Annual meeting of River Cities Alliance to be held on 13-14 Feb

DHARA, the annual meeting of the member of the River Cities Alliance (RCA) will be held on 13-14 February, 2023 by the National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) in association with the National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA). 

“The Union Minister for Jal Shakti, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat will address the inaugural session of the event. The meeting will provide a platform for senior officials including commissioners, addl. commissioners, chief engineers and senior planners of the 95-member river cities in India to co-learn and discuss solutions for managing local water bodies,” the Ministry of Jal Shakti said. 

The event has synergies with the Urban 20 (U20) initiative under India’s G20 presidency. A primary thrust area under the U20 initiative is to promulgate urban water security. 

“Healthy rivers have a vital role to play in enhancing the overall water security of the city. DHARA 2023 will host multiple sessions over the two-days, including a session on ‘National Case Studies on Innovative River-related Practices’ to introduce the participants to several unique and innovative solutions for different aspects of urban river management involving lake and pond rejuvenation, de-centralized used-water management, enhancing river-related economy, groundwater management, and flood management,” the ministry added. 

Another session on ‘International Case Studies’ will be conducted to focus on innovative river-related practices in countries like Denmark, reuse of used water in Israel, floodplain management in Netherlands, river health monitoring in USA, pollution control in Japan, and water sensitive city design in Australia. 

The meeting also aims to initiate in-depth discussions with the Municipal Commissioners of the member cities to come up with possible learning solutions for urban river management. 

“The expected outcome of DHARA 2023 is to inspire members of the RCA to engage in progressive actions for urban river management in their cities. It is also expected that the event will shine light on the unaddressed issues and challenges for river management in cities, which will help NIUA and its partners in formulating an effective work plan,” the ministry said.