Israel
has expressed interest in sharing its expertise on water purification
and waste water treatment under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s pet
project for cleaning river Ganga.
The Centre had set a target of three years to rejuvenate the polluted
holy river Ganga and has formed an integrated plan ‘Namaami Gange’ in
this regard.
“We have already met the Union Water Resources Minister Uma Bharti
and the concerned Secretary few times, we want to be involved. We
offered our knowledge, technology and technical know-how (for the
project),” Israel’s Head of Economic and Trade Mission Yonatan Ben-Zaken
said.
Speaking on sidelines of a seminar on ‘Water Security & Waste
Water Management’, he said Israel is known for its capabilities and
expertise in waste water treatment, purification and water reuse for
agriculture and industry.
“We are in talks and we think that cleaning industrial pollutants
from the river (Ganga) should be first priority,” Yonatan said.
Emphasising on the need to make Ganga rejuvenation a mass movement,
Modi had yesterday said the first priority of the Namaami Gange mission
should be to prevent fresh generation of pollutants.
Modi was chairing the first high level meeting of the mission.
As many as 11 Israeli companies participated at the seminar, which
was a B2B (business-to-business) interaction between Israeli and Indian
companies.
The companies included Aqwise, Biopetroclean, Amiad, Ayala Aqua and Nisco.
The 25 Indian companies that were invited for the event included
L&T, Punj Lloyd, IVRCL, Essar, Engineers India Ltd (EIL), Bharat
Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL) and National Thermal Power Corporation
(NTPC).
