Indian officials signed an agreement with the World Bank on Tuesday to use a $1 billion loan to finance the first major new effort in more than 20 years to cleanse the revered Ganges, one of the world’s dirtiest rivers.
One-third of India’s 1.2 billion people live along the banks of the 1,560-mile-long river, many of them relying on it for drinking, cooking and washing. Millions more visit for ritual baths to cleanse themselves of sin. But untreated sewage, agricultural runoff and industrial waste have fouled its waters for decades, and hydroelectric projects and dams threaten to choke off its waters in spots. Tuesday, a religious leader on a hunger strike over the effect of illegal mining on the state of the river, Swami Nigamanand, died after spending weeks in a coma.
The long-awaited loan is part of a government project that aims to halt the discharge of untreated wastewater into the river by 2020. The project, founded in 2009, replaced the 1986 Ganga Action Plan, the last large-scale attempt to address the pollution. That initiative was able to introduce waste water treatment in certain areas, but it failed to halt raw waste disposal into the Ganges.
Critics said it was inadequately financed and poorly managed. Indian officials and representatives of the World Bank said Tuesday that they hoped the new project would be more successful. They cited the greater amount of money being invested, the broader focus on regional environmental health and a planned public education campaign.
“What we’re trying to do is take a step back and not look at just one sector – waste water – but take a larger sectoral approach,” said Genevieve Connors, a water resources specialist for the World Bank who is involved in the project.
But she noted that the task of cleaning a river was enormous, saying it“takes decades and costs hundreds of billions of dollars.” Indian officials acknowledge that the Ganges is just one of many rivers that present public health problems. “Most of India’s rivers have become sewers,” said the environment minister, Jairam Ramesh.
“We have to now really bring water into rivers.” Japan helped to finance a cleanup project in the Yamuna River, the largest tributary to the Ganges, in 1993. But that project has largely failed to make a dent in the river’s pollution.
One-third of India’s 1.2 billion people live along the banks of the 1,560-mile-long river, many of them relying on it for drinking, cooking and washing. Millions more visit for ritual baths to cleanse themselves of sin. But untreated sewage, agricultural runoff and industrial waste have fouled its waters for decades, and hydroelectric projects and dams threaten to choke off its waters in spots. Tuesday, a religious leader on a hunger strike over the effect of illegal mining on the state of the river, Swami Nigamanand, died after spending weeks in a coma.
The long-awaited loan is part of a government project that aims to halt the discharge of untreated wastewater into the river by 2020. The project, founded in 2009, replaced the 1986 Ganga Action Plan, the last large-scale attempt to address the pollution. That initiative was able to introduce waste water treatment in certain areas, but it failed to halt raw waste disposal into the Ganges.
Critics said it was inadequately financed and poorly managed. Indian officials and representatives of the World Bank said Tuesday that they hoped the new project would be more successful. They cited the greater amount of money being invested, the broader focus on regional environmental health and a planned public education campaign.
“What we’re trying to do is take a step back and not look at just one sector – waste water – but take a larger sectoral approach,” said Genevieve Connors, a water resources specialist for the World Bank who is involved in the project.
But she noted that the task of cleaning a river was enormous, saying it“takes decades and costs hundreds of billions of dollars.” Indian officials acknowledge that the Ganges is just one of many rivers that present public health problems. “Most of India’s rivers have become sewers,” said the environment minister, Jairam Ramesh.
“We have to now really bring water into rivers.” Japan helped to finance a cleanup project in the Yamuna River, the largest tributary to the Ganges, in 1993. But that project has largely failed to make a dent in the river’s pollution.
dats great...ganga needs to be clean...do it immediately n clean the holy river...
ReplyDeletewell said.
ReplyDeleteit will be a great step ahead to clean the Ganga maiya...
ReplyDelete