India’s highest court has criticised the country’s efforts to clean up the polluted Ganges river, warning that at the current pace it will take centuries to produce results.
“After seeing your action plan, it seems Ganga will not be cleaned even after 200 years,” said a review from the country’s Supreme Court, accusing the government’s current plan to clean up India’s holiest river of being inept and overly “bureaucratic”.
“You should take steps so that Ganga gets its pristine glory and future generations can see it. We don’t know whether we will see it or not.”
The court, which is examining progress to clean up the river upon which one third of India’s 1.26 billion people depend for water and crop irrigation, also cited evidence that showed water quality at Allahabad and Varanasi, two holy places where millions of people take a dip every year, was now unfit for human bathing.
Narendra Modi, India’s new Prime Minister, has made cleaning up the 2500 km long Ganges - where pollution levels with sewage and industrial waste are dangerously high - a national priority.