Stop 1 – Child drinks from the river

A young girl takes a drink of water from the river at Tulsi Ghat, at the southern edge of the city. The faecal coliform reading for Tulsi Ghat on this day was 60,000 colony forming units (CFU) per 100ml.

1.      What is the ANZECC standard for drinking water quality?

2.      What are the potential health impacts of drinking this water?

Stop 2 – Tulsi Ghat – morning prayers

Every day around 60,000 people come to pray at the banks of the river. The city can be seen stretching off into the distance.

3.      What is the religious significance of the River Ganga at Varanasi?

Stop 3 – Tulsi Ghat - bathing

The use of soaps and detergents is a minor source of pollution.

4.      What impacts could soaps and detergents have on the water quality of the river?

Stop 4 - Manikarnika Ghat

The most important cremation ghat in Varanasi. It is said that the fires on the ghat have not gone out for centuries. Here people bring their dead for cremation. The ashes are then placed into the river.

5.      What do people of the Hindu religion hope will come from their ashes being placed into the river?

Stop 5 – Raw sewage

Millions of litres of raw sewage flows into the river each day – the most disturbing impacts sewage flow into the religious bathing areas. The faecal coliform count at Shivalla Ghat on this day was 150,000 cfu/100ml.

6. What are the dangers associated with bathing in water contaminated with sewage at this level?

Stop 6 – Buffalo bathing

Thousands of buffalo are brought to the river each day to be bathed.

7. What are the likely impacts of the cattle wallowing in the river?

Stop 7 – Sediment build up

During the wet season, several metres of sediment are deposited on the banks of the river. Turbidity levels range as high as 5,000 JTU (the water is so muddy that there is zero visibility – even your hand disappears if you place it just under the surface).

8. What do you think are some of the sources of this sediment?

Stop 8 – Kumaon Village, Himalayan Mountains

Erosion of topsoil is a major problem for villages in the mountain regions. Heavy rainfall, loss of tree cover and drift of young people to cities result in tonnes of sediment being washed into the river. This village has lost 5 hectares of prime agricultural land.

9. How does erosion of topsoil in the mountainous regions contribute to pollution of River Ganga in Varanasi?

Stop 9 - Swatcha Ganga Research Lab

The lab was established in 1992 to monitor the river water quality in the city of Varanasi. Since then more than 30,000 tests have been conducted. The lab has played an essential role as a public watchdog, highlighting the serious public health and ecological impacts of sewage on river water quality. There is also a government water monitoring program, that does not conduct faecal coliform testing.

10. In what ways is the role of a non-government monitoring program important?

Stop 10 - Swatcha Ganga Environmental Education Centre

Oz GREEN and the Sankat Mochan Foundation established the SGEEC in 1992. The centre works with schools, local communities and villages to raise awareness about the threats to the river and involve people in caring for the river.

11. How could local schools help in the campaign to clean up the river?

Stop 11 – Village environmental action program

Women from Kamauli Village meet with Oz GREEN to discuss their concerns, including:

·         Very high incidence of hepatitis, worms, cholera and dysentery

·         Children drowning in the sewage effluent channel (shown in picture

·         Houses collapsing because of rising water table

12. The faecal coliform level of effluent water is 10,000,000 cfu/100ml. On government advice, this water is being used to irrigate rice paddies. What are the ecological and public health risks that could be associated with this practice?

Stop 12 - Village water supply program

Oz GREEN and the Sankat Mochan Foundation have installed clean water supplies for villages most affected by the sewage pollution of ground and river water. The water is collected from deep tube wells, over 300 feet below the ground. This is a short-term solution only.

13. What are the potential risks of extracting ground water?

14. What other ways could low-cost safe drinking water supplies could be provided?

Stop 13 - River Keepers

The River Keepers program is an initiative of the Sankat Mochan Foundation “Swatcha Ganga” (Clean Ganges) Campaign. Every day 12 young volunteers travel along the riverfront collecting solid waste, plastic bags and flower garlands.

15. What could be done with the waste collected by the river keepers?

Stop 14 – Swatcha Ganga Chhatra Sangam

In January 2002, over 300 young people from Varanasi schools gathered at Tulsi Ghat to discuss their concerns for the River Ganga, to develop a vision and action plans to protect the river. This student is talking about her concerns for the impact of glaciers retreating 5 metres each year in the Himalayas, due to global warming – threatening to turn the river into a seasonal flow and threatening the lives of 300 million people who depend on the river.

16. Australia is the highest greenhouse gas producer per capita in the world. How do your lifestyle choices impact ion the people of the Ganges River basin and the Himalayan mountains?

Stop 15 –Ghat Purohit Sangam

February 2002 - Priests light candles to commit to caring to for the river. February 2002, over 100 river priests gathered as a group for the first time. Occasionally they have advised religious bathers that the river is goddess and they can throw whatever rubbish they like into the river and She will clean it. Now the priests say that the River is our Mother – how can we throw rubbish in her face?