New Delhi, June 16: Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee today said there was need to implement the river conservation programme with a greater sense of urgency and commitment as the availability of fresh water has dipped due to man-made pollution. "This is a cause for great concern, especially since the planet's population is projected to increase to about eight billion by 2025. Rightfully, the United Nations has proclaimed 2003 as the international year of fresh water with the slogan water - two billion people are dying for it," he said.
Addressing the eleventh meeting of the National River Conservation Authority here, he said it was ironic that though rivers were considered holy yet "we have allowed river pollution to assume alarming proportions. A major reason for pollution is disposal of untreated sewage from large and medium towns." He said the government's river cleaning programme which was begun with the launching of the Ganga Action Plan has now been extended to the national level and covers 157 towns along 31 polluted stretches of major rivers in 18 states at an estimated cost of about Rs 4063 crore. The Tenth Plan has accorded high priority to address this problem effectively. Bureau Report