Ganges river pollution?

Question

ganges river polluton

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Answer 1

"As it flows through highly populous areas the Ganges collects large amounts of human pollutants, e.g., Schistosoma mansoni and faecal coliforms, and drinking and bathing in its waters therefore carries a high risk of infection. While proposals have been made for remediating this condition, little progress has been achieved.

The combination of bacteriophages and large populations of people bathing in the river have apparently produced a self-purification effect, in which water-bourne bacteria such as dysentery and cholera are killed off, preventing large-scale epidemics. The river also has an unusual ability to retain dissolved oxygen, but the reason for this ability is not known.

A UN Climate Report issued in 2007 indicates that the Himalayan glaciers that feed the Ganges may disappear by 2030, after which the river's flow would be a seasonal occurrence resulting from monsoons."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ganges#Ecol...

"More than 400 million people live along the Ganges River. An estimated 60,000 persons ritually bathe daily in the river, which is considered holy by Indians. In the Hindu religion it is said to flow from the hair of the god Shiva. The spiritual and religious significance could be compared to what the Nile river meant to the ancient Egyptians. While the Ganges may be considered holy, there are some problems associated with the ecology. It is filled with chemical wastes, sewage and even the remains of human and animal corpses which carry major health risks by either direct bathing in the water (e.g.: Bilharziasis infection), or by drinking the highly contaminated water (the Fecal-oral route)."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pollution_o...

"Pollution of the Ganges has become so serious that bathing in and drinking its water has become very dangerous. The major polluting industry along the Ganges is the leather industry especially near Kanpur, from which Chromium and other chemicals leak into the river. Another huge source of pollution is that of the nearly 1 billion litres of mostly untreated raw sewage that enters the river every day. Inadequate cremation procedures result in partially burnt or unburnt corpses floating in the river. The Ganga Action Plan (GAP) was set up in 1985 by the Indian government with British and Dutch support to build a number of waste treatment facilities. Under the GAP sewage is intercepted and water is diverted for treatment and several electrical crematoria have been built. The project is now in its second phase - GAP II."

http://www.africanwater.org/ganges.htm

"Pollution in the Ganges River occurs daily when civilians from all over come to bath in the most sacred river in India. Cremated bodies, sewage from factories, and occasionally a dead animal float around in the river on a daily basis. Because the river is known as a sacred healing body of water, people who have sicknesses and diseases bathe themselves hoping that it will cure them. Others who go into the polluted river do it because of tradition, especially Hindu priests. ..."

http://web.bryant.edu/~langlois/ecology/...

"The river that Hindus worship and call Ganga Ma, or Mother Ganges -- is suffering from a blight of pollution. Other names for the river are The Pure, Destroyer of Sin, and Light amid the Darkness of Ignorance.

Hindu holy men wonder how people can do this to their esteemed river, which is a living goddess to them. ..."

http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/100003.aspx

"Pollution is a huge problem on the Ganges. People bathe in it, sometimes as many as 10 million in one day; they have diseases and poor hygiene. People are cremated and dumped in the river because they believe that the river will purify them (cremated people are not burned well because they can't afford much kindle). Sewage is dumped into the river by the people along it. Factories dump chemicals and waste into the river. Agricultural chemicals wash into it. There's too much grazing of animals that make waste which runs into the river. People believe that the river can purify itself so not very much pollution control is done about it."

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