CampaignWe want a clean
Ganga!
Along the ghats of Varanasi, more than twenty thousand people hold hands together and take
a pledge. A pledge to have a cleaner Ganga.
The ghats of Varanasi have seen millions of people offer prayers and take ritual
bathing in the Ganga. Today, the river faces severe water pollution. One person in the
Ganga Basin dies every 60 seconds of diarrhoea and eight out of every ten suffer from
amoebic dysentery each year. And yet millions continue to bathe in the Ganga waters.
The people of Varanasi have decided - to fight for their river. The Sankat Mochan
Foundation is doing just that. The Clean Ganga Campaign initiated by the Varanasi based
organisation, every year on world water day organise a human chain and pledge to fight for
a cleaner Ganga. Thousands of people and a number of schools gather along the entire 7km
of the waterfront every year on the world water day to hold hands and form a human chain.
They pledge that neither they themselves nor would they allow others to pollute Ganga. The
fourth such annual meet is going to take place on March 22, 2003 -the world water day.
This year being the International Year of Freshwater gives more meaning to the campaign.
The city of Varanasi is going to witness more than 20,000 people form human chain all
along the ghats of Varanasi. You can join hands and volunteer for the campaign. For more
information contact:
Campaign for Clean Ganga
Sankat Mochan Foundation
15, Tulsi Ghat
Varanasi 221 001, India
E-mail: amit@cleanganga.com,
www.cleanganga.com
A noble Initiative
Four politicians have got together to introduce a new Nobel
Prize for Sustainable Development. Since 1901, Nobel Prize is being awarded to individuals
for their outstanding achievement in the field of physics, chemistry, physiology,
medicine, peace, or literature. The last addition to this list was made way back in 1968,
when Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences was included in the Nobel Prizes list. The world and
the environment that surrounds us has changed a lot since then.
In recent times, issues of environment degradation and pollution are gripping nations
worldwide. Today, the contributions of individuals towards an environment friendly pattern
of development needs international acclaim. A Dutch Member of Parliament Van der Ham,
British Member of the European Parliament Davies, former youth-representative for the UN
Ingrid Aaldijk and US-congresSman Greenwood have got together for a nobel cause.They will
send a letter to the Nobel-foundation with signatures of individuals, companies, NGO's and
politicians from all over the world supporting such a prize. You can sign the petition
online at
www.sustainable-prize.net.
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