Novel campaign by self-help group to create awareness on Ganges river pollution

Novel campaign by self-help group to create awareness on Ganges river pollution

Sat May 23 2009 12:31:41 GMT+0530 (India Standard Time) by ANI  Girish Kumar Dubey

Varanasi, May 23 (ANI): A self-help group from Varanasi on Friday sent 543 utensils filled with water of river Ganges to the national capital to raise awareness on river pollution.

Ganga, which is revered as holy, also happens to be one of the most polluted rivers in the world.

Organisers said that the 'Save the River Ganga' campaign was to enlist support of the 543 newly elected lawmakers in parliament.

"To purify water you will have to undertake steps because if we don't look towards this direction at this time then the water of rivers, ponds and lakes will get polluted. How long we will survive like this on mineral water? We have to draw everyone's attention towards this thing and at the same time the purity of Ganges, for which our country is known, we have to safeguard it," said Swami Abhimukhteshwara Nand Saraswati.

"We don't just hope but we are fully confident that we will achieve success in our campaign of pollution free Ganga," said Girish, a volunteer.Revered as goddess by Hindus, the River Ganga is believed to cleanse people off their sins.

Though the Central Government set up a Ganga Action Plan in 1985 to cleanse the river, much of the action seems to have been confined only on paper.The Ganga runs its course of over 2,500 kilometres from Gangotri in the Himalayas to Ganga Sagar in the Bay of Bengal through 29 cities.

In 1996, the apex court banned the discharge of effluents from various tanneries located on its banks in Kanpur.

However, with one billion tonnes of waste being dumped into it everyday, the River Ganga, unfortunately, remains one of the most polluted rivers in the world. (ANI)