An Article on "Cleaning Ganga river
Answers
The Clean Ganga Campaign
The Ganges is the largest river in India with an extraordinary religious importance for Hindus. Along its banks are some of the world’s oldest inhabited places like Varanasi and Patna. It provides water to about 40% of India’s population in 11 states,an estimated of 500 million people or more, which is larger than any other river in the world. Today, it is considered to be sixth most polluted river in the world.
The Clean Ganga Campaign is a premier awareness function to keep the river pollution free. Save Ganga Movement is a widespread Gandhian non-violent movement supported by saints and popular social activists across the Indian States Uttar Pradesh and Bihar in support of a free Ganga. The movement is supported by Ganga Seva Abhiyanam, besides those of many other like-minded organisations and with the moral support from many religious leaders, spiritual and political, and social activists.
Ganga Calling – Save Ganga is another such campaign supported by Indian Council for Enviro-Legal Action .
Despite this magnitude of influence and control by the river over present and future of the country, it is allegedly under direct threat from various man made and natural environmental issues. A number of drives have been undertaken, in which the river was reported to have been cleaned, municipal corporation urged people to refrain from polluting. Recently, Prime minister Narendra Modi affirmed to work on pollution of the river.
Explanation:
Pollution of the Ganges (or Ganga), the largest river in India, poses significant threats to human health and the larger environment.[1] Severely polluted with human waste and industrial contaminants, the river provides water to about 40% of India's population across 11 states,[2] serving an estimated population of 500 million people or more, more than any other river in the world.
Today, the Ganges is considered to be the sixth-most polluted river in the world. Raghubir Singh, an Indian photographer, has noted that no one in India spoke of the Ganges as polluted until the late 1970s. However, pollution has been an old and continuous process in the river as by the time people were finally speaking of the Ganges as polluted, stretches of over six hundred kilometres were essentially ecologically dead zones.
A number of initiatives have been undertaken to clean the river but failed to deliver as desired results.After getting elected, India's Prime minister Narendra Modi affirmed to work in cleaning the river and controlling pollution. Subsequently, the Namami Gange project was announced by the government in the July 2014 budget. An estimated Rs 2,958 Crores (US$460 million) have been spent until July 2016 in various efforts in cleaning up of the river.