World Bank funding for cleaning Ganga

[sob]

After years of efforts and Millions of Dollars spend on cleaning Ganga River, World Bank is now offering US$ 1 Billion in new funding to clean up the river.

One of the first efforts were made during the time of Rajiv Gandhi when the French had agreed to help India during the Festival of India show at Paris. Ganga Action Plan. After nearly 20 years and more than Rs 900 Crores spent, Ganga remains one of the most polluted rivers in the world.

The whole approach has to be changed and strict timelines have to be adhered to to achieve the desired results. IMO endemic corruption has been the main reason for the project not being able to achieve any success.

World Bank loans India $1bn for Ganges river clean up

The World Bank has agreed to loan India $1bn (£600m) over the next five years to clean up the Ganges, one of the most polluted rivers in the world.

The 2,500km (1,500 mile) river has been badly polluted by industrial chemicals, farm pesticides and other sewage.

Speaking in Delhi, World Bank chief Robert Zoellick said the clean up would target the entire river network.

Plans involve building sewage treatment plants, revamping drains, and other measures to improve the water quality.

The funding is part of the Indian government's multi-billion dollar initiative to end the discharge of untreated waste into the Ganges by 2020.

Environmentalists say the river supports over 400 million people, and if the unabated pollution is not controlled, it will be the end of communities living along the banks.

Earlier attempts to clean the river have failed, including a plan to make its water drinkable by 1989.

But Mr Zoellick said he was confident the plan would work this time.

"In the past, [efforts] focused too much on individual aspects such as sewage emissions and not enough on the basin as a whole," he said.

"What really distinguishes this project is to try to look at the whole river network and try to deal with all the aspects."

The Ganges is considered holy by millions of Hindus, who believe that cremation rituals on the river banks lead to salvation, says the BBC's Anbarasan Ethirajan.

 

[Vladimir79]

It really is a hard project to carry out. With 1 billion people wanting to bathe there and allowing holy cows to bless the river with their excrimant, nothing will change. Industrial pollution will be easier to curb than changing the whole identity of the Hindu religion.

 

[sob]

Vlad,

Gang at the most touches 400 million people and not more than that. That too not everybody gets a chance to take bath in it on a regular basis.

The main sources of contaminations are untreated sewage dumped by cities near the river, pesticide runoffs from the agricultural fields and industrial waste dumped directly in the river. what is required is that untreated sewage and industrial effluents are not allowed in the river. this will solve IMO about 80% of the problem.

 

[atleast_a_bronze]

I strongly suspect another ploy this time to loot the World Bank.

Over 900 crores of our tax money had been looted already.

The CAG audit in 2000 had implicated the Bihar, UP and West Bengal governments for mismanagement of funds -

The Central and the participating State Governments released a total sum of Rs 655.23 crore to the implementing agencies during the period covered by audit, i.e. from 1993 to 2000. As of March 2000, the States reported utilisation of Rs 587.63 crore, which consisted of Rs 118.60 crore on the GAP-I and Rs 469.03 crore on the GAP-II. The utilisation of funds must be viewed, however, with reference to audit comments in the following paragraphs, which highlight, in the test checked cases alone, financial mismanagement, especially funds diversion to unauthorised activities (Rs 36.07 crore), incorrect reporting (Rs 6.75 crore), and parking of funds by the BRJP in its own personal account (Rs 1.17 crore), and unutilised funds with the implementing agencies (Rs 72.62 crore).

(a) Diversion/misuse of funds: The implementing agencies in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal diverted Rs 36.07 crore on establishment, operation and maintenance of plants, construction of circle office, purchase of vehicle, computer, xerox machine, custom duty, supervision charges on low cost sanitation etc., which were not covered under the programme and construction of STPs, not affecting the water quality of river Ganga (Annex VII).

(b) Inflated reporting of expenditure: The implementing agencies in Haryana and Uttar Pradesh charged excess centages on works to the extent of Rs 4.12 crore and 2.63 crore respectively, which resulted in excess reporting of expenditure of Rs 6.75 crore on the GAP.

(c) Parking of funds: The Managing Director, BRJP deposited the GAP funds during 1995-96 to 1997-98 totalling Rs 1.17 crore in their general operating account, which unauthorisedly cushioned ways and means position of BRJP, to the detriment of application of needed funds on the GAP schemes.

(d) Loss of interest: The implementing agencies in Bihar, West Bengal and Delhi incurred loss of interest of Rs 2.55 crore by not investing the unspent balances in interest bearing accounts (Annex-VIII).

(e) Besides, the implementing agencies in Bihar and West Bengal did not report to the NRCD the interest of Rs 25 lakh and Rs 66.40 lakh respectively earned on the GAP funds despite pointing out in the previous Audit Report.

(f) Unutilised balances: Unutilised balance of Rs. 67.90 crore, Rs. 0.41 crore and Rs. 4.31 crore were lying with the implementing agencies in Uttar Pradesh, Delhi and Bihar respectively as on March 2000. This was due to slow progress of works and release of funds by the Government of India/the State Governments, without proper assessment of requirements.


Source

 

[IBM]

As usual our beloved politicians and beaurucrates will enjoy world bank money. world bank consists of bunch of fools or corrupt people.after so many year they didt see ganga will not be cleaned due to reasons given above.Still they give money to fill there own pockets.

 

[sob]

This money is a loan and not a grant, and if my memory serves me right then the money will be distributed in stages, after satisfying the World Bank appointed experts.

However this still leaves scope for at least 50% of the money to be siphoned off by our greart leaders.

 

[atleast_a_bronze]

Whether it is a loan or not, money is money.

An investigation was carried out in 2006-07 and serious fraud was found out in India projects funded by World Bank

Just an excerpt -

The World Bank has said it has uncovered "serious incidents of fraud and corruption" in a review of five health projects it has backed in India.
The multi-million dollar projects, some of which date back to 1997, involve HIV/Aids, malaria and tuberculosis.
"The probe has revealed unacceptable indicators of fraud and corruption, said World Bank head Robert Zoellick.
India's government said it took the findings seriously and would punish anyone found guilty of wrongdoing. - lol a good joke
The evidence of fraud was revealed in a newly released Detailed Implementation Review, begun by the World Bank in 2006. [/I]

Indian government is still capable of getting the World Bank pledge billions. Appreciate their negotiating skills:twizt:

Source

World Bank's Detailed Implementation Review

 

[x11]

Ganga can never be cleaned as long as they dump the deadbodies there.

We are fools, and have stupid rituals.

 

[sob]

Ganga can never be cleaned as long as they dump the deadbodies there.

We are fools, and have stupid rituals.

The main cause of the polluiton is not due to the dead bodies. If the pollution was not there then the fishes would have stripped the bodies clean in a short time like they have been doing for hundreds of years.

 

[sob]

Between thee Ganga and Yamuna rivers tthe Govt. has spent more than 1800 Crore Rs. in the last 2 decades but yet there has been no improvement or rather there has been deterioation in the conditions of the river.

Even the Environment Ministry has been forced to admit this shortcoming.


Ganga, Yamuna no cleaner than 20 years ago: Ramesh

Environment and Forests Minister Jairam Ramesh Friday admitted that the Ganga and Yamuna rivers were no cleaner now than they were 20 years ago, despite the government spending “hundreds of crores of rupees”.
The minister also said the pollution load on the major rivers in the country has increased over the years due to “urbanisation and industrialisation”.

“I admit with full responsibility that Ganga and Yamuna are no cleaner than 20 years ago,” Ramesh said in the Lok Sabha, replying to a calling attention motion on checking pollution in rivers and lakes in the country, moved by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Yogi Adityanath.

A determined and renewed effort is needed to cleanse these rivers, the minister said, adding he himself did not believe the figures with him on the pollution levels in these rivers.

“For a layman, the answer is a depressing ‘no’,” Ramesh said.

The minister said over Rs.816 crore (Rs.8.16 billion) was spent on two phases of the Ganga Action Plan (GAP) and a sewage treatment capacity of 1,007 million litres per day has been created.

The government has spent over Rs.682 crore (Rs.6.82 billion) on the first phase of the Yamuna Action Plan (YAP) and in the second phase, another Rs.190 crore (Rs.1.9 billion) has been spent, he said.

Ramesh blamed the urban local bodies for their inability to operationalise the sewage treatment plants.

He said the central government would bear the full cost of operation and maintenance of sewage plants across the country for the next five years.

 

[ppgj]

Welcome to Save Ganga Movement

A Gandhian Non-violent Movement to Save the Ganga,

symbolizing all rivers and water bodies and the Giriraj Himalayas,

symbolizing all mountains, forests and wildlife.

Gandhi symbolizes a culture of Truth and non-violence, i.e. a

culture of pursuit of ethical perfection as the ultimate goal of life and

pursuit of selfless ethical life of universal love as it’s means.

The Surest and Perhaps the Only Solution to Our Impending

Catastrophic Global Ecological Crises: Go Through Gandhi the Apostle

of Truth and Non-violence of our Age.

Save Ganga Movement

 

[sob]

volunteers clean up Yamuna

To jolt the Govt. into action to clean the Yamuna, on Saturday thousands of Volunteers including students from schools joined in an effort to clean the Yamuna. This was a symbolic gesture but they were still able to remove a few truckloads of muck from the river.

Thousands of volunteers pitch in to clean Yamuna

Clad in yellow body suits and masks and armed with spades, thousands of students, executives and even government officials Saturday descended onto the banks of river Yamuna here and managed to remove truckloads of muck in a small start to the massive exercise required to clean up the clinically dead river.
The effort started at around 9 a.m. and went on till about 1 p.m. at Kudsia ghat near ITO in the heart of the national capital.

“We have managed to mobilise a lot of people today. In all about 3,000 people were here and six to seven truck loads of filth and muck was taken out of the riverbed along a 200 metre stretch,” environmentalist Vimlendu Jha told IANS.

The programme was organised by Jha’s NGO Swecha in association with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), UN volunteers as well as the state environment department and India Council for Cultural Relations to mark the the International Volunteer Day (observed Dec 5).

Enthusiastic students from 17 schools left no stone unturned and scooped out piles of filth. Celebrity faces like designer Rina Dhaka and several corporate honchos including UN senior officials, executives of the Genpact and Toyota, folded up their sleeves and pitched in.

Jha said that the aim of the programme was “symbolic”.

“There have been several commitments from the government. In fact the Delhi government under Shiela Dikshit has been around for over 15 years. Crores are spent but the river is in the same state. In the context of the COP-15 climate summit authorities here need to look at local environment and prioritise smaller issues and action,” Jha said.