Wikipedia Trails: The Ganges to Millenial Development Goals

Ganges River, Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India.

(Source: Flickr by babasteve)

1) The Ganges:
This week, I read the story of Ganga's descent to Earth, transforming into the Ganges River. I have always been interested in the Ganges River because of how central it is to Hinduism, but also because I am an environmentalist. The Ganges river is 1,569 miles long and begins in the state of Uttarakhand. The Ganges also flows into the country of Bangladesh, where the river is referred to as the Padma. It was interesting to learn that only the Amazon and the Congo River have a greater average discharge than the Ganges. It was interesting to read about the "purifying" aspect of the Ganges, as the flows of the river are not only meant to clean dirt off of your body, but also the sins of your lifetime. The Ganges is not only spiritually important, but it also plays a huge role in the economy of those who live along it. The fertile soil in the Ganges Basin is ideal to grow a variety of crops like "sugarcane lentils, oil seeds, potatoes, and wheat", but it also plays a big role in providing water to irrigate these crops. The Ganges was also a great river for fishing, although it seems as if more people are skeptical about eating fish from the Ganges as it gets more and more polluted. The Ganges is where devout Hindus often dump the ash and bones of those that are cremated, polluting the water and the river ecosystem, but there has been a rise in corpses dumped into the river, leading to the spread of diseases like cholera.

2) The Ganga Action Plan (within article about Pollution of the Ganges)
The Ganges Action Plan (GAP) was initiated in 1985, with the goal of improving water quality by preventing the dumping of sewage into the waters, as well as working to treat the toxic damage that had already been done. GAP has been addressing pollution by locals through the dumping over their waste and by prohibiting the act of letting cattle wallow in the river,  as well as targeting specific sectors by attempting to control agricultural and industrial run-off. The GAP has not only changed policy to prevent dumping but they also aid in the allocation of funding to clean the water, harness the river for energy production, and rehabilitate wildlife that is being harmed by the pollution.

3) The World Bank
As international studies and economics major, I see data pulled from the World Bank almost everyday, but I have never looked at its specifically set out goals and functions. The Wold Bank is an international financial institution that was founded in 1945 with the state objective of reducing poverty. They usually do this by financing loans to developing countries and then monitoring the use of those loans, but the strategies taken to reduce poverty are individual to each country. The World Bank also gives out loans and aid to international organizations like the United Nations (UN) and they also have initiatives that the World Bank directly funds like its Clean Air Initiative, which aims to tackle air pollution in different cities by investing in technology and addressing pollution-related diseases.

4) Millennial Development Goals
In international studies, I have always seen graphics that state the millennial development goals set out by the UN, but I never really looked into how the UN implements these goals into their actions. 

These 8 goals were established in 2000 and were supposed to be achieved by 2015:

1. To eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
2. To achieve universal primary education
3. To promote gender equality and empower women
4. To reduce child mortality
5. To improve maternal health
6. To combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases
7. To ensure environmental sustainability
8. To develop a global partnership for development

These goals were supposed to how the General Assembly of the UN made decisions that had global impacts. A problem that critics had with these goals is that it is hard to measure the progress of all of these things in different countries, especially when each country is start at a different place in reaching these goals.