World Water Day

VARANASI: A woman after taking a dip in the holy water of the Ganga at Dashashwamedh Ghat offered prayers to the rising Sun and threw offerings (bunch of flowers) into the river. It was her utmost devotion to Mother Ganga, but perhaps she did not know that her devotion was causing harm to the revered river.
This woman is not alone. Hundreds of men and women were also showing their devotion to the Ganga in a similar fashion when children of different schools and volunteers of social organisations formed a human chain and appealed to them not to dump floral garlands, plastic bags and other harmful things into the river.The human chain along the river was formed by the Sankat Mochan Foundation to mark the World Water Day on Sunday.
The seven-km long river-face along the city extending from Asi to Varuna is believed to be a hallowed place. Thousands of people take holy dip in the Ganga on the ghats every day. And, for some of them the Ganga is the medium of life because they have immense faith in the holy river. They want to have a darshan of the Ganga, touch its water and get ecstatic contentment by sipping 'Gangajal'. Definitely the culture and the faith related to the Ganga have survived for thousands of years.
But, people who throw floral garlands into the Ganga or wash dirty linen on the bank are committing a sin. Not only this, the agencies responsible for keeping the river clean are also committing a crime by allowing free discharge of sewage into it. One can see the free flow of sewage at various points along the ghats.
Most of the devotees and bathers did not know about the World Water Day or its importance, highlighted by the United Nations. However, they were inquisitive about the WWD after seeing the children carrying placards and forming human chains on the ghats. The sewage falling into the river should be stopped, said one of them taking a pledge that he would never pollute the river.
A meeting was also held at the Rajendra Prasad Ghat. Addressing the meeting, Prof Veer Bhadra Mishra, president of SMF, an organisation working for the cause of the Ganga for over 25 years, also expressed his concern over the sewage discharge into the river and made an appeal to the local administration to check it immediately. He said it was a matter of great satisfaction that the second phase of the Ganga Action Plan had been started and the SMF was extending its purposeful support to the cause. He said the main objective of the programme was to create awareness among the people to save the Ganga from pollution. The meeting was addressed by several persons including Prof Vishwambhar Nath Mishra, Swami Avimukteshwaranad Saraswati, MLAs Ajay Rai and Shyamdeo Roychaudhury.
Some facts
# About 90 per cent of the pollution of the Ganga in Varanasi is caused by sewage. Sewage flows untreated into the religious bathing areas through many overflows and leaks.
# The disposal of human and animal bodies into the river is also polluting the river. However, this pollution source has less severe impacts than the huge volume of sewage.
# In addition, there are many other minor non-point sources of pollution like disposal of solid waste, plastic bags and flower garlands, people using soaps and detergents for washing.
World Water Day
# The international observance of World Water Day is an initiative that grew out of the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro.
# On March 22, the World Water Day is held to highlight the importance of fresh water and how to manage water sustainability.
# In 2009, under the theme "Shared Water - Shared Opportunities", trans-boundary water is in focus.
# Lead agencies for World Water Day 2009 are the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) and the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE).