Gangaís powers of purification and absolution are honored by devout pilgrims walk

Today, in popular practice, the Gangaís powers of purification and absolution are honored by all those who trek to her riverbanks to receive her compassionate cleansing. The most devout pilgrims walk the entire length of her flow braving the rugged conditions of the high Himals for a glimpse of her splendor. As an avatarana the Ganga has a place of ascent/descent known as a tirtha, located at the mouth of the river. "She as triloka-patha-gamini, ëflowing from the three worlds,í has crossed over from heaven to earth to the netherworlds and has thus became a place of crossing for human beings, both the living and the dead" (Eck 1982: 176). The Ganga is considered the supreme tirtha in the Kali Yuga, the current age of degradation (Klostermaier 1989: 312).
Although valued for her absolute purity the river itself as the source of all life in northern India has become a site for environmental catastrophe in the last hundred years. Development, trade, and commerce are responsible for building new factories along the river, environmentally unsound installations that use the Ganga for waste disposal of industrial effluents. As the area grows and Indiaís population increases many of the cities that the Ganges flows through have exploded in size. Some five hundred million people, accounting for approximately 8% of the world population, now occupy the Gangetic basin (Stille 1998: 58). In tandem with the discharge of chemical materials municipal sewage is piped directly into the river only to become someone elseís problem downstream.

Dhobis, or washermen, spread their clothes across the ghats in Banaras after washing them in the river

Organic waste, consisting mainly of municipal sewage but also containing trash, food, and human and animal remains, comprises 80% of total waste dumped into the Ganges (Sampat 1996: 24). In Indian memory the Ganga has always served this purpose. Early sewage systems were instituted by the British, many of which were simply flow tables that allowed for waste to be carried out of each city. Sadly these systems which were designed in the late 1800ís and early 1900ís are usually found to still be in operation, poorly accommodating for many more people than they were originally designed for. Kelly Alley cites the example of Varanasiís Orderly Bazaar sewer, which was built in 1917 and, with minimal additions and repair, continues to serve the municipality today due to "lack of sufficient funds". On such smaller scales these sewers effectively diverted human waste into the Ganga, which could, 100 years ago, sustain that level of pollution. The Ganges has long been known to decompose organic waste at an accelerated rate. This is attributed to the rapid rate at which aquatic micro-organisms are able to find DO (dissolved oxygen) and together break down organic waste. The measure of this is designated as BOD (biological oxygen demand). D.S. Bhargava, an environmental engineer at the University of Roorkee, has found that "the Ganges decomposes organic waste 15 to 25 times faster than other rivers (Khalshiyan 1994: 1). Today, however, no feat of organic decomposition can match the tons of organic waste that pour from 114 cities along the Ganga into her waters.
Industrial pollutants, although only currently blamed for 15% of the total waste found in the Ganges, are fouling the river and poisoning its natural wildlife. High levels of industrial effluents can be detected as far north as Rishikesh, the seemingly innocent pilgrimage city. Payal Sampat writes:

It is at Rishikesh that the defilement begins, as raw sewage is dumped into the river along with hydrochloric acid, acetone, and other effluents from large pharmaceutical companies, and heavy metals and chlorinated solvents from electronics plants. The electronics industry, like any other that uses heavy machinery, consumes large amounts of hydraulic fluid and heat transfer fluids that contain polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). (Sampat 1996: 27)

As the Ganga continues to wind its way down towards Calcutta she experiences dozens of similar assaults that leave her waters fetid and filled with toxins and disease. 132 factories, including tap and die manufacturers, textile industries, and tanneries pollute the Ganga with industrial waste as she flows past. Ironically many of the largest offending corporations, including the Diesel Locomotive Works in Varanasi, The Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd. In Hardwar, and the Ordinance Equipment plant in Kanpur are owned by the government, which claims to be taking steps to protect the Ganga and its people (Weaver 1986: 142).
The World Health Organization standards for drinking water require coliform levels that do not exceed 10 per 100 milliliters of water. In Varanasi fecal coliform levels have been recorded as high as 100,000 per 100 ml. Elsewhere on the river the count ranges from 4,500 in the north to as high as 120,000 at its estuary before it flows into the Bay of Bengal. It comes as no surprise then that waterborne illnesses, such as viral hepatitis, dysentery, typhoid, cholera, gastro-enteritis plague communities up and down the Ganga. Sampat, writing for the Worldwatch Institute, lists these statistics: "One person in the [Gangetic] region dies of diarrhea every minute, and eight of every 10 people suffer from amoebic dysentery each year." (Sampat 1996: 26, 29). Alexander Stille, reporting for The New Yorker, claims these water-related illnesses "account for the death of more than two million Indian children each year" (Stille 1998: 60). 80% of all health problems in India and one-third of all deaths are attributed to the groundwater problem. A mere 7% of Indiaís 3,000 cities have existing sewage treatment facilities (Sampat 1996: 33).

One Indian student's artistic comment on the degraded state of the Ganga.
"Ganda Jal is a word play on Ganga Jal. Ganda means dirty and Jal means water. Today the river is filthy. The Ganga is pumped full of raw sewage, industrial waste while human and animal carcasses bob on the surface. Despite this people still regard the water of the Ganga as pure. They bathe in it, drink, sell, pray and pollute it."

Indigenous marine life in the Ganga today is threatened with extinction. The catch of hilsa, a species of Indian salmon, has been dramatically reduced in the last twenty years as has many other species. Those few that remain for local fishermen are of questionable value as many contain toxic levels of zinc and lead. As the sewage and bacteria encounter the hot sun of northern India algae proliferates. The natural need for algae is exceeded and rather than this decomposition resulting in increased oxygen it consumes oxygen. As a result marine life is threatened by the demands of the pollution on oxygen levels in the water.

The major polluting industries on the Ganges are the leather industries, especially near Kanpur, which use large amounts of chromium and other chemicals, and much of it finds its way into the meager flow of the Ganga. Unfortunately, this is a boom time for leather processing in India, which many view as a form of eco-environmental dumping on the third world, and with the lax and lubricable implementation systems of the Uttar Pradesh government, it does not seem likely that this will go down. The World Bank report of 1992, which focused on the environmental issues, mentions the dissolved-oxygen and the river-borne decomposing material at two focal points on the Ganga.

However, industry is not the only source of pollution. The sheer volume of waste — estimated at nearly 1 billion litres per day - of mostly untreated raw sewage — is a significant factor. Also, inadequate cremation procedures contributes to a large number of partially burnt or unburnt corpses floating down the Ganga, in addition to livestock corpses.

Residents and local corporators in Kanpur were on warpath as the taps in many localities of this industrial town supplied black, brown, yellow stinking water. In Allahabad, the sadhu fraternity refused to take a holy dip on Mauni Amawasya enraged at government’s callousness to check pollution in Ganga whose water they said was no longer fit for religious ritual.

HYDERABAD SEPT. 14. In spite of the massive Rs. 1,500-crore plan launched in the '80s to clean up the Ganga, the pollution levels in the mighty river continue to be alarmingly high and are contributing to about nine to 12 per cent of the total disease burden in Uttar Pradesh, a team of environmentalists from the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and India have concluded in a World Bank-sponsored study.
The study — "State of environment report-U.P." — considered various parameters such as BOD (Biological Oxygen Demand), the Ph level, Coliform bacteria, COD (Chemical Oxygen Demand) and assessed the quality of the river water as per the index set by the National Science Foundation (NSF), United States.
The evaluation, undertaken by Metro Economica, U.K., the Institute for Environment Studies, the Netherlands, and the Administrative Staff College of India (ASCI), found that the water quality did not meet even the minimum index level set by the NSF for any kind of use.
Tilotham R. Kolanu, faculty member, Centre for Energy and Environment, ASCI, told The Hindu that while the minimum mark set by the NSF was 50 on a 1 to 100 scale for any kind of use of water, the water quality index did not touch even 45 at most places along the course of Ganga. The Coliform bacteria levels continued to be above two lakh MPN (Most Probable Number) as against 5,000, the national water quality standard fixed by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB). The bacterial levels were around four lakhs before the launch of the action plan. The Coliform bacteria cause water borne diseases such as diarrhoea. He expressed concern that the bacterial levels were not on a par with the national standards even after spending Rs. 1,500 crores.
The report estimated the total health damage on account of water pollution in Uttar Pradesh to be around 6.4 million DALYs (Disability Adjusted Life Years) a year. With the water pollution contributing around nine to 12 per cent of the total disease burden, monetarily it has been put at a whopping Rs. 960 crores a year. Diarrhoea and other digestive diseases were found to be responsible for 70 per cent of DALYs.
Low forest cover
Another area of concern was the low forest cover — 4.7 per cent — after the formation of Uttaranchal, with the recommended forest cover being 33 per cent. A major cause for the low forest cover was the high density of population — 736/sq.km.
With regard to land quality, it was found that around nine per cent of the geographic area became degraded in Uttar Pradesh. The quality of soil was adversely affected by growing fertiliser consumption and distortion in the N:P:K ratio, which was 10:3:1 as against the mandatory 4:2:1. Salinity was found to be the major cause of land degradation due to water logging.
The ambient air pollution was increasing in Agra, Varanasi and Kanpur and decreasing in Lucknow due to better traffic management. However, in almost all the cities, the SPM (suspended particulate matter) levels were above the CPCB standards.
The application of Industrial Pollution Projection System model showed that Kanpur, Ghaziabad, Sondadra, Kaushambi, Meerut, Bareilly and Lucknow were found to be having high emissions of industrial pollution.
While 412,000 DALYs a year were stated to be lost due to outdoor air pollution, 2.5 million DALYs a year (around Rs. 37.5 billion) were estimated to have been lost due to indoor air pollution.
Acute respiratory infections account for 65 per cent of the DALYs.

Two simultaneous agitations. Identical reason.
It is a story of how downstream towns suffer due to activities upstream. There are distilleries, paper, sugar mills and chemical units in Meerut, Rampur, Gajraula Industrial Estate, Moradabad, Bulandsahar and other towns of Western Uttar Pradesh and Uttaranchal which discharge their highly contaminated, multi-coloured waste into the Ram Ganga and Kali rivers, the tributaries of Ganga which meet it in the upstream of Kanpur. The industrial effluents generated by upstream towns aggravate Kanpur’s drinking water problem. In Kanpur, 350-odd leather-making units add to the pollution of the holy river. Resultantly, further down, Allahabad gets more toxic water.
A beeline of gastro enteritis patients at Kanpur hospitals and the growing ire of the saints at Allahabad made the authorities concerned take stock of the state of affairs. Taking strong note of the situation, the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) took samples of the Ganga water at various locations. It was found that the oxygen level in Ram Ganga at Farrukhabad was 0.4 milligram per litre due to which shoals of fish were dying. The CPCB has pointed out that Ram Ganga and Kali are polluted owing to the untreated industrial waste discharged by paper factories, distilleries and other chemical units which have turned the river water black and yellow. Similarly, the Mayor of Kanpur alleges that most upstream districts have closed their treatment plants and so the impact can be seen in the city’s drinking water. Interestingly, the CPCB officials saw deep yellow water in Ram Ganga river in Haldwani district of Uttranchal. However, instead of taking any action against the erring units, the Uttaranchal authorities have washed their hands off the problem.
The Uttar Pradesh (UP) government has directed the district magistrates of Farrukhabad, Meerut and Moradabad to initiate action against the sugar mills and distilleries. Already, the cash-starved Kanpur Jal Sansthan (Water Works) is spending Rs 50,000 extra everyday in purification of highly polluted raw water from Ganga. Acting General Manager and Secretary of Jal Sansthan RS Tiwari said that unless the pollutants are tapped from being released in the mainstream, the Sansthan will face a financial crunch and may be forced to stop water purification process. Sources say that the Jal Sansthan has been, of late, using alum and liquid chlorine at the rate of 80 to 90 kgs in place of 20 to 30 kgs per hour. Jal Sansthan authorities opine that the effluents released in the upstream would impact the raw water source of Kanpur for many days. Even if the pollutants released upstream are tapped today, it would take at least five days before Kanpur’s tryst with contaminated water ends.
Meanwhile the protesting sants at Allahabad have noted that they would take more stringent steps to restore the glory of Ganga. Saints like Shankaracharya of Jyotirmath, Swami Swaroopanand Saraswati and Swami Nischalanand of Puri have said that if the situation is not salvaged, their agitation would mount. The Shankaracharya of Puri warned that a time would come when the people of this country would not even like to spit on the politicians and factory owners who have ganged up to pollute the holy river. Some sadhus have started fast-unto-death to press their demand of a pollution-free Ganga. A few threatened self-immolation and created human chains along the riverside. They scored a partial victory when acting on a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by the Mahant of Kabir Ashram Guruvachan Das, the Allahabad High Court directed the UP government to stop pollution of Ganga caused by the leather manufacturers in Kanpur and release water from the Narora barrage. However, Executive Secretary of Eco Friends Rakesh Jaiswal says that the present crisis of Ganga pollution is a direct fallout of the release of a cocktail of industrial effluents by units upstream of Kanpur. But, it seems, Ganga pollution has become synonymous with tannery waste. And hence the saints’ anger targeting the leather-making units and the subsequent Allahabad High Court order. He added that instead of taking action against the real culprits, the authorities are still groping in the dark.