Thoughts on the Ganga (heard on NPR)

The other day I was listening to NPR in the morning (these days, for some reason I'm awake at around 530am; then my routine is to have a couple of cups of tea accompanied by the radio). They were going about the world talking to people about pollution and what causes it. This particular piece caught my attention, since it was about the river Ganga, the holiest one in India - and also, in all likelihood, one of the most incredibly polluted.

Of course, industrialization is a major cause of this, particularly with the proliferation of "dirty" businesses like leather tanneries - they use chromium and other chemicals, all of which enter the Ganga. However, industry is not the only source of pollution. About 1 billion liters of raw untreated sewage enters the river flow every day. And then there are the partially burnt or unburnt human corpses floating down the river, as a result of poor or incomplete cremation. And of course, the occasional cow/ goat/ sheep as well.

The conversation on NPR moved to specific causes, and a small but distinctive reason identified was the traditional "dhobis" that use the banks of the river to launder their clients' clothes on a large scale. They use vast quantities of basic detergent and literally beat the shit out of the clothes. One of the dhobis was asked whether he thought it was good for the river or not, all the detergent flowing into it. He replied sincerely, saying that detergent was good for peoples' clothes and so in his opinion, it could only be good for the river - in fact, he thought it would "kill the germs" in the water. Native wisdom, and hard to find fault with!

Regulation works better for industry, I think. Education is the only large-scale effective anti-pollutant for people.