[Attention Surplus Disorder]

500 MM people crap in the Ganges daily. “Clean” isn’t a word that will be applicable until India has such things as running water & flush toilets.

[Gamecock]

But with sunrise the veil lifts and the mystique is gone, laying bare the stinking sewer the Ganges has become. Stretches of the river are tar-black. Sewage, industrial effluent, human corpses, and animal carcasses have turned the sacred Ganges into a dying cesspool.

Posted in response to carriage_hill posting this external link elsewhere on FR: Filthy India Photos, Chinese Netizen Reactions (Very Graphic)

Based on the content posted above, the link certainly seems accurate.

[The Sons of Liberty]

Cleaning Up the Ganges

Not just sewage, but I believe the Indians dump their loved one's ashes, and possibly bodies, into the Ganges. With over 1.2 Billion Indians, that's a substantial load.

[ansel12]

Won’t that ruin the flavor?

[2ndDivisionVet]

‘Water Gandhi’ of India Turns Dust Bowls Into Lush Villages Using Ancient Ways
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/3283155/posts

[BitWielder1]

Cleaning up after 444 million people is going to take time and be VERY costly.
But not impossible. 200 years sounds about right.
Start with not throwing dead bodies in the river, build wastewater treatment plants and find ways to reduce and treat industrial waste.
But most of all, keep EPA histrionics out of there, otherwise the costs will just explode.

I believe the Indians are capable of fixing this problem themselves.
Foreign involvement, other than know-how they explicitly ask for, will hinder them in the long run.

[minnesota_bound]

Typ in google: dead people in Ganges river
Click on images. The Indians throw their dead into the river.