The Ganga river and its tributaries are vital lifelines for millions, supporting livelihoods, cultural practices, primarily agricultural activities and providing habitats for biodiversity including the national aquatic animal, Ganga River Dolphins. However, these freshwater ecosystems including rivers, connected wetlands and basins are facing threats, including catchment degradation, reduced flows, declining groundwater levels and pollution.
The Worldwide Fund for Nature India (WWF-India) had been working with diverse stakeholders—government, local communities and businesses—for freshwater system conservation in the Ganga and its tributaries like the Ramganga for over 15 years, implementing initiatives such as environmental flow assessment, tributary rejuvenation through agriculture water stewardship and wetland restoration, biodiversity conservation (aquatic and avian species), industrial water management and collaborative governance to address these pressing challenges. The Ramganga river, which meets the Ganga in Hardoi district near Kannauj and the Ganga River basin that supports almost half our population became the focal point of the work.
While the Ganga keeps flowing with its family of rivers to bless all who bank on it, it is important for us to keep working on ways to reduce the many pressures it faces on its way. WWF-India and Reckitt came together in 2021 to do just that, while building on the existing works.
To secure environmental flows in the Ramganga river through tributary rejuvenation, WWF-India engaged with local farmers to implement more efficient agriculture water management practices. A three-year proof-of-concept project (2017–20) was conducted along the Khanpur minor irrigation canal in Bijnor district, Uttar Pradesh, to demonstrate the effectiveness of demand and supply side management strategies in enhancing flows in the Karula river (a tributary of the Ramganga). On successful completion of this initiative, it was decided that training manual should be developed on agriculture water management for river rejuvenation that farmers could refer to.
It was realised that unless there is a step-by-step training manual that farmers could refer to, such conservation initiatives could not be sustained or expanded across other irrigation systems in the Gangetic basin
The manual highlights the many ecosystem services the rivers and wetlands provide and then details a number of best practices on irrigation and water management that farmers and Water Users Associations (WUA) could adopt. It also motivates them by also listing down all the benefits that follow— lower input cost, savings in water and reduced application of chemical inputs, higher crop yields and improved income, also lesser worries when rehabilitated canal systems facilitate recharging of local rivers and ponds. Simple training modules developed from the manual equip WUAs to support river rejuvenation. Office bearers and members of over 100 WUAs have already been trained, along with the field officers of the Uttar Pradesh Irrigation and Water Resources Department.
Pristine, healthy rivers provide a myriad of ecosystem services to people and nature, including water security, habitats for biodiversity, sediments for agriculture, tourism and recreation and provide livelihoods to millions. As part of river conservation initiatives, the synergy between WWF-India and Reckitt India is visible across this diverse programme, both in the Gangetic plains as well as the mountainous regions.
One of the initiatives was to identify pristine/high conservation value rivers in Uttarakhand and develop an atlas which will serve as a tool for research, generating awareness, developing policies and supporting on-ground river conservation initiatives (2017-2023).
Firstly, the WWF-India is working with experts to map all the rivers and assess their various aspects of flow like aquatic biodiversity, socio-cultural connect, river-forest interplay and livelihood dependency. Mapping of ecosystem services in 22 selected rivers of the Ganga, Sharda, Yamuna and Ramganga basin has been completed. This work will now be presented to key stakeholders to finally come up with an atlas on high conservation value rivers in the state.
Under biodiversity pillar, WWF-India has been working on community-led turtle conservation programme for over a decade. With Reckitt support, WWF-India is developing the guidelines for community–led turtle conservation and is training frontline staff of Uttar Pradesh Forest Department in 10 districts of Uttar Pradesh.
The WWF-India team is working with Uttar Pradesh Forest Department on freshwater turtle conservation programme over the 325-km stretch of the Ganga from Bijnor to Kasganj and in the 50-km stretch of the Ramganga river from Bareilly to Shahjahanpur. Even an industrial hub like Moradabad that sits on the banks of the aquifer-fed Ramganga river benefited from the cleaner technology interventions. In partnership with IIT Kanpur, WWF India developed a freshwater-saving mechanism, called Counter Current Mechanism (CCM). With Reckitt’s support, WWF-India is working towards scaling up the adoption of CCM in Moradabad. With such efforts, WWF-India and Reckitt India are hoping to create a model for river conservation.
Dr Vivek Chauhan, Reckitt India Project Lead, with contribution from WWF-India
