Lauding the goals set by Prime Minister for cleaning the Ganga, Dutch Premier Mark Rutte today said worldwide there was a need to value water, not only as an economic asset, but also for its social, cultural and environmental importance.
The NDA government's Namami Gange initiative, aimed at cleaning the 2525 km-long river, was undertaken and approved as its flagship programme in June 2014. It has a budget outlay of Rs 20,000 crore to accomplish the objectives of effective abatement of pollution, conservation and rejuvenation of the river.
All of these, he said, were relevant when working on cleaning the Ganga.
I have a great respect for the goals that have been set by Prime Minister Modi under the Namami Gange programme, the Netherlands premier said.
He made the remarks while speaking at an event organised by Indo-Dutch Ganga forum here to take forward the memorandum of understanding signed between the Water Resources Ministry and Netherlands' Ministry of Infrastructure and Environment in June last year, an official statement said.
Rutte said that the essence of the UN-World Bank initiative was to recognise that clean and sufficient water cannot be taken for granted.
Worldwide we need to value water, not only as an economic asset, but also for its social, its cultural, its environmental and of course, its religious knowledge. All of which are so relevant when working on the holy Ganges, Rutte, who is a member of the United Nations-World Bank panel on water, said.
According to the statement, he acknowledged the vastness of the task of cleaning the river and also advocated waste-to-wealth approach to encourage sustainability of projects.
Netherlands Minister of Water and Infrastructure Cora van Nieuwenhuizen seconded him. She expressed the Netherlands government's keenness to work closely with the National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG), which has been implementing the Namami Gange programme.
Union Water Resources Secretary UP Singh and NMCG Director General Rajiv Ranjan Mishra also attended the event. Mishra gave an overview of the programme and said the work is being done expeditiously to complete the task of cleaning the Ganga.
He added that more innovations are being brought-in to ensure more efficiency and transparency and also to keep in mind life cycle costs, according to the statement.
Meanwhile, Union Water Resources Minister Nitin Gadkari had a bilateral meeting with Nieuwenhuizen on various issues, including Ganga rejuvenation and inland water transport.
"Today had a bilateral meeting with Mrs. @CvNieuwenhuizen, Hon'ble Minister of Infrastructure and Water Management, Govt. of Netherlands. We had discussion on range of issues such as Ganga rejuvenation, inland water transport and water resources," he tweeted.
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