Roger Choate | March, 2002

The River Ganga in India and The Thames in London are together discussing wide-ranging plans for collaboration, according to cleanup campaigners in both countries.

(Varanasi, India, and London, England) - The River Ganga in India and The Thames in London are together discussing wide-ranging plans for collaboration, according to cleanup campaigners in both countries.

"Cleaning up the Ganga is a global concern,' said Mark Lloyd, director of the Thames cleanup organisation "Thames 21."

"The Thames is prepared to serve Mother Ganga, as the holy river of a great country."

Lloyd was in India recently,

Mark Lloyd of Thames21

working alongside volunteers at the Campaign for a Clean Ganga (Swatcha Ganga Abhiyaan) in the holy city of Varanasi. Campaigners are presently cleaning up litter and debris in the river in Varanasi, along with cleanup of all 77 ghats.

Representatives from both organizations will meet in London in June to discuss further collaboration. Dr. Veer Bhadra Mishra, leader of Swatcha Ganga, said rendering the "River of Heaven" pollution-free will send a powerful message across the world, "and will tell the world something important about India as a civilisation."

	Dr. Veer Bhadra Mishra, center, at a recent environmental workshop in Varanasi

Swatcha Ganga is supported by private donations and particularly by the Sankat Mochan Foundation in Varanasi which started the movement. Thames 21 is funded by the private and public sectors in Britain, including the Environment Ministry and the City Corporation of London.

Lloyd was on hand last month at the New Delhi press conference that officially launched www.cleanganga.com. He told journalists that "cleanup of the Ganga in Varanasi, technically speaking, isn't difficult at all."