Will more funds alone help clean Ganga? (The Pioneer 07 June 2011)

The World Bank’s approval a $1 billion credit and loan as part of its long-term support to the Union Government’s new initiative to clean up Ganga is surely a boost to authorities as they embark on an ambitious plan to save the now highly polluted and near-toxic river. But let there be no doubt that without proper monitoring and close scrutiny, the bank’s generous loan is bound to be squandered and the project will be set for failure. After a quarter century of trying, and constantly failing, to clean up the river, the UPA Government in the recent past wiped clean the old slate and decided to start afresh. The result was the establishment of the National Ganga River Basin Authority in February 2009 which is responsible for cleaning and conserving Ganga through a multi-sector programme. Populated by several top leaders, including the Chief Ministers of States which comprise the sprawling Ganga River Basin as well as the Prime Minister who as its chairman, the high-powered NGRBA has a specific midd-term goal: To stop untreated municipal or industrial wastewater from being drained into the river by 2020. This programme is known as Mission Clean Ganga and it is towards this end that the World Bank has sanctioned its billion-dollar loan. On paper, Mission Clean Ganga looks like a well-researched, well-planned programme with achievable goals. Unlike previous efforts which focussed only on those towns and industrial centres that were considered to be highly polluting and thus failed to take a holistic view of what really is a multi-dimensional problem, Mission Clean Ganga seems to have built on lessons from the past as it moves away from the earlier town-centric approach and instead takes into consideration the entire Gangetic basin while planning project investments. The World Bank funded— National Ganga River Basin Project will also help build the capacity of the NGRBA’s new operational institutions as well as the capacity of existing agencies which are currently responsible for managing wastewater, sewage treatment plants, city sewer networks, etc.
While all of this sounds fabulous on paper, and both the Government and the bank deserve praise for their efforts to save Ganga, there is still much that can happen between the cup and lip. Let us not forget that cleaning and conserving a river is not an easy task that can be completed in a a year or two. As World Bank authorties have pointed out, cleaning Rhine took almost two decaded and costed more than 40 billion euros while a similar effort for Danube is ongoing, years after it was initiated. A programme of this nature thus requires long-term commitment and must be strictly monitored for it to achieve its goals. Given our past experience with similar efforts, cynicism would not be entirely out of place.