World Bank to fund USD 1 billion for clean Ganga project

Washington, Oct 3 (PTI) As Prime Minister Manmohan Singh
is all set to make another serious bid to clean up the river
Ganga, the World Bank has agreed in principal to make
available USD 1 billion for the purpose.

"We are talking of a long term billion dollar commitment
for the newly created National Ganga River Basin Authority, a
body headed by the Prime Minister, which will take up the task
of cleaning up river Ganga in a much more systematic and
serious manner than has been the case so far," Ramesh said.

Prime Minister Singh is scheduled to hold a meeting in
New Delhi Monday. The final decision in this regard is
expected to be taken when the World Bank President Robert
Zoellick visits India in December.

Ramesh said in principle there has been approval that the
World Bank will support the project. India has already spent
Rs 960 crores in the last 20 years to clean the river Ganga
but it no cleaner today than it was two decades ago.

"Obviously, we have to do things differently then we have
done things so far," he said.

Noting that 75 per cent of the pollution in the river
Ganga comes from municipal sewage and another 25 per cent
comes from industrial effluents, he said both requires to be
controlled in a much larger and wider way than has been the
case so far.

"The World Bank support would be a major element in
bringing fair amount of resources as far as cleaning the Ganga
River is concerned," Ramesh said. PTI