We Must Learn To Respect Water

When Prime Minister Narendra Modi took over the reins of the country in 2014, one of his first big plans was to clean the Ganga, for which he even created a new ministry.

- Rekha Dixit

This was not the first attempt to clean the river, which, though the lifeline of the northern plains, is also victim to the prosperity it creates. The river, which encourages new cities to grow along its banks, also suffers the endless discharge of sewage and industrial effluents. Modi's Namami Gange vision, however, was not just to clean the river, but also rejuvenate it. Thus was formed the National Mission for Clean Ganga. In the seven years since the initial announcement, what seemed like a humongous challenge once is slowly yielding results. Excerpts from an exclusive interview with Rajiv Ranjan Mishra, director-general, NMCG:

It has been seven years since the announcement of the mission. When will the Ganga get clean?

We have affected the health of the Ganga since 1850, when we first began extracting huge volumes of water for irrigation. Ever since, we have only worsened its health with pollution. The damage of 150 years will take time to correct. People expect quick results, they all want to see the Ganga clean tomorrow.

Previous attempts at cleaning the river have not yielded much result. How do you expect this one to?

There have been attempts since 1985, and they were not futile. They yielded some result. The problem was that interventions were piecemeal and not continuous....