IIT Kanpur, EU agency join hands to clean up Ganga
01 Dec 2012
The European Business and Technology Centre (EBTC) and the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur (IITK) have entered into a partnership for cleaning the Ganga, one of the most polluted rivers in the world.
EBTC, an initiative co-funded by the European Union (EU), and coordinated by Eurochambers, also announced the ''India Water Impact Summit'' to be organized from 3 to 5 December in the Capital.
The event is being organised in collaboration with a consortium of seven Indian Institutes of Technologies (IITs) and ETI Dynamics (UK) along with partners, IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute, Finpro and Lyon Chamber of Commerce.
The event will provide the necessary impetus for developing water and environment infrastructure along the river Ganges and other water bodies in India, according to a release issued today.
EBTC is aiming to bring in relevant technologies from EU research institutions and companies. EBTC's environment sector specialist Monish Verma said: ''EBTC is working in the context of rivers in India and helping to improve the technologies available for reducing industrial effluent flows into the river''.
It is estimated that over 12 billion litres of sewage and 4 billion litres of industrial effluent are generated in the river basin every day. Less than one-third of these are treated before they are discharged into the river.
According to IITK, in addition to this load, it is estimated that around 52,000 tonnes of solid waste gets generated every day in this basin.
