In the 1850s, the Thames in London was so
polluted and stinking that the Parliament had to be shifted away from the
river, says Robert Oates, director of the Thames River Restoration Trust. A
century and half on, the river is much cleaner and Britain, he says, is now
investing in cleaning a tributary of the Thames, the Lee, ahead of the London
Olympics in 2012. While the Delhi government has said it cannot clean the
Yamuna ahead of the Commonwealth Games this October, those linked to the Thames
river cleaning and restoration project say the problem of pollution here is
much larger, and thus the solutions also need to come faster. Oates, whose
Trust works with the British government and the Environment Agency of England
and Wales to clean the Thames, says: “One of the things we have done is create
tourism and sports opportunities along the Thames. People have to feel for the
river and want to make it part of their lives. The Environment Agency, for
example, collects fee for an yearly licence for angling. ‘Delhi, yamuna’s
problems bigger’ Around 150 years ago, “human activities” led to Thames being
declared the first biologically dead river, Oates says, “But we have managed to
revive the river since then. The problems in Yamuna are much larger — the
Thames is only about a quarter of its length. “The Industrial Revolution in
England got over 150 years ago. India, on the other hand, is growing and
probably experiencing an Industrial Revolution ten times (larger).
NEWS