DHARA - Annual Meeting of Members of the River Cities Alliance to be held In Pune

Tags: Summits State News

A first of its kind two-day international conference, DHARA 2023, is being organised in Pune to discuss strategies for managing urban rivers.

An overview of the news

• DHARA stands for -Driving Holistic Action for Urban Rivers.

• DHARA is the annual meeting of the members of the River Cities Alliance (RCA).

• The meeting is being organised by the National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) in association with National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA) from 13 to 14 February in Pune.

• Union Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat will deliver the keynote address on the inaugural day of the event, while Kaushal Kishor, Minister of State for Housing and Urban Affairs, will deliver the concluding speech on the second day.

• DHARA 2023 will provide a forum for commissioners, additional commissioners, chief engineers and senior planners of the 95 member river cities in India to discuss management and solutions for local water bodies.

• The event has strong synergy with the Urban 20 (U20) initiative under India's G20 Presidency.

River Cities Alliance (RCA)

• It was launched in 2021 as a dedicated platform for river cities of India for discussion and exchange of information for sustainable management of urban rivers.

• It was started with 30 cities in 2021 and currently has 95 cities as members across India.

• It is formed by the successful partnership of the two Ministries - Ministry of Jal Shakti and Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs.

• It focuses on three broad themes - networking, capacity building and technical support.

• It will enable cities to learn from each other's success and failure and connect people to rivers.