Namami Gange: IAS officer's appeal from Mt Everest to India

On 23rd May 2019 at 4:20 AM, IAS officer Ravindra Kumar conquered Mt. Everest, taking the China route., i.e. from the northern side of the mountain range.

As for the mission of the trek in the present scenario, focus on Water Sector especially Drinking Water is one of the major need of the hour, because as per NITI Ayog's report titled ‘Composite Water Management Index' of June 2018, Delhi and other 21 cities in India would run out of groundwater by 2020, affecting 100 million people. Other than the urban population, 85 percent of the rural population is dependent on groundwater for drinking, and 184 districts spread across 19 states are affected by contaminated water.

Many other water sources are contaminated with both biological and chemical pollutants. Many rivers are nearly dying due to the discharge of pollutants and lack of continuity due to insufficient water. The groundwater table is declining and creating grounds for a future water crisis.

This is his second trek to the Everest base camp after he scaled the Nepal route in 2013, becoming the first IAS officer to have attained such a landmark. 

Through the 2019 Everest Expedition, he targeted gaining attention for crises in the water sector and urged people of India from the highest point of Himalaya.

Due to the factors mentioned earlier, India is facing a water crisis of historic proportions, with an estimated 600 million people—about half the population—grappling with either severe water shortages or polluted water supplies contaminated with bio and chemical pollutants, and so, as per world bank report, over 21% of the country's diseases are water-related. So, about two lakh people die every year due to inadequate access to safe water. Further, the water crisis is not isolated in itself, it would also threaten food security as over 80 percent of the total water used in India is used for agriculture. Over and above this, we must not forget that two-thirds of our body is made up of water itself. So, we can just about imagine the impact of the water crisis.

'Namami Gange' is the Government of India's National Mission for Clean Ganga. The message is sent loud and clear from the top of Mt. Everest.

Mr. Kumar expanded on the fact that the water sector needs not only immediate attention but an urgent call to make it a ‘Jan Andolan’ by mass people's involvement in addition to Government's effort to stop future water crisis. That's why, through 2019 Everest Expedition, he targeted water sector and urged people to India from the highest point of Himalaya, the source of major rivers of India and thus, sources of major water needs of Indians, to save water at their personal level. Because water is a daily need of 1.25 billion people of India, who use it for drinking, toilet, bath, laundry, irrigation, industry, etc. Controlling wastage of water is one of the major challenges in India, which can't be done by government alone unless people themselves get involved in saving its valuable water resources. 

Today, reportedly, over 80 percent of the total water used in India is being used for agriculture but of the water available for irrigation, more than 60 percent is wasted. Using effective irrigation technique can save these huge amounts of water. This is one of the missions of the Government of India's water preservation programs.

With people's involvement, wastage can be easily controlled by stopping wastage of water in daily activities like repeated toilet flush even after piss, letting water tap open during brushing, lavish bath, Sunday cleaning spree, letting tap open for cleaning vegetables in kitchen, etc where significant amount of water can be saved if 1.25 billion population will become aware of it. 

India is facing water crisis of historic proportions, with an estimated 600 million people—about half the population—grappling with either severe water shortages.

Mr. Ravindra Kumar is an IAS Officer of 2011 Batch and is presently posted as Private Secretary to Union Minister of Drinking Water and Sanitation in Government of India. In the past, he has worked at various posts including Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM), Additional District Magistrate (ADM), Chief Development Officer (CDO), District Magistrate (DM) and Commissioner, in State Government of Sikkim and Uttar Pradesh before he got posted in Government of India.