When Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the Namami Gange project and allocated Rs 20,000 crores to it in the 2015 budget, the approach the government would adopt to clean the Ganga, and if it would learn the right lessons from the colossal failure of the Ganga Action Plan, was unknown.

Four and a half years later, there is evidence that the Modi government seems to have found effective solutions to the challenges of governance, infrastructure shortage and minimum flow that the previous governments failed to address.

Here’s how its flagship programme has progressed in these seven cities: Kanpur, Varanasi, Prayagraj, Rishikesh, Haridwar, Delhi and Patna.

Kanpur

Kanpur, with its large drains like the one in Sisamau and Jajmau, and hundreds of water guzzling tanneries and paper industries, is the city which pollutes Ganga the most. The city generates nearly 375 million litres per day (MLD) of sewage, which will increase to 460 MLD by 2035. It already has a treatment capacity of 457 MLD, but much of it was not fully operational due to poor governance.

Under Namami Gange, the government has sanctioned 10 projects worth Rs. 2192 crore for Kanpur zone, which includes Kanpur town, Unnao, Shuklaganj and Bithoor. In Kanpur, the government has managed to rehabilitate existing sewage treatment plants (STPs) with 450 MLD capacity and 300 km of sewerage network. Work on a 15 MLD STP at Baniyapurwa and laying of 100 km sewerage network is also ongoing in the city.

Most importantly, the biggest drain in the city, the Sisamau nala, which dumped around 140 MLD of untreated waste water into the Ganga every day, has been diverted to the newly rehabilitated STPs in the city.

In the nearby towns of Unnao, Shuklaganj and Bithoor, the current sewage generation is 13 MLD, 4 MLD and 1.3 MLD respectively. Under Namami Gange, a 2 MLD STP at Bithoor, a 15 MLD STP at Unnao and 5 MLD STP at Shuklaganj are being constructed.