John Thomas

Gopa Infra GmbH , India

Biography:

Senior Management Executive with over 28 years of comprehensive experience with bi-lateral development agencies, top environmental consulting & full service engineering MNCs, Apex chambers of commerce & industry and with the Government.

Currently providing techno managerial advisory services, institutional strengthening and skill upgradation as Technical Advisor & Senior Long Term Expert for ‘Support to Ganga Rejuvenation’ (SGR) – Namami Gange project; to the stakeholders (State Water Utilities, State Pollution Control Board, Industrial Development Board, Industries, CETP operator, STP Operators and Contractors, etc.).in Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh - the partner states under Indo-German Technical co-operation.

Has led various consulting & research projects, training programs for various industrial sectors, policy makers / formulators, multi-lateral / bi-lateral funding agencies. Managed various macro level environmental projects on behalf of Govt. of India as Project Management Consultant.

Short description about presentation:

The Ganga River provides livelihood to more than 500 million people. It is the source for drinking water and many economic and agricultural activities. A healthy river landscape provides a habitat for many plants and animals. Besides this, the Ganga River also has high cultural and religious significance.

Efforts to rejuvenate the Ganga over the last 30 years included interventions like strategic approaches, collaborations, projects, investments, donor support as well as assessments and evaluations. Despite all rejuvenation efforts, the stresses on the Ganga River have not been reduced, indeed, in some stretches the condition of the river has even deteriorated. 'Namami Gange Programme', is an Integrated Conservation Mission, approved as 'Flagship Programme' by the Union Government in June 2014 with budget outlay of Rs.20,000 Crore to accomplish the twin objectives of effective abatement of pollution, conservation and rejuvenation of National River Ganga.

The Government of Germany supports Government of India's 'Namami Gange' program for Ganga Rejuvenation with technical cooperation (TC) through Gesellschaft fur Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ); known as 'Support to Ganga Rejuvenation' (SGR) project. SGR project promotes integrated approaches to managing the river basin as a whole. At the national level, it works with the NMCG to build knowledge and skills in river basin management, and to help set up systems to manage the data that should underpin decision-making and action. It also supports NMCG outreach efforts, strengthening its position as the main coordinating body for Ganga rejuvenation.

Under Namami Gange programme, 63 sewerage management projects under implementation in the States of Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal. 12 new sewerage management Projects Launched in these states. Work is under construction for creating Sewerage capacity of 1187.33 (MLD).Hybrid Annuity PPP Model based two projects has been initiated for Jagjeetpur, Haridwar and Ramanna, Varanasi.

Ganga Tarang is an Asset Management & Monitoring Tool developed under the SGR project to support the State Programme Management Group (SPMG) in the State of Uttarakhand to monitor and improve the performance of the various sewage treatment infrastructure facilities developed along the stretch of the Holy River Ganga. The Central Monitoring Software has capabilities to also integrate with the Sewage Pumping Stations and at a later date be integrated with the various River Water Quality Monitoring initiatives developed for Integrated River Basin Development initiatives. Ganga Tarang helps the administrators to the operators to monitor and utilize the assets developed with heavy public expenditure. The authorities are also considering to make the real time data of these assets available to the general public as rest of the assets gets on board the Ganga Tarang, following installation of Real Time Monitoring Systems.