Veer Bhadra Mishra | October, 2002

Some 20 years ago Dr. Veer Bhadra Mishra launched the Campaign for a Clean Ganga in Varanasi, India. In a recent speech in London signaling collaboration with the River Thames, he explains the global importance of the great Indian waterway that guides his destiny. Extracts:

	Dr. Veer Bhadra Mishra : Founder of the Sankat Mochan foundation

At the very outset my team wants to thank the Thames21 organisation for the opportunity to come to London to study the impressive cleanup campaigns you conduct along this historic waterway. We have some things to learn from you!

Mr.Chairman, not everybody understands the importance of rivers. River systems like the Thames and Ganges (which in India we call "Ganga") support vast human communities while providing a major source of fresh water.

The availability of fresh water is the No.1 environmental issue in this new century. And in my country of one billion souls it is thought we will completely run out of fresh water in a few years unless - and I stress the word unless - present trends change.

Ganga is my life
I was born 62 years ago along the banks of the Ganga in the holy city of Varanasi - the world's oldest continuous city. I have lived all my life in the same house overlooking the river and Tulsi Ghat, which is one of the 77 ghats or ritual bathing areas visited yearly by around 5 million pilgrims and others. And, the Gods willing, I will probably end my days at Tulsi Ghat.

You doubtless know that our holy river is considered a divine Goddess by Hindus and other believers the world over. But she isn't feeling well. I know this, both as a professor of hydrology and also as high priest (Mahant) of a temple. And when I take my holy dip at sunrise every morning at Tulsi Ghat, my soul is sorely split. I want to do my holy dip and I know that the river is severely polluted.

400 million Indians live along the Banks of the Ganga

So at some point I decided something must be done. Fecal coliform pollution is up to 3,000 times the safe level for human beings in some bathing areas. Fecal coliform is a measurement of animal and human waste in water.

So together with some friends we started the Sankat Mochan Foundation whose main goal is cleanup of the Ganga. The Foundation in turn launched the Campaign for a Clean Ganga on behalf of the 400 million Indians living along the Ganga Basin.

Now, it's a fact that virtually every river in India is filthy, sometimes lethally. This is also true in most of the developing world. But we feel that a start must be made somewhere. And why not in the holiest of Indian cities where millions ritually bathe in the river to wash away their sins...?

So our campaign in Varanasi has launched several programs. The most important is to make the causes of pollution better known both locally in Varanasi and throughout India. Without public awareness and pressure, nothing will happen for the better.

The main cause of pollution is untreated sewage, which in Varanasi and 113 other cities is dumped directly into the river. So we've put forward a proposal jointly collaborated with the University of California in Berkeley for a cost-effective and safe system for cleaning the Varanasi stretch.

This system does not rely on electric power, which can be erratic in northern India. Instead it moves sewage for the force of gravity, into ponds where it is treated biologically. Deadly coliforms, pesticides and heavy metals are removed forever.

It may take time to "persuade" the apathetic Powers that Be to build this system, even though the funds are available (about 40 million sterling). So other pollution issues are being tackled right now in Varanasi: issues such as open defecation, laundering activities, wallowing cattle and removal of human corpses and animal carcasses from the waterway.

We're trying to encourage pilgrims and citizens alike to alter those habits that contribute to pollution. Young workers responsible to us regularly remove plastic bags, flower garlands and assorted litter from the immediate waterfront. This debris is taken to a remote location across the river where we hope to soon launch sorting operations before final burial in lined pits.

	The Ganga isn't feeling well

We're also conducting seminars and workshops dealing with river pollution. These include awareness programs for schoolchildren and also programs for riverside Hindu priests who conduct rituals along the ghats. These influential priests can play a major role in raising environmental issues with the public.

Firewall of indifference
The struggle to clean our river is ultimately a battle about information rather than technology. It's a battle to create a climate of public awareness to break through the firewall of official indifference in our country.

Millions of my fellow citizens suffer and die because of river pollution. Our politicians should beware the wrath of the masses! "One half of our nation guzzles aerated beverages, while the other half must make do with palmfuls of muddied water," as a past President of India once put it.

This is why we've launched the mission website www.cleanganga.com that is deliberately targeted to the Indian media. This website is unique in India, because it provides our media with environmental stories and pictures that they can use without charge.

Our ultimate goal is a national campaign in coalition with like-minded organisations and citizens. And to make it happen, we've now launched a new program in civil governance to help cities worst hit by Ganga pollution better understand what they can legally do about it. This is being done with generous assistance from the resources of the Asia Foundation in San Francisco.

Campaigns do cost money, I'm afraid. We're grateful to many private individuals and companies, as well as technical assistance agencies in the United States, Australia and Sweden. Our new international chapter Friends of the Ganges UK is now pitching in, as well.

I hope that the historic links between Britain and India can now move into yet another chapter with collaboration with the River Thames and also with the great British public including its Asian community. Together, we can make two great rivers converge, with the goal of fresh water for each and every citizen on the planet.

This is not visionary. It is simply essential. To aim for less would not be worthy of us as human beings.

Dr. Veer Bhadra Mishra has been internationally acclaimed for bringing the plight of the Ganga to the attention of the world. In 1999 he was nominated by Time magazine as "hero for the planet"