The clean-up Ganga project, a long promised plan which has been mired in endless bureaucratic delays and political apathy, looks set to acquire force in days to come.
India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of reducing the pollution load in the holy river Ganga has captured the attention of Israel and Denmark, known for their cutting-edge technology in water management. Israeli ambassador Alon Ushpiz, for one, is upbeat about offering Israeli technology for this mission. “Think about the purification of the holy Ganges. I have a list of 200 Israeli companies that can do this,” the envoy told The Times of India, an Indian daily.
Ganga is the longest river in India and it occupies a special place in the Hindu mythology because its holy water is believed to cleanse the soul of its sins and help people attain moksha (salvation).
However, Ganga is also one of the post polluted rivers in the world. The Ganga Action Plan, which was initiated in April 1985 by th
e Indian government to reduce pollution in the river, has been extended several times in the past but proved to be a non-starter. In a statement released on May 7, 2013, India’s environment ministry pegged the expenses incurred till date at Rs.950.32 crore (approx. 150 million USD). 
During the 2014 general elections’ campaign in India, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s manifesto had promised to launch a massive ‘Clean Rivers Programme’ across the country driven by people’s participation. Modi, too, had waxed eloquent about cleaning the sacred river during his rallies at Varanasi, the oldest living cosmological city on the bank of the river from where Modi contested the 2014 elections against activist-turned-politician Arvind Kejriwal, and won by a huge margin.
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