SLCR Secretariat
Smart Laboratory on Clean Rivers - Varanasi
About SLCR Secretariat
The Smart Laboratory on Clean Rivers (SLCR) in Varanasi is a pioneering Indo-Danish collaboration aimed at advancing sustainable river rejuvenation. Conceptualized under the joint leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, the initiative was formalized through a Memorandum of Understanding between India's Ministry of Jal Shakti and Denmark's Ministry of Environment in September 2022.
The core vision of SLCR is to mobilize global knowledge, technologies, and best practices to enable the holistic and sustainable rejuvenation of small rivers and tributaries. Emphasis is placed on solutions that are environmentally sound, economically viable, and socially appropriate within local contexts.
Core Functions
Collaborative Platform
The laboratory functions as a collaborative platform for knowledge creation, transfer, and co-creation, bringing together government authorities, academic and research institutions, technology providers, and citizens.
Living Lab Approach
SLCR addresses contemporary challenges related to river water quality and ecosystem health through targeted research and development. By adopting a Living Lab approach, the initiative facilitates real-world testing of innovative interventions, ensuring scalability, cost-effectiveness, and long-term sustainability.
NMCG Support
The program directly supports the National Mission for Clean Ganga, with a strategic focus on small rivers and tributaries that are often underrepresented in large-scale river restoration efforts.
Knowledge Repository
A key objective of SLCR is the development of a comprehensive, structured repository of knowledge, data, and validated technologies. This repository will enable systematic knowledge sharing and replication through national and international platforms.
Varuna River Demonstration Site
Living Lab for holistic river basin planning
The Varuna River has been identified as the demonstration site for implementing and evaluating integrated, technology-enabled interventions based on holistic river basin planning. Leveraging advanced monitoring tools, international expertise, and locally adapted governance and business models, SLCR seeks to demonstrate viable pathways for river rejuvenation.
The primary outcome will be a portfolio of proven, context-specific solutions that can be scaled across other small rivers and tributaries in India and in partner countries associated with the Global River Cities Alliance.
Key Objectives
- SLCR will develop the repository of all collected knowledge and technologies, which can be shared through various initiatives like River Cities Alliance/Global River Cities Alliance to perform rejuvenation work on other small rivers or tributaries in India and in GRCA member countries.
- Create a platform between Government authorities, Knowledge institutions, technology providers and citizens for knowledge sharing and co-creation to achieve clean river water.
- To bring the global solutions on current challenges in the field of clean river water and conduct research and development to fit in real environment through Living lab approach to make them scalable and economically attractive.
- To Support NMCG in achieving its vision by focusing on small rivers & provide preliminary solution for the local problems and provide inputs for Urban River Management Plans and other interventions being carried out by other agencies.