Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar on Monday said a clean Ganga would not be possible unless its flow is uninterrupted.
In his Independence Day address at Gandhi Maidan, Kumar said River Ganga’s depth has reduced following silt deposition due to construction of a dam at Farakka (known as Farakka barrage in West Bengal).
“I always raise the issue before the Prime Minister in every meeting of Ganga River Basin Authority,” Kumar said.
“I was born at Bakhtiarpur in Patna district. We used to go to take bath in the Ganga. There was wonderful flow with clean water then. We used to take a bucket of water to home for drinking purposes,” Kumar said.
Kumar claimed that he had been raising the issue of ‘uninterrupted flow’ without which it would be difficult to maintain a river’s cleanliness. “We cannot make it clean without ensuring its adequate flow,” he said.
Due to siltation (a type of water pollution), water spreads to adjoining areas if there is a sudden increase in flow, he said.
Kumar said,16 Bihar districts received less than normal rainfall, so far this year, on the other hand, several other districts were affected by floods.