Kumbh Mela Spikes Pollution in Ganga to a Startling Level
To cope with the numbers, Uttar Pradesh has built a large temporary city of campsites, hospitals, police stations and shopping centres, also included is its own sewage systems. The city has also pledged to build 35,000 lavatories and increase the level of water in Ganga and Yamuna to quickly wash away waste.
Recently when 10 million people gathered for an immersion at 4 am, the attempts to keep the temp city clean had crossed its limits.
The Hindu saffron robed ascetics with thick dreads defecated overtly on the roadside while other worshippers were on their way to the river banks.
The head of health and sanitation for the Indian festival, Dr Suresh Dwivedi, refuted saying that the state government had not provided enough sanitary provision and said that there was the problem of ‘open air defecation’ at the site of the festival, as reported by Telegraph.
He said, “It is a social problem in our country. A lot of people come here and defecate in the open, so we constructed pits.”
The tons of rotting marigolds, coconuts and other ritual offerings are thrown in the river which has created froth on the surface and even then the worshippers drink the holy water. The river is also contaminated by ash disposed from thousands of cremations, human waste of millions of people and rotting animals. In the 660 million gallons of sewage produced by cities along the river just one third of it gets treated.
