Comment by indicaspecies — May 7, 2008 @ 1:15 pm
An educated lady with whom I got into a conversation at the breakfast table in Khajuraho asked about me, and I replied to her questions.
When I asked where she was from, she replied, “From Varanasi,” and quickly added with a grimace, “don’t visit the place, it’s one of the dirtiest cities with such polluted waters.” I could only smile in return.
I shall go to Varanasi some day!
Comment by Arun — May 7, 2008 @ 2:24 pm
Do go. It has its charms despite the polluted river.
Comment by backpakker — May 8, 2008 @ 10:48 am
Its been my dream to go to and see the ganges ..maybe some day…
lakshmi
Comment by Nomadic Matt — May 8, 2008 @ 3:23 pm
is it safe to swim in ganges?
Comment by sanjay — May 8, 2008 @ 7:10 pm
The dam at Haridwar built by the British in 1854 to irrigate the surrounding land, diverts much of the Himalayan snowmelt into the Upper Ganges Canal. This caused severe deterioration to the water flow in the Ganga, and is a major cause for the decay of Ganga as an inland waterway.
A total of 146 industries are located along the river Ganga between Rishikesh and Prayagraj (Allahabad). Under the Ganga Action Plan Phase II, 82 industries have installed Effluent Treatment Plants (ETPs) and are reported to be complying with the standards. Another 35 have ceased operations altogether.
Between the same two cities, there are 132 drains dumping untreated sewage in the Ganga. Under GAP-II, the plan is to treat approximately 65% of the domestic pollution load of the river. A sewage treatment capacity of 933 million litres per day (mld.) has been created so far. The latest being a loan agreement with the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) for undertaking the pollution abatement works of the river at Varanasi.
Comment by tzuche — May 9, 2008 @ 6:47 am
If it’s really your dream you should just do it next time when you are there. Swimming and bathing in Ganga river in Varanasi is also one of my dreams, luckily I did it on 2006.
tzuche
Comment by Arun — May 10, 2008 @ 6:11 am
@backpakker, you seem to have a long list
@matt, it depends on which part of Ganga; at some places it should be.
@sanjay, thanks for the info. Kanpur is another city that contributes significantly.
@tzuche, thanks. Hopefully I will swim in Rishikesh.
Comment by Mehul Vansdadiya — May 13, 2008 @ 7:47 am
This is the only exhaustive blog I have found on the internet. Keep it up!
Comment by krishna tirumal kumar — January 7, 2009 @ 7:03 am
great stuff !!!
Am waiting to visit the ganga soon this year
Comment by Anonymous — February 11, 2009 @ 12:55 am
Who are you dreamer of the river? I typed to a yahoo search, who knows why??? well impatient really! So, i typed in: where is my dream man in the ganga river? and your beautiful dream blog came up! Best wishes, perhaps see you there.
peace love blessings
Lavanya
ps there are these awsome music collection, music of the ganges, 3 discs of someones recordings of music while travelling down the river, raw beautiful sound.
Comment by Jon — May 18, 2009 @ 7:01 am
Swimming in the Ganga upstream of Rishikesh is definitely OK/safe – I wouldn’t purposely swallow any of the water, but I’ve inadvertently done so and had no ill effects. There are stories about the Ganga’s ability to “self clean” and, given the amount of human waste I’ve seen going into it, there’s got to be something to these stories. I’ve never seen the river as far downstream as Varanasi, but people do go in and survive. That said, doesn’t Varanasi have a high rate of waterborne illness? One just needs to be careful about ingesting.
She is a beautiful river!
Jon
Comment by Arun — May 18, 2009 @ 8:12 am
Yes Jon, she is indeed a beautiful river. My concerns for swimming upstream doesn’t come from worries of cleanliness, but my lack of confidence in swimming in the flow. It is a river easy to fall in love with. The self-cleaning nature of Ganga is apparently proven with some scientific experiments too. But downstream, so much trash goes into, the limit is reached.
Comment by Maureen Lopez — July 13, 2009 @ 10:40 am
Your aticle is really gives us nice information. Varanasi is a relegious place for hindus. Varanasi also commonly known as Benares, is a city situated on the left (west) bank of the River Ganga (Ganges) in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, regarded as holy by Hindus, Buddhists, Jains, and Senthoo. It is one of the oldest continually inhabited cities in the world.
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