12 March 2013: The World Bank has reported on the official visit of President Jim Yong Kim to India, where he discussed the India National Ganga River Basin Project, a project financed by the World Bank that aims to clean-up the Ganges River, which accounts for one-fourth of India’s water resources.

The project builds on World Bank efforts to combat poverty in the state of Uttar Pradesh, where 8% of the world’s population living under the poverty line resides. During the visit, President Kim discussed poverty reduction strategies with Indian leaders, including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram, and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav.

According to the Bank, the Ganges River has been suffering from environmental pressures due to high levels of pollution from urban and industrial waste. The $1.556 billion National Ganga River Basin Project, with $1 billion in financing from the World Bank Group, benefits over 400 million Indians living in the Ganges basin.

The World Bank notes that former experiences with river clean-up projects show that there is a need to go beyond sewage treatment and follow a “river basin approach,” which implies a long-term, broad-based stakeholder engagement and an institutional structure reform enabling the link between payment and performance. [President Jim Yong Kim Video] [India National Ganga River Basin Project] [World Bank Press Release]