Sewerage from over 100 towns flows untreated into the Ganges

River Ganges at Varanasi. Image by Aleksandr Zykov / CC BY-SA 2.0

A new environmental report from the government of India has revealed that more than 118 towns pump at least two thirds of their sewerage directly into the River Ganges, the most sacred river in the Hindu religion. Collectively, the towns pump a staggering 3.6 million litres of untreated human waste into the river every day – a horrifying statistic considering that millions of Indian rely on the river for bathing and drinking water. Nevertheless, the Ganges only ranks as the world’s sixth most polluted river, behind garbage blighted rivers in Indonesia, Bangladesh and the Philippines, and industrial pollution-tainted waterways in China and America. Read more: timesofindia.indiatimes.com