Thursday, September 15 2005 17:40 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Britain today (Sept 15, 2005) offered to assist India in the ambitious 'Clean Ganga' project as it has 'considerable experience' in clearing pollution in such water bodies.

Participating in a seminar on the subject here, British High Comissioner Sir Michael Arthur illustrated how his country had cleaned up river Thames after facing similar problems of preservation and protection of its rivers.

"We have considerable experience of removing pollution from rivers in the United Kingdom and we made great strides in the clean-up of the river Thames through London," he said at the seminar attended by various civil society organizations and water resource experts.

Arthur said his country has been funding the project through an NGO 'Sankat Mochan Foundation' and was willing to help in the future also.

The British envoy said he had visited Varanasi last year to have a 'first-hand' view of the challenges posed by the pollution of Ganga said he believed the river had a 'worldwide Importance'.

"The UK has a community of over 1.5 million people of Indian origin and our own river Soar in Leicester has been consecrated with water from the Ganges to enable the scattering of ashes," he said.