Germany’s 50-year experience in cleaning and reviving its water bodies and integrating various commuting modes in cities can be of tremendous help in rejuvenating Kochi’s canals and ensuring seamless inter-modal integration, German Ambassador in India Martin Ney has said.
Speaking to The Hindu , he said numerous rivers and lakes in Germany were dirty 50 years ago. “That is not the situation now, and people can safely swim in them, since German firms have the technical know-how for cleaning them.”
The German government has offered help to Kochi, Coimbatore, and Bhubaneswar for urban rejuvenation and sustainable development. “There is tremendous scope for rejuvenating Kochi’s canals [which were navigable till encroachments and garbage dumping made them unusable] and treating the city’s garbage and waste waster [which presently drains into water bodies and the sea]. In fact, Kochi has received €85 million, which is one-fourth of this fiscal’s German aid worth €320 million to India to promote climate-friendly urban mobility,” Mr. Ney said.
On presentations made before the German team by the Kochi Corporation and Kochi Metro Rail Limited (KMRL), he said he was fascinated by the list of focused demands, which included help for seamless urban mobility and tidying canals. On how issues like dumping of garbage into water bodies can be prevented, he called for creation of awareness and installation of garbage bins which should be cleaned regularly.
To a question on how canals having low-lying bridges can be made navigable, he said Berlin had numerous low-lying historic bridges. “We overcame the issue by designing flat-roofed boats which have minimal height,” he added.
Renewable energy
Having visited the Cochin International Airport on Friday, he termed as “amazing” the airport meeting its energy requirements from solar panels installed in its buffer zone.
