This is an excerpt from Lonely Planet's India, regarding the Ganges River:
"The Ganges River, or Great Mother as it is known to the Hindus, provides millions of Indians with an important link to their spirituality. Every day about 60,000 people go down to the Varanasi ghats to take a holy dip along a 7 km stretch of the river. Along this same stretch, 30 large sewers are continuosly discharging into the river.
The Ganges River is so heavily polluted at Varanasi that the water is septic- no dissolved oxygen exists. The statistics get worse. Samples from the river show the water has 1.5 million faecal coliform bacteria per 100 ml of water. In water that is safe for bathing this figure should be less than 500! "
It's the craziest thing being here in Varanasi and seeing literally hundreds of people bathing and swimming in this water. Hindus believe that it will wash away all of their sins, that it is truly holy. Millions of hindus come here every year on pilgrimage to bathe themselves in the Ganga and to pray. But with 30 sewers being pumped into it continually, the ashes from the burning ghats ( where they cremate dead bodies) being thrown in, not to mention dead babies, trash, and all manner of other things, it seems far from holy. People also drink the water. We watched yesterday as a mother poured some into her hand and gave some of the "holy" water for her child to drink, then she drank some herself. Our hearts break for these people and we have been praying like crazy that God would reveal His kindness to them and fill their hearts with His love and truth.
