South Asia:South Asia:Human-EnvironmentHuman-Environment

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Ganges River

• The Ganges, as we saw previously, is one of the most important rivers in South Asia.

• This isn’t just because of its economic value, however.

• The Ganges is also important to Hindus (80% of India’s population is Hindu).

• The Ganges’ drainage basin is three times the size of France.

• 350-500 million people live in this basin.

• Consider that there are only 300 million in the U.S.

• In Hinduism, the Ganges is worshipped as a goddess.

• It is believed that bathing in it can give forgiveness of one’s sins. Some days are holier than others for this.

• People also drink from it and carry away water in copper pots.

• Many Hindu families keep a vial of Ganges water in their home, which symbolizes both the importance of the Ganges and also to drink if a family member is near death.

• Many temples line the river and people go down the steps into the water to bathe and pray.

• The ashes of the deceased are also scattered in the river in the belief that doing so will help ensure the person goes to heaven.

• Unfortunately, the Ganges is also very polluted.

• Fertilizers and pesticides get into the river through drainage and some industrial wasters are dumped into it.

• There’s also raw sewage that’s released into it. That’s nearly 264 million gallons of human waster per day.

• All this combined with the fact that dead bodies or insufficiently cremated bodies are often found floating in the river makes for an unpleasant situation.

• As you might imagine, many people become ill from bathing in and/or drinking the water.

• They do it because they believe the Ganges is too holy to be polluted and will clean itself.

Feni River

• The Feni is a river in Bangladesh.

• It had a bad habit of succumbing to storm surges that would flow up the river during cyclones.

• These surges would flood inland areas.

• In the 1980’s, a large earthen dam was built across the mile-long mouth to protect the interior from surges.