Action Plan for Rivers: National River Conservation Plan (NRCP)

Those stretches of rivers that are badly polluted were included in the NRCP. NRCP, more than being a river cleaning programme, is a long-term plan that would eventually lead to conservation of rivers. The project is entirely funded by the Central Government.

Objective : NRCP essentially addresses pollution load from sewer systems of town and cities and works towards intercepting and diverting sewage, setting up STPs, electric crematoria, low-cost sanitation, river front development, afforestation and solid waste management.

As per the pollution load from industries flowing into rivers, the responsibility for ensuring that industries - whether large scale or small scale - meet pollution standards is that of the State Pollution Control Boards (SPCBs) and not that of NRCP. NRCP can, however, ask heavily polluting industries to either install effluent treatment plants (ETPs) or shut down, although it makes no financial provision for setting up ETPs.

NRCP in A.P.

In Andhra Pradesh the following towns were included under NRCP

Town	River	Approver cost (Rs. in Lakhs)
Bhadrachalam	Godavari	308.00
Mancharial	"do"	478.72
Rajahmundry	"do"	2516
Ramagundam	"do"	2076
	5378.72

Break-up of the costs (Rs. in crores) * Interception and diversion 19.19 * Sewage Treatment Plant 21.09 * Crematoria 0.52 * River front development 0.44 * Low cost sanitation 2.04 * Miscellaneous 1.49 * Land Cost 2.59 * Centages 6.39 Total 53.79

SouRce: As on 1997, MIS report of programmes under "NRCP", Ministry of Environment and Forests, GOI, New Delhi.

A perusal of funds released so far indicates that most funds have been released for river front development, crematoria, and low cost sanitation. Land acquisition, interception and diversion schemes have not taken off at the same rate due to land disputes.

According to the 'Citizens Report', "changes in the sanitation technology have not been considered in the NRCP. These omissions are serious if the plan is to become the backbone of the country's sanitation for the next quarter-to-half century. The present sanitation technology ignores the possibility of using urban wastes as agricultural inputs, such as manure and wastewater for irrigation, even as it becomes a major source of river pollution. As a result, schemes under NRCP may only perpetuate wasteful technologies.