Filipe ReisNº13 11ºC

The Ganges is one of the major rivers of the Indian subcontinent, flowing east through the northern India into Bangladesh. The 2,510 km river rises in the western Himalayas in the Uttarakhand state of India, and drains in the Bay of Bengal.

River Ganges, India’s most sacred water body is personified in Hindu mythology as Goddess Ganga.

Hindus believe that bathing in her holy waters would help wash one’s sins and aids them in securing a place in the swargaloka (heaven).

Since the 1950s, population and industry along the Ganges River have grown dramatically and both municipal and industrial wastewater has been discharged in large quantities into the rivers.

In addition, because of the religious significance of the Ganges, Hindus often cremate their dead on the rivers banks and throw the remains and burnt charcoal into the river.

The major polluting industries are the fleece industries, which use large amounts of Chromium and other chemicals.

All of these factors have so polluted the river that drinking and bathing in its water have become dangerous. 

This level of pollution makes ideal ground for many water-borne diseases including cholera, hepatitis, typhoid and amoebic dysentery.

According to some estimation’s 80% of all health problems and one-third of deaths in India are result of water-borne diseases.

May damage river flora and estuary fisheries;

The Ganges river dolphin is an endangered species as a result of this pollution .

Intercepting untreated municipal and industrial wastewater flowing into river and diverting to sewage treatment plant;

Setting up Sewage Treatment Plants (STP) in the cities along the river for treatment of wastewater with suitable technologies;

Construction of bio gas/electrical crematoriums in the river bank;

Construction of bathing zones/toilets to eliminate open defecation in river bank;

Improvements to river banks to ensure its stability against erosion;

Solid waste management systems to prevent discharging of solid wastes in the river.

Is situated in the mid-part of Euroasia, and the geographical borders of the Aral Sea, are included in territories of Tadjikistan, Uzbekistan, a large part of Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan and the south of Kazakhstan.

Situated in the Central Asian deserts, the Aral Sea functions as a gigantic evaporator because he is the largest inland body of salty reservoirs in the world with an area of 68,000 km².

About 60 km2 of water evaporates per year and moved 100-150 km away from the original shore.

In other hand the Aral Sea has been gradually shrinking since the 1960s, after the rivers Amu Darya and Syr Darya, that fed it, were diverted by Soviet Union irrigation projects (cotton crops).

By 2004, the sea had shrunk to 25% of its original surface area, and a nearly fivefold increase in salinity had killed most of its natural flora and fauna.

By 2007 it had declined to 10% of its original size, splitting into three separate lakes, two of which are too salty to support fish.

Salt pans are growing;

Commercial fishing ceased in 1982 and 60,000 fishermen's lost their livelihoods;

Cancers, long disease and infant mortality are 30 times higher than they used to be because the drinking water heavily polluted with salt, cotton, fertilisers and pesticides;

Mortality rate have increased by 15 times in a ten year period;

The region’s weather has changed. Now there are hotter summers and longer , colder winters;

• Improving the quality of irrigation canals;

• Installing desalination plants;

• Charging farmers to use the water from the rivers;

• Using alternative cotton species that require less water;

• Pump and dilute sea water into the Aral Sea from the Caspian Sea via pipeline.

• Using fewer chemicals on the cotton;

• Installing barrages to fill the Aral sea;

• Redirecting water from the Volga, Ob and Irtysh rivers. This would restore the Aral Sea to its former size in 20-30 years;

It will be possible see another picture like that in the future?