Pollution in the Ganges

The Ganges River, also known as Ganga, is one of the most sacred places in all of India. Stretching from high in the Himalaya Mountains down into the Bay of Bengal, the Ganges River provides water for over 500 million people while being ranked fifth for the most polluted river in the world. Not only does the Ganges River supply water for half a billion people, but it also is used and depended on for spiritual purposes. Hindus all over India cleanse themselves and drink out of the Ganges' water.

However, taking baths and drinking are not the only things the Ganges provides for. Animal waste, industrial waste, sewage, and human remains flow all throughout the river, causing the Ganges to become more and more polluted every day.

The Ganges River is now plagued with deadly bacteria that can resist some types of antibiotics. Many pathogenic bacteria, such as Salmonella, Shigella, Vibrio, Enterobacter, and Escherichia, are thriving in large quantities along the river. The Ganges is so polluted that it has been compared to diluted sewage with its large amounts of waste and bacteria free-floating in its water. Due to the large amounts of bacteria being present, micro-organisms that kill bacteria, called bacteriophages, have been found in large numbers within the water. According to a Harvard study, bacteriophages are able to kill antibiotic-resistant bacteria. The National Environmental Engineering Research Institute states that the Ganges contains around 1,100 types of bacteriophages. In the Ganges, there are three times more bacteriophages than bacteria. Although it does not solve the Ganges' pollution crisis, having many bacteriophages will eventually purify the water of most types of bacteria over many years.

The Ganges River, even with the bacteriophages, is still incredibly polluted with waste from factories and homes. Nevertheless, the Indian government has issued many clean-ups of the Ganges and has taken measures to prevent the holy river from getting any more polluted for the safety of the Indian people.

No matter how much the government cleans up the river, the pollution never seems to dissipate. Due to many religious traditions, such as bathing and cremation, the river constantly has more and more waste dropped into it. As many as 40 thousand cremations take place every year in the Ganges; many families cannot afford enough wood to completely cremate the bodies which causes the bodies to only be half-burnt when floating down the river.

Although $3 billion of funds have been allocated to cleaning up the Ganges, the many thousands of Indians using the river every day kept making the clean-ups obsolete; that is until the Coronavirus forced many Indian people into lockdown. Since the Coronavirus has killed 407 thousand people as of July 11th, the Indian people have been forced inside their homes to limit the spread, in turn making the Ganges less used. Due to many cremations being on land and many people not able to bathe in the Ganges river, the pollution is at an all-time low. Additionally, 10% of the pollution in the Ganges is from industries, and with many industries being closed the water has become clear and much purer. Consequentially, the surrounding areas alongside the Ganges have become much healthier.

The Indian government's clean-ups of the Ganges River usually do not work well, however, through the determination of the Indian people to restore their holy river to its former glory, there is hope for the Ganges to become clear and pure again.

Sanitation in India

Infamous for sooty air, polluted water, and generally troublesome sanitation, India has made many strides in the past few years but still has much to do in order to improve sanitation. Due to a lack of access to toilets, many problems like clean drinking water, disease spreading, and contamination can arise.

According to Unicef, in 2015 568 million people were forced to defecate in fields or open areas due to lack of sufficient toilets, more than 90% of the people that do so in South Asia and half of the people in the world that did so. In 2019, the number of people was decreased to 450 million, but still is far from over.

The Swachh Bharat, or Clean India mission was founded by India’s Prime Minister in 2014 to try to fix this widespread issue. Defecation can spread cholera, typhoid, COVID-19, among others. While overpopulation and lack of sanitation of infrastructure has led to this problem and still occurs today, Modi, the Prime Minister, practically declared that he had overcome the defecation problem in October of 2019.

There are a few reasons why open defecation still happens in the nation. As mentioned before, overpopulation and lack of toilets is one of the main reasons for this problem, but is actually most common in more rural areas of India. As well as this, culturally, bathrooms are seen as unclean and put outside the house, and some feel that open defecation is more sanitary. Even if the government builds new bathrooms and toilets, people still do not always use them because of miscommunication about safety.

Besides the Swachh Bharat, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s Reinvent the Toilet Challenge encourages development of new and cheap toilets in rural areas of India that can be put practically anywhere. World Toiletday, November 19, is another way to raise awareness for the lack of toilets and open defecation problem in India. While not all people can use it, Google Maps now shows the locations of 57,000 public toilets in India to raise awareness and promote use of them. Finally, firms like Garv Toilets aim to make clean, new, easy to maintain toilets all around India.

The Ganges River provides water for around 400 million Indians, yet cities directly inject sewage and other pollution into it, making it unsafe to bathe or drink. 88 million people lack access to sustainable water, whether it is clean or not. In fact, because of the lack of public and safe toilets, women have a substantially higher chance of being sexually assaulted.

To conclude, the bulk of bad sanitation in India comes from water, and really needs to be targeted in order to improve the health and wellbeing of citizens. Due to open defecation in fields and other public areas, water sources can become contaminated, leading to countless diseases being spread. The country as a whole needs to keep addressing the issues, as well as better education on sanitation and better access to public or private toilets will all in all improve the growing problem of sanitation in India.

Water Crisis in India

Water is a necessity for life to exist. As humans, we need water to drink and clean. Water is what sustains life and allows humans to prosper. Without this valuable resource, people begin to suffer. In India, 88 million people lack access to safe water.

Many in India face droughts and are suffering. The cause of this would be agriculture and the government’s lack of action. Agriculture is a big way that most people in India survive. They harvest crops and sell them for money. The two biggest crops that are grown are rice and wheat. However, these crops require an abundance of water to grow, contributing to the droughts in India.

Rice is more grown and requires more water. As it gets hotter and hotter, water begins to evaporate, requiring more water to grow. Rice is so water-demanding and other plants would provide food while needing less water, which brings into question why they grow rice. The answer happens to be money.

In India, rice is one of the only crops to have a guaranteed price. Due to this, rice is a safe crop to grow as it guarantees a profit. Farmers want to grow other crops, but their only chance of profiting from agriculture is growing rice.

A pound of rice needs 500 gallons of water, which the irrigation systems in India could not even provide for rice. Farmers mainly rely on well water when growing rice. Governments provided free electricity for well pumps, leading to more rice being grown. However, the groundwater in India began to deplete. In 2017, federal reports estimated that the groundwater would be exhausted by 2039.

Unfortunately, farmers do not have much choice as to what they grow. Farmers spend large amounts of money on well pumps and fertilizers. These things lead to debt in farmer families and create a need to make money to survive, which means they must grow rice if they want any chance of repaying their financial debts.

Climate change is also causing droughts along with agriculture. Climate change has shortened the monsoon rains. These rains, which usually lasted 45 days, now only last 22 days. Even worse, the rain within the duration is far less intense than it used to be.

Another aspect to mention is the potability of water. While people may or may not have access to water, they might not have access to clean water. Some factors that contribute to this are open defecation and water pollution. 26% of Indians practice open defecation and contaminate waters. Bio and chemical pollution are also present and contaminate waters in India. 22% of diseases in India are caused by unsafe drinking water.

The most important factor in all of this is the government’s response and actions: which is practically nonexistent. The water crisis is mainly in rural regions of India, so there is not a lot of media attention around the crisis. However, if the crisis worsens, urban areas will be affected. The government’s water policy is also very poor.

The drought in India is serious and government action is necessary. With an improved water policy or more fixed prices on crops, farmers could use less water. With agriculture being 90% of all water used in India, allowing them to use less water and live a sustainable life will be crucial to helping India with its water crisis along with a stronger water policy that would prevent the drawing of so much water out of the ground.