Germany Offers Help For Ganga Clean-up Mission

Germany has offered its expertise for the Ganga clean-up mission by bringing in the experience of cleaning the Rhine river in the European country.

"Rejuvenation and cleaning of the river Ganga is one of the top priorities of Indian government. We are now just in the phase where we are going to see how we are going to assist the Indian government in this important endeavour," Heiko Warnken, head of Economic Cooperation and Development, Germany, said.

"We will soon have a mission who will be coming to India with experts from Germany. We have also cleaned the river Rhine in Germany. We will see how we can assist in the Ganga mission," Warnken said.

As per a Central Pollution Control Board report, around Rs 20,000 crore has been spent by the government on various cleaning projects for the Ganga. However, the impact was negligible.

Warknken said they were approached by India’s Water Resource Ministry for the Ganga clean-up project. On the question of funding, Warnken said, "this is too early to say... We have to see what is needed to be done".

When asked about timeline, he said "Rhine is also a long river which comes from Switzerland to Germany. It took almost 10 years to clean Rhine."