tourism is very closely related with rivers and hence can have an important role in their rejuvenation by improving peoples’ connect with them. Since the ancient times, travellers were always attracted towards the Indian rivers and especially Ganga. Several of them have written about the beauty, glory and deep sense of faith towards river Ganga in their travelogues. The focus of Day-3 of the 5th India Water Impact Summit was “River Conservation Synchronised Energy and Tourism”
Prahlad Singh Patel, MoS, Ministry of Culture & Tourism highlighting the culture, tourism potential and energy management of rivers said, “Rivers not only have physical energy but are a powerful source of spiritual energy. Spending time on the banks of rivers brings calmness and peace” He also praised NMCG for closing Asia’s biggest sewage drain in Kanpur. Speaking about the Kumbh 2019 he noted the change in perception brought by its effective organisation as now the world praises it as the largest and most vibrant conglomeration. He concluded that rivers are living entities and we should not let rivers turn into canals and, appreciate and understand river culture.
Expressing his valuable views on conservation of Ganga and water, Trivendra Singh Rawat, Chief Minister, Uttarakhand said, “Need of water has increased manifold with the government’s initiatives to provide drinking water and toilets to every household. Hence, water conservation is far more important now.” He also shared that all projects in Uttarakhand along the Ganga under Namami Gange are complete and the state government has developed around 3 million water conservation structures and build storage capacity of 50,103 lakh liters. CM also emphasized that the Ganga is a system of several rivers and Ganga culture brings all of them together. Ganga culture is actually Indian culture. Uday Raj Singh, Project Director, SPMG Uttarakhand was also present at the event.
Explaining the challenges of bringing balance between energy and tourism, Ajay Mathur, Director General, TERI said, “Building hydro power brings in certain difficulties as the rivers get dried, fisheries suffer and if not properly planned even tourism can suffer.” “To avoid this most projects are considering these aspects in their master plan now” he added. He emphasized the need of bringing spiritual places at higher altitude and face-lifting of existing dams in the country. He explained in details different aspects to be considered in design of Hydro-electric projects to make them sustainable and reduce impact on the environment.
The Namami Gange Mission has tried to promote tourism in the Ganga Basin as part of Arth Ganga. Enumerating the Mission’s work in this direction, Rajiv Ranjan Mishra, Director General, NMCG shared that the Mission has organized expeditions like Ganga Yatra, started Dolphin Safaris and now is working with INTACH for documentation of the cultural heritage of river Ganga from Gaumukh to Gangasagar which includes mapping of Natural Heritage, Architectural Heritage and Intangible Cultural Heritage in approximately 48 districts in the Ganga river basin. He mentioned about implementation of e-flow in various projects. Executive Directors of NMCG were also present at the summit. Rozy Aggrawal, Executive Director – Finance, NMCG, in his vote of thanks said that in the Summit so far eminent speakers have shared their knowledge and experiences and there are many more lined-up for the next two days.
The theme of the 5th India Water Impact Summit is ‘Arth Ganga – River Synchronised Development’ and it is organised by the National Mission for Clean Ganga in association with their knowledge arm, Center for Ganga River Basin Management and Studies (cGanga).
