River Cities Alliance
Context:
- Union Minister for Jal Shakti recently launched River Cities Alliance.
- This first of its kind Alliance in the world symbolizes the successful partnership of Ministry of Jal Shakti and Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs.
- 30 member cities from across the country have signed the alliance.
About River Cities Alliance
- It is a Dedicated Platform for river cities in India to ideate, discuss and exchange information for sustainable management of urban rivers.
- The Alliance will focus on three broad themes- Networking, Capacity Building and Technical Support.
- Secretariat of the Alliance will be set up at National Institute for Urban Affairs (NIUA), with NMCG’s support.
- Participating cities include Dehradun, Haridwar, Rishikesh, Srinagar, Patna, Ayodhya, Kanpur, Mathura-Vrindavan, Mirzapur, Prayagraj, Varanasi, Aurangabad, Chennai, Bhubaneswar, Hyderabad, Pune, Udaipur and Vijayawada among others.
- National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) and National Institute for Urban Affairs (NIUA) have collaborated together to launch the River Cities Alliance (RCA).
- Alliance will begin with the Ganga basin cities and to be extended to include cities beyond the Basin as well.
Major objectives:
- To provide the member cities with a platform to discuss and exchange information on aspects that are vital for sustainable management of urban rivers.
- To work towards adopting and localizing national policies and instruments with key river-related directions
- To prepare their Urban River Management Plans.
- To develop city-specific sectoral strategies that are required for sustainable urban river management.
Importance of the Alliance
- It will play a significant role in connecting cities with their rivers.
- It will aid cities in learning from the successes and failures of each other.
- It will also create an opportunity for municipal administrators and their teams for undertaking innovative initiatives.
- It will aid the signatory cities in attracting external economic investments, access state-of-the-art knowledge and frameworks, and serve as the site for demonstration purposes for implementation by NMCG and NIUA.
Way forward
- The Government should make extensive use of ICT for good governance in the scheme.
- Rivers hold an aesthetic value in Indian culture. So, the scheme should ensure a proper regulatory framework for sustainable rejuvenation of rivers.
- RIver banks can be demarcated and protected accordingly like eco sensitive zones.