In view of the seriousness of the situation, the Government of India had launched the Namami Gange Programme (NGP) in the year 2014-15 for the revival of river Ganga and its tributaries, which was for five years till March 2021 and has been further extended. Under the Namami Gange programme, diverse and holistic measures are taken to clean and revitalise the river Ganga, including wastewater treatment, river bank management, ensuring e-flow, rural sanitation, tree plantation, biodiversity conservation and public participation.

As per the data presented in Parliament by the Union Ministry of Jal Shakti, till February 2026, a total of 524 projects have been sanctioned at a cost of Rs. 43,030 crore, out of which 355 projects have been completed. So far, NRCP has covered 58 rivers in 100 cities spread across 17 states of the country and created a sewage treatment capacity of 3,019 million litres (MLD) per day. The Ganga basin is spread over 11 states, covering 27 percent of India's land area and nourishing 47 percent of the population. In Telangana in South India, work is going on to get rid of six river basins called Musi River, Godavari, Krishna, Narmada, Cauvery, Mahanadi and Periyar.

Apart from the Namami Gange programme, the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) conducts manual monitoring of river Ganga water quality at 112 locations in the five mainstream states Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal. The water quality of the main flow of river Ganga has improved as per the reports of 2018 and 2025 of the Central Pollution Control Board on Polluted River Sections (PRS).

Further, during the year 2025 (January to August), it has been found that the pH and soluble oxygen (DO) at all places of river Ganga meet the prescribed standards for the bathing criteria. However, the entire flow of river Ganga in Uttarakhand, Jharkhand, Bihar and West Bengal has been found to conform to bio-chemical oxygen demand (BOD) standards in Uttarakhand, except for places and parts of Farrukhabad in Uttar Pradesh to Old Rajapur in Kanpur, Dalmau in Rae Bareli and Mirzapur downstream to Tarighat, Ghazipur. According to the biological monitoring carried out at 50 locations along the banks of the river Ganga and its tributaries and 26 locations along the Yamuna river and its tributaries during the year 2024-25, the organic water quality (BWQ) was mainly good to moderate.

River cleaning is a continuous process and it is the primary responsibility of the state governments and union territories, local bodies and industries to ensure the necessary treatment of sewage and industrial wastes in rivers and other water bodies before discharge in rivers and control of pollution. Under both the Namami Gange programme and the NRCP, extensive public awareness campaigns have also been carried out to promote a sense of responsibility and participation among the public in the efforts to clean and preserve the Ganga and other rivers of the country, including educational content, community contact, school programmes, mass communication campaigns, cleanliness campaigns and online engagement. Swachhta Pakhwada Ganga Utsav, Ganga Run, Ganga Rafting Campaign, Trekking, Tree Plantation Campaign, Yoga at Ghat, Ganga Aarti along with social message, Ghat on Haat and many other such activities are also being organised.

The Supreme Court had also made a lot of comments about polluted rivers, but since 2021, it has stopped suo motu cognisance proceedings and has handed over the responsibility of primary surveillance to the National Green Tribunal. The court was of the view that special tribunals like the NGT were better able to continuously monitor these situations. In the MC Mehta v. Union of India, 1987 case, the Supreme Court has held that the right to live in a pollution-free environment is part of the fundamental right to life under Article 21 of the Constitution. Under this suit, the Supreme Court barred industries from dumping polluting waste into the river Ganga until they set up treatment plants.

In fact, despite the imposition of strict environmental laws, effective action against industries is not taken due to staff shortages and poor surveillance. For example, factories located on the banks of the Yamuna river regularly dump waste into the river without treatment in the absence of strict regulatory monitoring. More than 60 percent of India's sewage flows directly into rivers without treatment. The involvement of many agencies in river management creates overlap of work and administrative incompetence. For example, state pollution control boards often fail to coordinate with local municipal authorities, slowing down operations on illegal waste disposal. Delays in the acceptance of detailed project reports, slow pace of implementation and reduced utilisation of funds have been observed. For example, only 69 per cent of the funds allocated for the Namami Gange programme were utilised till 2024-25.