India's Holy Ganges to Get a Cleanup

WSJ ^ | 02/13/10 | KRISHNA POKHAREL

[TigerLikesRooster]

India's Holy Ganges to Get a Cleanup

Government Embarks on $4 Billion Campaign to Treat Heavily Polluted Waters; Devout Hindus Revere River as 'Goddess'

By KRISHNA POKHAREL

VARANASI, India—More than a million devout Hindus bathed in the Ganges River Friday, braving the risk of terrorist attack, stampede and petty crime for the chance to wash away the sins of a lifetime and open the gateway to heaven after death.

But perhaps the greatest threat to the devotees who flocked to Haridwar, India, on one of the most auspicious days of the triennial Kumbh Mela festival, was the water itself.

The river is intensely polluted with sewage and industrial waste. Water-treatment facilities have been unable to keep up with India's rapid growth, often held back by a shortage of funds and other resources.

Now, the spiritually cleansing waters of the Ganges are about to get some cleaning of their own. The Indian government has embarked on a $4 billion campaign to ensure that by 2020 no untreated municipal sewage or industrial runoff enters the 1,560-mile river.

[Little Pig]

Two things I’ve always wondered about with regard to India are:

Why do they pollute their most sacred river, said to flow from the hair of Shiva, so badly that it is dangerous to get its water on you?

Why, if cows are so revered that Hindus only use them for milk production and primitive agriculture, do they allow cows to wander through filthy city streets where their only forage is trash?

[jagusafr]

I’m glad I serve a God who doesn’t need for me to clean Him up.

Colonel, USAFR

[James C. Bennett]

“Whoever serve Me—as I show Myself—
Constantly true, in full devotion fixed,
These hold I very holy. But who serve—
Worshipping Me The One, The Invisible,
The Unrevealed, Unnamed, Unthinkable,
Uttermost, All-pervading, Highest, Sure—
Who thus adore Me, mastering their sense,
Of one set mind to all, glad in all good,
These blessed souls come unto Me.

Yet not by Vedas, nor from sacrifice,
Nor penance, nor gift-giving, nor with prayer
Shall any so behold, as thou hast seen!
Only by fullest service, perfect faith,
And uttermost surrender am I known
And seen, and entered into, Indian Prince!
Who doeth all for Me; who findeth Me
In all; adoreth always; loveth all
Which I have made, and Me, for Love’s sole end,
That man, Arjuna! unto Me doth wend.”

- Bhagavad-Gita.

[Little Pig]

All else being equal, if they can get to where they dump only treated water into the river, it should only take two or three monsoons to get the river safe again.