Ganges Cleanup: $1 Billion To Come India's Way

The Ganges, the most sacred river in the world, as a matter of fact is also the world's most polluted river. It runs from the Himalayas to the Bay of Bengal and is 1,500 miles long. It supposedly supports nearly half a billion people in different ways. So now the World Bank has come to its rescue. It is lending India a whopping 1 billion dollars (US) to clean it up completely. India has attempted to clean up this river before, but has failed miserably. A previous project to clean it up and convert its dirty water into drinkable water by the end of the 1980s failed completely.

The river has and is being badly polluted due to various reasons like industrial chemicals, farm pesticides, and many other sewage material. It is considered to be a sacred river by the Hindus. Millions visit its banks every year, and strongly believe that cremation rituals undertaken on the banks of this holy river ultimately lead to the salvation of the dead. Not only ashes and other related funeral material, but also corpses floating along the river is a very common sight. This loan will be spread over a period of 5 years, and the cleanup work will include building sewage treatment plants, revamping the drains, and also other measures aimed at improving the water quality of the river. The main aim is to stop all untreated waste discharge into the river completely by the year 2020.

While this move is a good one, both by the Indian government and the WB, and seems to be properly thought out and planned, whether we get to see a cleaner river in the years to come, and a perfectly clean river by the year 2020, is left to be seen.