Parvat-Manthan

NIUA has formalised a forum PARVAT-MANTHAN: Manifestation of Clean and Sustainable  Hill States’, to bring together Himalayan states and cities to act and achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The Forum is timely as the UN-SDG recognizes this decade as the ‘Decade for Action’ to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, and an explicit reference to “Human rights to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment” has been included in Conference of Parties (COP27). The forum will facilitate knowledge and experience sharing on water and sanitation among hilly states/cities to achieve the objectives of national missions such as the Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM), Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT), Smart Cities Mission (SCM) and National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG). The Forum will play a prominent role in realising Honourable PM Shri. Narendra Modi's vision of India's G20 presidency to be "Inclusive, Ambitious, Decisive and Action-Oriented".

The Forum was formally launched during the Dialogue on Clean and Sustainable Hill States on 19th June 2023. The first consultation meeting was held on 14th-15th July 2022 in Leh, Ladakh, with more than 40 WASH and urban sector experts working in the Himalayan and North-East region of India. The meeting's goal was to start a conversation among practitioners, think tanks and academia working on the aspects of inclusive and climate-resilient urban water and sanitation, and the value proposition of such a forum.

The second consultation meet was organised in collaboration with the Urban Development Department, Government of Sikkim on 2nd December 2022 in Gangtok, Sikkim to initiate a conversation between key decision makers from the Urban Development Departments of 11 States and 1 Union Territory from Himalayan and North-East region of India. In this consultation meeting, state officials' voices were collated to better understand the Hilly states' ground realities, problems and opportunities. The proceedings of both consultation meetings are enclosed for reference.