Geography and the Early Settlement of India
Reading Further - Saving the Ganges
The Ganges is India’s sacred river. In the Hindu religion, “Ganga,” as the river is called, is considered a
goddess. Yet the Ganges has become one of the most polluted rivers in the world. How did this happen? What
are people doing to correct the problem?
It is Saturday in Allahabad, India. A large crowd of Hindu pilgrims descends the steps of a ghat, or ritual bathing area, to
step into the waters of the
Ganges. Devout Hindus believe that a
dip in the river washes away their
sins. About two million people take that
dip every day. Children leap happily from
the bottom step, as they would at a
swimming pool. Mothers bathe their
infants. People wash their hair, their
clothes, even their mouths in the sacred
river. One elderly man scoops up water in
a pot. “I’ll use this for drinking and
cooking and get some more tonight,” he
says. “It’s absolutely clean. Of course it
is, it’s Ganges water.”
The Ganges begins where a number of
small streams form from melting glaciers
in the Himalaya Mountains. The river
flows for 1,560 miles along its southeast
course to the sea. It empties into the Bay
of Bengal. Indian civilization developed
along its banks. About four hundred
million people—a third of India’s
population—still live along the river and
its branches. The Ganges is their main
source of water for drinking, cooking, and
washing. Farmers depend on the river to grow rice, beans, sugarcane, potatoes, wheat, and other crops.
What that elderly man said about his pot of Ganges water may have been correct—once. Until the 1980s, the Ganges
was a remarkably clean river. It is rich in dissolved oxygen. Disease-carrying bacteria did not live long in its waters. This
was largely due to bacteria-eating viruses called bacteriophages. Unlike most river water, a pot of Ganges water would
stay fresh for a long time. The river’s self-purifying nature may be one reason why the Hindu people considered the
Ganges a goddess.
Today, however, the situation is very different. The Ganges has become so polluted that it can no longer clean itself. Its
waters are now unhealthful not only for drinking and bathing but for farming as well.
Ancient River, Modern Problems
The main source of pollution is untreated
sewage. The Ganges flows past some of India’s
largest cities. In the last 60 years, India has
struggled to develop a modern economy. While
population and industry have grown enormously,
sanitation has not kept pace. Fewer than half of
India’s people have modern plumbing.
Millions of gallons of sewage from more than 100
cities pour into the Ganges each day. Treatment
plants can handle only a fraction of it. Much
sewage does not reach the plants because many
sewers are broken. Electricity sometimes goes
out. Then the plants shut down, but the sewage
keeps flowing. And many cities along the Ganges
have no sewage treatment plants at all.
Sewage is not the only problem. Cows swim in
the Ganges. People wash their laundry in it. Dead
bodies and body parts drift in the water, because
traditional Hindus do not bury their
dead. They cremate, or burn, the bodies. Many
Hindus ask to be cremated on the Ganges’
banks. Their ashes are put in the river. But some
bodies do not burn completely. And some people
are too poor to buy firewood. They simply put the
dead bodies of their loved ones into the river.
The pollution is very bad at Varanasi. This is a city downstream from Allahabad. To Hindus, Varanasi is the holiest of
cities. Every year, millions of pilgrims bathe at its more than 75 ghats. As it enters Varanasi, the Ganges contains 120
times more disease-causing bacteria than is safe for bathing. Then it flows past 24 sewers. Four miles downstream, the
bacterial count is3,000 times the safe level. Each day, more than 1,000 Indian children die of cholera, typhoid, or
hepatitis. These are diseases caused by water-borne bacteria.
There are also the factories and farms. Leather tanning, cloth making, and fertilizer manufacturing use cancer-causing
chemicals that end up in the Ganges. And when farmers spray their crops to kill insect pests, these poisons flow into the
Ganges, too. The life-giving Ganga has become an agent of death.
A Hero of the Planet
Dr. Veer Bhadra Mishra is a Hindu priest. He is the head of Sankat Mochan, Varanasi’s second-largest temple. Every
morning, he takes his ritual dip in the Ganges. But more than most Hindus, he knows better than to drink the
water. Mishra is a scientist, a water engineer who was once a university professor. He has made it his life’s work to clean
up “Mother Ganga.”
“All our rivers have stories,” Mishra says. “All our rivers are important. But there is nothing anywhere like the Ganga.”
Mishra was born a priest. The leadership of his temple has passed from father to eldest son since the 16th century. He
inherited the job when he was
14. But his mother urged him to
attend college, too. No one in his
family had ever been to school.
Mishra believes it happened
because the Ganges needed his
help. Mishra’s education led him
to understand that the Ganges
was in trouble. But it seemed to
him that nobody in India’s
government was interested in
doing anything about the
dangerous pollution. Even other
Hindu priests seemed not to care
about the problem.
So, in 1982, Mishra started the Sankat Mochan Foundation to help people living along the Ganges. The foundation set up
a program called “Campaign for a Clean Ganga.” Its goal is to educate people about the causes of pollution. It maintains a
Web site, posting articles about environmental issues. India’s news media may use the information for free.
Donations came from the United States and other nations. Other foundations, governments, and people also
contributed. In 1999, Dr. Mishra won a Time magazine “Hero of the Planet” award. Three years later, the United Nations
honored him.
The Indian government began to pay attention, too. In 1986, it launched the Ganga Action Plan, or GAP. The plan was to
use sewage treatment plants to clean up the Ganges. The GAP was an expensive failure. There were not enough plants
to handle the amount of sewage. There was not enough power to run the plants. By 2002, the Ganges was more polluted
than ever.
Dr. Mishra did not give up. He had another plan that would use simpler technology. With a group of California scientists,
he developed a system that did not need electricity. It used gravity to divert pollutants from the Ganges into ponds where
they would be stored for 45 days. Helpful bacteria, algae, and sunlight would break the pollutants down into harmless
substances.
Mishra wanted to try out this plan in Varanasi. He believed it would be cheaper and more effective than the government’s
plan. The Varanasi city council accepted the idea. But the state and national governments turned it down.
Mishra knew that it would take time to gain acceptance for his plan. In the meantime, he began to educate the people of
his city. He wanted to change their age-old habits that harmed the river. His foundation met with priests and pilgrims. It
organized citizens and children. Young workers cleaned up litter from the banks of the Ganges. But the problem was so
huge that these efforts had little effect.
Scientists from other countries heard about Mishra’s project. Steve Hamner, a scientist from Montana State University,
traveled to India in 2003. He met with Dr. Mishra and other Indian scientists. Hamner and an Indian government lab made
detailed studies of Ganges water. The pollution was measured in a scientific way. The Indian lab brought the findings to
India’s Supreme Court.
This time the government listened. In 2007, India’s prime minister met with Dr. Mishra. A year later, Mishra heard what he
called “the best news in 20 years.” The government was agreeing to support a pilot program of his plan in Varanasi. If it
worked there, it could be put into effect all along the Ganges.
The Ganges’ story is not over. Time will tell whether it is too late to restore India’s sacred river. But Dr. Mishra seems to
have no doubts. As he confidently puts it, “Mother Ganges will help me to save her.”