The Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, today gave its ex-post facto approval to a Memorandum of Cooperation (MoC) signed between the Department of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation (DoWR, RD&GR) in the Ministry of Jal Shakti and The Ministry of the Environment of Japan in the areas of decentralised domestic wastewater management.

Under the MoC signed on 19 March, a Management Council (MC) will be formed which will be responsible for the implementation of this agreement by formulating detailed activities of collaboration and monitoring its progress.

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The collaboration with Japan through the MoC shall prove to be very fruitful in areas such as decentralised domestic wastewater management and effective reuse of treated wastewater using Johkasou technology.

The decentralised Johkasou systems towards management of wastewater can have greater implications for the management of grey/ black water from settlements with coverage under Jal Jeevan Mission as well as the sustainability of sources of fresh water under the mission, besides similar situation under Namami Gange Program. It will help ULBs to plan better for the complex issue of treating wastewater.

There shall be no financial obligations on both the Parties under this MoC. To facilitate the activities under this MOC, case-specific detailed documents such as Pre-Feasibility Reports, Feasibility Reports, and Detailed Project Reports, among others, may be created, covering detailed specifications in the respective areas as well as other pertinent matters such as, if deemed necessary, the financial arrangement of such case-specific programme and project.