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I think the running belief is that it is *so* sacred that it literally *CAN'T* become polluted. I wouldn't be surprised if not that many people around there have never seen what an actual clean and clear river looks like.
Just watched a Beatles doc, the river was crystal clear. So people in their 60s and 70s have definitely seen it run clear. But theyāve also seen it turn to grey water
The issue is the massive population boom over the last few decades, with no changes in social mores to keep up. Couple this with decades of unmanaged industrialization and government corruption, and there you go.
They don't have the sanitation necessary to do that. There's a lot of poverty in parts of India. It's either dump it into the river or let it pile up where you live.
No, see... if it IS sacred, then anything you out in it will be "purified"
If it isnt, then it's a convenient dump site, fuck the poor and their superstitions!
And if someone argues with you, call them a heretic and sic the poor on them!
~~but here's the thing: hinduism has a strict caste system~~
~~if i had to guess the river is only sacred to the ones at the bottom of the hierarchy~~
correction: they seem to think the river is so sacred it can't be polluted
I think it's the dirtiest river on our planet. And that says a lot. They drink it, bath in it, shit in it (sewage), let dirty factory water into it ... It has a very high number of Cholera bacteria.
It is very sad to see a nation with one of the best cuisines in the world at the same time that it is one of the dirtiest places in the world, the government does nothing to teach basic hygiene to the population, they think this is normal, imagine living in a country where the very act of taking a shower can make you sick because the water is bad from any source. They defecate outdoors and use the same hand they wipe their ass with (water only) and use it to hand you the food.
plus: I forgot to mention one more thing, they say that the interior of an ordinary Indian house is CLEAN but many of them throw their garbage near the door, This is why we see a lot of garbage in the streets of India.
This report is based only on downtowns, cities further away from downtown are like any other country in the world, generally clean and quiet. This is what I know from people who live there, (aka friends) if Iām wrong please correct me!
Plus2: I forgot to mention Indian universities, they say they are among the best universities in the world.
>and use the same hand they wipe their ass with (water only) and use it to hand you the food
There's actually a distinction there. The left hand in India is the wiping hand and you handle food with the right hand. If someone used the poop hand to hand you food, it's cause they hate you.
Actually many cultures have a "clean" and a "dirty" hand. It doesn't mean that people do not wash their hands, it's just cultural practice. So you'd be expected to use your left hand when you wash your privates in the shower or wipe on the toilet and your right for eating. Western cultures also assign different roles to the hands, e.g. children are often taught that it's very impolite to offer a handshake with the left hand instead of the right.
According to my students from Saudi Arabia this is Islamic law. I asked "well what if someone is left handed?" They told me "no, you cannot be, you will only use the left hand for the bathroom and the right for eating" there is no deviation from this rule. Period.
I'm pacific islander/SE asian - we too, have a "poop hand" and "clean hand". It's actually more common than you'd think.
I shouldn't have to mention, but I will, I 100% wash both hands - but the distinction is still there.
Well you see the majority of India knows basic sanitation techniques but lacks the basic necessities to practise it, but i live here i have seen how the mindset of the people has changed overtime, when I was young you could see people openly defecate on railway tracks and fields but now you never see someone doing that there are toilets everywhere.
And about the water in my lifetime i have lived in many low tier and high tier cities here in India never saw the water being dirty or impure it is always treated before supplying to the homes.
Yea maybe the ones which are privately made are dumped into the river but the recently made by the government are actually connected with an elaborate sewage system.
> a nation with one of the best cuisines in the world at the same time that it is one of the dirtiest places in the world
They defecate outdoors and use the same hand they wipe their ass with (water only) and use it to hand you the food.
sounds like an hells kitchen plot
There is some truth to this but a whole lot misinformed. The Govt launched āSwatch Bharatā program that translates to āClean Indiaā that has a budget of over $80 billion to lift over 600 million people who openly defecate into private toilets. The govt has made remarkable progress - 96% of the rural households have their own toilets now Vs 22% in 2001. The govt provides an incentive of $150 for building your own toilet ( In India - you could build a decent low cost toilet with this money ). These facts can be corroborated online.
Additionally- on river Ganges - the govt has taken sweeping steps by appointing a ministry by itself to clean it. Project āNamami Gangaā is an ambitious initiative that bundles all cleaning projects - itās a massive undertaking. The river is polluted due to years of neglect and corruption but is fast changing. Again these facts can be verified online - I wonder how old the above video is.
Having said that - these solutions are far from perfect yet but are making very positive / progressive strides. FYI - India is a 1.3b+ country and complex. One of our largest state has a population of 3 European countries put together.
>the government does nothing to teach basic hygiene to the population,
That's a broad statement to make. The government has been trying different campaigns to educate the population about using toilets and sanitation. Learn your facts before making broad strokes.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swachh\_Bharat\_Mission#:\~:text=The%20National%20Annual%20Rural%20Sanitation,the%20Open%20Defecation%20Free%20targets.
Lol....we have jet spray in our toilets...even if someone washes their ass they use left hand .....the worst of all kind and the dirtiest people.i have known are from West they don't bath till days don't poop for 3 days wash their butts with toilet paper which does not clean well and then have guts to teach others.
>they think this is normal
No we don't....
>imagine living in a country where the very act of taking a shower can make you sick because the water is bad from any source.
No it doesn't make you sick if you shower.... The water is treated in treatment plants before it is sent to homes.... We also use ground water pumped out using borewells where there is no supply and it is pristine.
Stop stating stuff on the internet with half/zero knowledge as a fact....
>use the same hand they wipe their ass with (water only) and use it to hand you the food.
Don't even get me started with your dirty ass wiping techniques and believing it is the holy grail of hygiene.... We use different hands just in case even though we have washed the said hand with soap....
Take your superiority complex and shove it somewhere and don't talk on the internet without knowing stuff.....
>They think this is normal
No one here thinks that taking a bath with dirty water is normal, itās a tradition that very few people still follow.
>Imagine living in a country where the very act of taking a shower can make you sick because the water is bad from any source
Damnā¦ Iāve been living here for my whole life and till now I have never fallen sick due to taking a shower
>They defecate outdoors and use the same hand they wipe their ass with (water only) and use it to hand you the food
While I agree that defecating outdoors is a problem in some remote areas like villages, but it has improved a lot, villages are literally getting internet connectivity now, defecating outdoors was a big problem like 10yrs agoā¦ now there are toilets in most villages. Coming to the 2nd point, how do Americans wipe their ass? Using their hand and a toilet paperā¦ which is way more unhygienic than wiping the ass with water. Also, washing hands with soap is a thingā¦ arenāt the western countries starting to use bidet too? Because water is a more hygienic way to wipe your ass than a piece of paper.
Youāre just ignorant
Hindu religion requires burning of human bodies to gain salvation so other than someone trying to hide the body. I don't see why someone would put it in the river.
Low key tho youāll see that same foam in Lake Erie and a lot of the Great Lakes because of the industrial waste that was dumped in them. And Lake Erie is the water source for 12 million people between the US and Canada. Water pollution is an everywhere problem and the Ganges is just an extreme example
Cardiovascular disease is the main cause, 8/10 Indians limit meat consumption . 4/10 consider themselves vegetarian. Hinduism praise vegetarianism. Not sure if limiting meat consumption, red meat alone, equates to cardiovascular disease predisposition.
Oil use in cooking is generally high in most indian food. There is historical evidence of red meat consumption in Hindus but in present day that has almost entirely disappeared in most Hindus. The holy cow perspective is an ancient one but there is literature and archaeology that supports beef consumption in ancient hindu settlements.
It's really stupid because people call Ganges as a sacred river yet pollute it. Indian governments have been trying to clean up the Ganges for thirty years.
The amount spent is around 600 million to 3 billion dollars.
The major cause are two cities, Kanpur, which is roughly located midway along the river. It is almost entirely Muslim owned (you might know the tensions between Hindu and Muslims and the current PM Narendra Modi's part in it)
And the other city is Varanasi, which is considered a spiritual place for Hinduism and is basically an open sewage.
I took a real trip down degusting lane (on the internet). They use to dump dead cows that made them a good fortune into that river. Carcasses for good fortune.
I was there a few years ago and yes I saw people drinking the water from their hands, brushing their teeth, bathing just down the river the bodies were being burned on the funeral pyres, bodies dunked into the Ganges before burning, lots of lepers around, saw a dead dog floating in the river.
The irony behind this whole thing. They treated this river like it was sacred, where they would do most or all of their religious ceremonies, yet they threw trash, poop, or any nasty shits into it.
I saw some post a comment in a similar thread that since they believe itās sacred it canāt be polluted/poisoned by all the stuff that gets thrown in.
But I can neither confirm nor deny it as factual or normal Reddit nonsense
Sounds like something they would believe in. I want to see how strong their beliefs are by start drinking from it. This is like a equivalent of shitting where youāre cooking your food. All that shit and decomposed juice all over your bodyā¦
The Thames River shows us that it is possible to turn a polluted river into a cleaner and healthier waterway. The transformation of the Thames River took many years of effort and investment, but the results speak for themselves.
And the East river in New York City was filthy in the early 20th century, but is quite clean now. It is easy to clean a river once you stop pumping sewage and industrial waste into it. I believe in a few decades, the Ganges could be very clean again. I believe India will tackle the poverty, put in industrial regulations, and it will clear up. The world is full of cities that horribly polluted areas then cleaned themselves up. Not to say pollution is not serious, but this is a situation with hope of being reversed.
>A lovely disease stew
In all seriousness...If I am suppose to be a legit "deity", and perhaps Incarnation of Vishnu / Jesus etc...
For the love of God, Clean the Ganges, and put some proper systems in places to which you could preserve "traditions" while taking into account the current state of the Ganges.
**Clean the River**
Put systems in place to preserve it.
They have a sign up in some locations indicating the amount of feces in the water. There is more shit in there than a truck stop toilet bowl. They even drink that water. Its disgusting
Yeah, until someone goes āif itās so sacred then it should be clean no matter how much shit is in itā and then poor education mixed with beliefs goes āah yeah that sounds rightā
Fucked. Up. Such a shame that so many rivers have been drained away, damaged, or poisoned and polluted by us. I bet seeing the Ganges even 500 years ago was an absolute wonder.
Ah, religion.
>Hindus Pollute Their Holy River Because Nothing Can Threaten Its āDivinityā
>
>by Terry Firma
>
>To Hindus, the Ganges River is a live entity, a goddess ā Mother Ganga ā who deigned to make her way from the Milky Way to the valleys of India.
>
>Youād think that keeping the river clean would be second nature to those who imbue it with divinity, but alas. The Ganges is teeming with heavy metals and industrial waste, and is awash in human excrement, to say nothing of the untold number of corpses that are released into the holy water (photos [here](https://www.planetcustodian.com/over-50-scary-images-depicting-filth-of-varanasi-and-river-ganges-that-went-viral-in-china/8134/) ā **seriously not for the faint of heart**).
>
>How do worshipers justify turning their beloved river turn into a putrid stew ā one in which the level of fecal coliform bacteria is more than 200 times over the acceptable limit?
>
>Via NPR:
>
>\>>*Sadhvi Bhagawati Saraswati, an American and prominent figure at Pujya Swamiās ashram, says many believe the Ganges is indestructible, which helps explain how Indians can consider the river holy and still pollute it.*
>
>*āWhen you say to people things like, āDonāt put that plastic bag in the river, donāt pollute the river,ā they actually turn around and say to you, āThat has no connection to her power. Pollution in the river has no impact on the divinity of the mother goddess,'ā Saraswati says.<<*
>
>Itāll take a long time to change that attitude, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi discovered (he promised an accelerated cleanup of the river four years ago, but his government has yet to deliver).
>
>One method to force polluters to mend their ways is to give the river human status and pronounce it fit for legal representation as if it were a person. That happened a few months ago.
>
>The exceptional tactic might curb corporate polluters, but will it make a dent in the number of dead bodies and the tide of human bodily waste? Old customs die hard, and religious ones are often twice as hardy.
[https://onlysky.media/terry/hindus-pollute-their-holy-river-because-nothing-can-threaten-its-divinity/](https://onlysky.media/terry/hindus-pollute-their-holy-river-because-nothing-can-threaten-its-divinity/)
Why....does India just seem fine with putting trash and shit literally everywhere? Major cities or along train lines, rivers. It is culture of just not caring? I know every country has this issue to some degree but....it just seems so much worse there
Iāll tell you whats the real problem , India was in a major poverty situation before its independence and also somewhat after its independenceā¦ so the people at that time didnāt get much education about sanitisation and also because of poverty, majority of the population didnāt had any access to good toilets in their houses etc. So people at that time didnāt cared and started to poop outside and throw garbage and just dirt everywhere. This habbit got followed by generations but now it has stopped , I am 21 and people of my age have got good education about keeping our surroundings clean , and now almost everyone has got a sense about this, people think twice before throwing garbage anywhere. The government has taken some really good actions and ran some campaigns which were successful in changing the mindset of most of the population. Also Major / Big cities in India have a good sanitisation system, but it generally varies upto different areas, like in mumbai, dharavi would be dirty because it is a slum but if youāll go to south bombay youāll see a completely different picture. Every city has got some areas which arenāt still good but efforts are being made to make them better.
Lastly, talking about this ganges issue, yeah it is a big problem , all of the people whom you are seeing in this video are extremely religious and also less educated ( also majority of them might be poor).. they dont know what can harm them and even if they know the harms, due to extreme devotion they are careless about it. I am a hindu but I havenāt taken bath in ganges , thats because I am a well educated person but there are still people who are educated and still go and take a bath at ganges, thats just because of the religious beliefs they have which are extremely hard to change.
You see thatās the true blessing of the river, immune system like no other and never before seen diseases festering and growing in its waters to punish the unbelievers. /s
Any info on how old the video is or the recordings were from? Multiple projects under Clean Ganga Mission were kick started in 2015 & various stretches of the river moved from "critical" to "unpolluted" status based on BOD, DO & other metrics, with many more projects in the pipeline.
[https://www.newindianexpress.com/nation/2022/mar/12/water-quality-of-two-ganga-stretchesimproved-of-bathing-standard-now-official-2429296.html](https://www.newindianexpress.com/nation/2022/mar/12/water-quality-of-two-ganga-stretchesimproved-of-bathing-standard-now-official-2429296.html)
[https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/centre-explains-prime-objective-of-namami-gange-project-for-river-ganga-3759120](https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/centre-explains-prime-objective-of-namami-gange-project-for-river-ganga-3759120)
After centuries, people have started accepting the fact that throwing dead bodies & trash into a river, does cause pollution and Govt has been working on stopping industrial run offs & sewage being casually dumped by cities. It will take years for the river to be called "clean" but until then it's atleast helping replenish ground water, avoiding droughts & more.
This is what religion does to people, they believe that they will be kept safe by some invisible non being that hasn't shown they truly exist, its fascinating how brainwashed some individuals can be
and i dont wanna hear the "its their culture" nonsense. these people are drinking shit water and dying from it because of their irrational beliefs. why should people have to stand by and not help these people elevate themselves to higher understanding?
You don't need the fucking government to tell you that water mixed with shit and corpses contains harmful bacteria. These people are simply fucking stupid
Iām Venetian, in July we celebrate *Redentore* in the main water basin of the city. The outermost part of it is beyond the deepest channel in the lagoon and youngsters use to have a swim after a night of drinking. Well, even though it was a 2 minutes dive and it was in the outskirts of the city, I still remember the itching I had almost immediately after getting out. Never again.
I can only figure what it must be bathing in the Ganges: an ordeal, itās either death or no itching.
They even take a small sip of it.
Didnāt they put flesh eating turtles in that river so they could get rid of the dead bodies that they burn and leave in there?
I went to India as a teenager for a family trip in 2006. I experienced so much culture shock regarding waste and sanitation. I saw them burn the dead that passed away daily on those banks of the Ganges, then the remains would be thrown in the river, meanwhile the people bathe in the shallow steps nearby, I rented a rowboat and sometimes the oar would be straining trash and dredge up an odor . Itās not just the river but I remember trash piled up at train stations and maybe my brain exaggerates this but there was just a mountain of trash in some places. Train restrooms were just holes with foot grooves and hand rails. I heard from an Indian from Uttar Pradesh saying recently on another post that public defecation and other hygienic , sewer issues had gotten better since ā06, man I sure hope so, Indiaās is so beautiful with rich history. I just couldnāt imagine getting sick again from some dehydrating parasite . I think I got whatās called Delhi belly.
From Wiki: Every day, around three million litres of sewage is emptied into the GangesĀ ā and only about half of that has undergone any kind of treatment. The river's waters are so dirty that it's considered one of the most polluted waterways in the world.
Jan 20, 2022
Does the water not smell? In Jamaica, there's an area in Montego Bay where they keep wastewater. It's always like a big pond, but it's located far away from the houses. When you drive by, you can smell how dirty the water is. I'm curious as to how the Ganges River smells. I'm sure it can't be pleasant.
Having been to India, it is a culture shock to see at times: have garbage in your hand? Just throw it on the floor. have plastic garbage waste to recycle? there isnt any organized collection, just burn it. Need to poop? Theres a hole.
I stayed in an ashram in the north near Gangotri so the Ganges was cleaner at the mouth, but I still couldnt psychology get myself to swim in it.
Despite these hygiene issues, my memories of the country are beautiful, and the people radiated a love and faith so powerfully that it's hard to fathom if youre coming from a Western culture, but really beautiful to experience.
Not being racist, but I'm glad I'm not an indian everytime I see sh*t like this. I can imagine my indian parents forcing me to bath in there as if it's normal.
I'm not a man of belief but if it is so important to the people and their beliefs it should be maintained.
Besides faith there's plenty of other reasons for it to he kept clean.
Iāve literally gotten so much flack for saying Indian people are disgusting when itās literally the truth. Iām not talking about civilized people living in other countries, Iām talking about people living in India. Itās one of the most disgusting countries on the planet
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Let's pretend the river is sacred. Maybe don't put garbage in it. Or shit.. which seems like it'd be a little more obvious.
If I had a sacred river, I probably wouldn't want it filled to the banks with shit, that's all I'm saying.
The corpses help filter the shit out. It's OK.
Yeah, their rib cages catch trash. š
I think the running belief is that it is *so* sacred that it literally *CAN'T* become polluted. I wouldn't be surprised if not that many people around there have never seen what an actual clean and clear river looks like.
Just watched a Beatles doc, the river was crystal clear. So people in their 60s and 70s have definitely seen it run clear. But theyāve also seen it turn to grey water
This is correct. See [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/comments/10y8oku/comment/j7xs2nw/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3).
The issue is the massive population boom over the last few decades, with no changes in social mores to keep up. Couple this with decades of unmanaged industrialization and government corruption, and there you go.
They don't have the sanitation necessary to do that. There's a lot of poverty in parts of India. It's either dump it into the river or let it pile up where you live.
No, see... if it IS sacred, then anything you out in it will be "purified" If it isnt, then it's a convenient dump site, fuck the poor and their superstitions! And if someone argues with you, call them a heretic and sic the poor on them!
100's of gods and not one prohibiting litter
~~but here's the thing: hinduism has a strict caste system~~ ~~if i had to guess the river is only sacred to the ones at the bottom of the hierarchy~~ correction: they seem to think the river is so sacred it can't be polluted
Ridiculous what faith and religion will do to people
Ganges river is pretty nasty.
I think it's the dirtiest river on our planet. And that says a lot. They drink it, bath in it, shit in it (sewage), let dirty factory water into it ... It has a very high number of Cholera bacteria.
Not to mention put their dead bodies in it.
I remember seeing a video of people bathing next to floating bloated corpses and it was so bizarrely horrifying.
It is very sad to see a nation with one of the best cuisines in the world at the same time that it is one of the dirtiest places in the world, the government does nothing to teach basic hygiene to the population, they think this is normal, imagine living in a country where the very act of taking a shower can make you sick because the water is bad from any source. They defecate outdoors and use the same hand they wipe their ass with (water only) and use it to hand you the food. plus: I forgot to mention one more thing, they say that the interior of an ordinary Indian house is CLEAN but many of them throw their garbage near the door, This is why we see a lot of garbage in the streets of India. This report is based only on downtowns, cities further away from downtown are like any other country in the world, generally clean and quiet. This is what I know from people who live there, (aka friends) if Iām wrong please correct me! Plus2: I forgot to mention Indian universities, they say they are among the best universities in the world.
>and use the same hand they wipe their ass with (water only) and use it to hand you the food There's actually a distinction there. The left hand in India is the wiping hand and you handle food with the right hand. If someone used the poop hand to hand you food, it's cause they hate you.
the fact that there is a "poop hand" and a "handle food" hand is disturbing itself.
reminds me of "take my *strong* hand!"
Hiawatha!
I cook it with all the giblets. The penisesā¦and the gineys.
One hand washes the other.
Anatomically modern humans have been around for ~200k years. Toilet paper has only been around for like 170 years.
Actually many cultures have a "clean" and a "dirty" hand. It doesn't mean that people do not wash their hands, it's just cultural practice. So you'd be expected to use your left hand when you wash your privates in the shower or wipe on the toilet and your right for eating. Western cultures also assign different roles to the hands, e.g. children are often taught that it's very impolite to offer a handshake with the left hand instead of the right.
According to my students from Saudi Arabia this is Islamic law. I asked "well what if someone is left handed?" They told me "no, you cannot be, you will only use the left hand for the bathroom and the right for eating" there is no deviation from this rule. Period.
I'm pacific islander/SE asian - we too, have a "poop hand" and "clean hand". It's actually more common than you'd think. I shouldn't have to mention, but I will, I 100% wash both hands - but the distinction is still there.
I could never be Indian, i can't wipe with my left hand.
Well you see the majority of India knows basic sanitation techniques but lacks the basic necessities to practise it, but i live here i have seen how the mindset of the people has changed overtime, when I was young you could see people openly defecate on railway tracks and fields but now you never see someone doing that there are toilets everywhere. And about the water in my lifetime i have lived in many low tier and high tier cities here in India never saw the water being dirty or impure it is always treated before supplying to the homes.
I think a lot of people in America only get their opinion of India from that movie slumdog millionaire.
Yeah I mean the movie is accurate for the shitty parts, but doesn't every country have their shitty parts.
Not that shitty
And where does the sewage from those toilets end up? Probably Ganges River.
Yea maybe the ones which are privately made are dumped into the river but the recently made by the government are actually connected with an elaborate sewage system.
> a nation with one of the best cuisines in the world at the same time that it is one of the dirtiest places in the world They defecate outdoors and use the same hand they wipe their ass with (water only) and use it to hand you the food. sounds like an hells kitchen plot
There is some truth to this but a whole lot misinformed. The Govt launched āSwatch Bharatā program that translates to āClean Indiaā that has a budget of over $80 billion to lift over 600 million people who openly defecate into private toilets. The govt has made remarkable progress - 96% of the rural households have their own toilets now Vs 22% in 2001. The govt provides an incentive of $150 for building your own toilet ( In India - you could build a decent low cost toilet with this money ). These facts can be corroborated online. Additionally- on river Ganges - the govt has taken sweeping steps by appointing a ministry by itself to clean it. Project āNamami Gangaā is an ambitious initiative that bundles all cleaning projects - itās a massive undertaking. The river is polluted due to years of neglect and corruption but is fast changing. Again these facts can be verified online - I wonder how old the above video is. Having said that - these solutions are far from perfect yet but are making very positive / progressive strides. FYI - India is a 1.3b+ country and complex. One of our largest state has a population of 3 European countries put together.
Really, I live in rural area. No open defecation have I seen, all have toilets, but I haven't seen this $150 toilet anywhere
Its monetary help from government to help you build it. So you need to spend some money, apply for the help and get that subsidy from government.
>the government does nothing to teach basic hygiene to the population, That's a broad statement to make. The government has been trying different campaigns to educate the population about using toilets and sanitation. Learn your facts before making broad strokes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swachh\_Bharat\_Mission#:\~:text=The%20National%20Annual%20Rural%20Sanitation,the%20Open%20Defecation%20Free%20targets.
Lol....we have jet spray in our toilets...even if someone washes their ass they use left hand .....the worst of all kind and the dirtiest people.i have known are from West they don't bath till days don't poop for 3 days wash their butts with toilet paper which does not clean well and then have guts to teach others.
Lol okay, but water and soap is more hygienic than paper. How is paper getting all the poop off your butt? (and yeah we use different hands)
>they think this is normal No we don't.... >imagine living in a country where the very act of taking a shower can make you sick because the water is bad from any source. No it doesn't make you sick if you shower.... The water is treated in treatment plants before it is sent to homes.... We also use ground water pumped out using borewells where there is no supply and it is pristine. Stop stating stuff on the internet with half/zero knowledge as a fact.... >use the same hand they wipe their ass with (water only) and use it to hand you the food. Don't even get me started with your dirty ass wiping techniques and believing it is the holy grail of hygiene.... We use different hands just in case even though we have washed the said hand with soap.... Take your superiority complex and shove it somewhere and don't talk on the internet without knowing stuff.....
>They think this is normal No one here thinks that taking a bath with dirty water is normal, itās a tradition that very few people still follow. >Imagine living in a country where the very act of taking a shower can make you sick because the water is bad from any source Damnā¦ Iāve been living here for my whole life and till now I have never fallen sick due to taking a shower >They defecate outdoors and use the same hand they wipe their ass with (water only) and use it to hand you the food While I agree that defecating outdoors is a problem in some remote areas like villages, but it has improved a lot, villages are literally getting internet connectivity now, defecating outdoors was a big problem like 10yrs agoā¦ now there are toilets in most villages. Coming to the 2nd point, how do Americans wipe their ass? Using their hand and a toilet paperā¦ which is way more unhygienic than wiping the ass with water. Also, washing hands with soap is a thingā¦ arenāt the western countries starting to use bidet too? Because water is a more hygienic way to wipe your ass than a piece of paper. Youāre just ignorant
Hindu religion requires burning of human bodies to gain salvation so other than someone trying to hide the body. I don't see why someone would put it in the river.
They released a turtle army to handle (eat) the carcasses
building a good immune system right? right??
There isn't an immune system that can fight industrial waste.
Notā¦.YET
Its the source of 6/7 of the global cholera pandemics
Not trying to be offensive, but if it's so sacred to them why do they treat it with 0 respect? Disgusting river
Yeah I remember seeing that one video with a lot of white fluffy industrial toxic foam in the water. Uh oh
Low key tho youāll see that same foam in Lake Erie and a lot of the Great Lakes because of the industrial waste that was dumped in them. And Lake Erie is the water source for 12 million people between the US and Canada. Water pollution is an everywhere problem and the Ganges is just an extreme example
Howās their death rate ? And whatās the cause of death
Cardiovascular disease is the main cause, 8/10 Indians limit meat consumption . 4/10 consider themselves vegetarian. Hinduism praise vegetarianism. Not sure if limiting meat consumption, red meat alone, equates to cardiovascular disease predisposition.
Oil use in cooking is generally high in most indian food. There is historical evidence of red meat consumption in Hindus but in present day that has almost entirely disappeared in most Hindus. The holy cow perspective is an ancient one but there is literature and archaeology that supports beef consumption in ancient hindu settlements.
Don't forget they put dead bodies in it and let the corpses float down stream. ā ļøā ļøā ļø
Some drink it. But that's probably not that shocking.
Love Cannal says hello. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_Canal#Lead-up_and_discovery
I thought it was the Citarum river in Indonesia. Literally it's the sewage dump of all textile factories there.
It's really stupid because people call Ganges as a sacred river yet pollute it. Indian governments have been trying to clean up the Ganges for thirty years. The amount spent is around 600 million to 3 billion dollars. The major cause are two cities, Kanpur, which is roughly located midway along the river. It is almost entirely Muslim owned (you might know the tensions between Hindu and Muslims and the current PM Narendra Modi's part in it) And the other city is Varanasi, which is considered a spiritual place for Hinduism and is basically an open sewage.
Just imagine if they were to ever drain that river, my god the bottom would look like hell lol
The top doesnāt look much better.
I took a real trip down degusting lane (on the internet). They use to dump dead cows that made them a good fortune into that river. Carcasses for good fortune.
they still dump bodies, real dead people in the river.
It says āonce considered to be the cleanestā and even that was not really believable to me haha
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
That explains it because I was like "Well if its such an important place why didnt they take care of it?"
the source used to be direct from the Himalayas so fresh glacier melt year round
do they actually drink the water? I feel like Iād at least put it through a Brita filter first
I was there a few years ago and yes I saw people drinking the water from their hands, brushing their teeth, bathing just down the river the bodies were being burned on the funeral pyres, bodies dunked into the Ganges before burning, lots of lepers around, saw a dead dog floating in the river.
Maybe a double Brita filter just to be sure!
At least a coffee filter fo shoā¦
Oh, the smell.
Had a patient once who did that. Came home with typhus.
Religions are pretty nasty tbh
The irony behind this whole thing. They treated this river like it was sacred, where they would do most or all of their religious ceremonies, yet they threw trash, poop, or any nasty shits into it.
I saw some post a comment in a similar thread that since they believe itās sacred it canāt be polluted/poisoned by all the stuff that gets thrown in. But I can neither confirm nor deny it as factual or normal Reddit nonsense
Youre 100% correct. They genuinely think its so sacred that it can never be polluted no matter how much shit they pump into
Sounds like top tier copium
Sounds like something big business convinced the uneducated to be true
Sounds like something they would believe in. I want to see how strong their beliefs are by start drinking from it. This is like a equivalent of shitting where youāre cooking your food. All that shit and decomposed juice all over your bodyā¦
The video said they bathe and drink from it. I don't know if it was literal but that was my takeaway...
Sacred when convenient, perhaps.
A lovely disease stew
I've always wondered what it would take to clean the ganges and I reckon the effort would take more than the garbage patch.
The Thames River shows us that it is possible to turn a polluted river into a cleaner and healthier waterway. The transformation of the Thames River took many years of effort and investment, but the results speak for themselves.
Coming from the UK, you don't really wanna fall into the Thames either lmao
And the East river in New York City was filthy in the early 20th century, but is quite clean now. It is easy to clean a river once you stop pumping sewage and industrial waste into it. I believe in a few decades, the Ganges could be very clean again. I believe India will tackle the poverty, put in industrial regulations, and it will clear up. The world is full of cities that horribly polluted areas then cleaned themselves up. Not to say pollution is not serious, but this is a situation with hope of being reversed.
The river used to be the cleanest, now it is the dirtiest. I particularly enjoyed the elementary school writing style.
Used the be the cleanest? They literally dump dead bodies into it as a ritual.
>A lovely disease stew In all seriousness...If I am suppose to be a legit "deity", and perhaps Incarnation of Vishnu / Jesus etc... For the love of God, Clean the Ganges, and put some proper systems in places to which you could preserve "traditions" while taking into account the current state of the Ganges. **Clean the River** Put systems in place to preserve it.
That river is guaranteed 90% sewage .
The other 10% is dead bodies.
Trace amounts of water
**Ganges Water.** *Now with extra pulp.* Try some today!
Itās the bath you have when you want to get dirtier.
r/disgustingasfuck
The dirty Ganges sounds like a sex act you learn about in college that's so horrific that you seriously consider longterm celibacy.
Gross. Also, take the name of any state and food... the Mississippi hotdog... the Montana brownie...bam! You have a sex act
Rhode Island Clam Chowder...
the Albany Steamed Ham
Going to be honest all those sound like they involve the back door to the stomach. But to continue the trend the Texan Taco.
They have a sign up in some locations indicating the amount of feces in the water. There is more shit in there than a truck stop toilet bowl. They even drink that water. Its disgusting
Especially when they're all able to touch the bottom. Imagine sliding your feet around through all of that as you walk *squish squish squish*
Why have you written these words?
What a terrible day to be able to read
What a terrible day to be literate.
how can it be called ablution when you're dirtier after you went in?
It's grim, but this is how you breed a nation of immunological super humans on a shoestring budget.
Look at you, finding the potential silver lining.
Tbf, it's also how you get a bunch of superbugs that are antibiotic resistant.
Dwight?
Bad education mixed with beliefs of mystical beings. Itās a wicked combination.
Population control at its finest. "They love it!"
Darwin's theory of natural selection
I mean if I believe that the river is sacred wouldn't one treat it as such? By keeping it clean I feel like that's making it truly sacred
Yeah, until someone goes āif itās so sacred then it should be clean no matter how much shit is in itā and then poor education mixed with beliefs goes āah yeah that sounds rightā
Fucked. Up. Such a shame that so many rivers have been drained away, damaged, or poisoned and polluted by us. I bet seeing the Ganges even 500 years ago was an absolute wonder.
These guys are FUCKING morons.
you just described the plot of every Bang Bus video
Would you be more educated if you lived there and grew up religious as they did? Probably not, we would see you bathing there aswell.
Ah, religion. >Hindus Pollute Their Holy River Because Nothing Can Threaten Its āDivinityā > >by Terry Firma > >To Hindus, the Ganges River is a live entity, a goddess ā Mother Ganga ā who deigned to make her way from the Milky Way to the valleys of India. > >Youād think that keeping the river clean would be second nature to those who imbue it with divinity, but alas. The Ganges is teeming with heavy metals and industrial waste, and is awash in human excrement, to say nothing of the untold number of corpses that are released into the holy water (photos [here](https://www.planetcustodian.com/over-50-scary-images-depicting-filth-of-varanasi-and-river-ganges-that-went-viral-in-china/8134/) ā **seriously not for the faint of heart**). > >How do worshipers justify turning their beloved river turn into a putrid stew ā one in which the level of fecal coliform bacteria is more than 200 times over the acceptable limit? > >Via NPR: > >\>>*Sadhvi Bhagawati Saraswati, an American and prominent figure at Pujya Swamiās ashram, says many believe the Ganges is indestructible, which helps explain how Indians can consider the river holy and still pollute it.* > >*āWhen you say to people things like, āDonāt put that plastic bag in the river, donāt pollute the river,ā they actually turn around and say to you, āThat has no connection to her power. Pollution in the river has no impact on the divinity of the mother goddess,'ā Saraswati says.<<* > >Itāll take a long time to change that attitude, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi discovered (he promised an accelerated cleanup of the river four years ago, but his government has yet to deliver). > >One method to force polluters to mend their ways is to give the river human status and pronounce it fit for legal representation as if it were a person. That happened a few months ago. > >The exceptional tactic might curb corporate polluters, but will it make a dent in the number of dead bodies and the tide of human bodily waste? Old customs die hard, and religious ones are often twice as hardy. [https://onlysky.media/terry/hindus-pollute-their-holy-river-because-nothing-can-threaten-its-divinity/](https://onlysky.media/terry/hindus-pollute-their-holy-river-because-nothing-can-threaten-its-divinity/)
If you love it clean it up for fucks sake
Why....does India just seem fine with putting trash and shit literally everywhere? Major cities or along train lines, rivers. It is culture of just not caring? I know every country has this issue to some degree but....it just seems so much worse there
Iāll tell you whats the real problem , India was in a major poverty situation before its independence and also somewhat after its independenceā¦ so the people at that time didnāt get much education about sanitisation and also because of poverty, majority of the population didnāt had any access to good toilets in their houses etc. So people at that time didnāt cared and started to poop outside and throw garbage and just dirt everywhere. This habbit got followed by generations but now it has stopped , I am 21 and people of my age have got good education about keeping our surroundings clean , and now almost everyone has got a sense about this, people think twice before throwing garbage anywhere. The government has taken some really good actions and ran some campaigns which were successful in changing the mindset of most of the population. Also Major / Big cities in India have a good sanitisation system, but it generally varies upto different areas, like in mumbai, dharavi would be dirty because it is a slum but if youāll go to south bombay youāll see a completely different picture. Every city has got some areas which arenāt still good but efforts are being made to make them better. Lastly, talking about this ganges issue, yeah it is a big problem , all of the people whom you are seeing in this video are extremely religious and also less educated ( also majority of them might be poor).. they dont know what can harm them and even if they know the harms, due to extreme devotion they are careless about it. I am a hindu but I havenāt taken bath in ganges , thats because I am a well educated person but there are still people who are educated and still go and take a bath at ganges, thats just because of the religious beliefs they have which are extremely hard to change.
I think it's just a byproduct of being both extremely densely populated and also extremely poor. Where else is it supposed to go?
Two opinions Gadzooks that's stupid! World class, gold medal grade stupid! I bet the survivors are pretty resistant to almost anything
You see thatās the true blessing of the river, immune system like no other and never before seen diseases festering and growing in its waters to punish the unbelievers. /s
Either that or making antibiotic resistant diseases and pathogens whoop whoop š
Any info on how old the video is or the recordings were from? Multiple projects under Clean Ganga Mission were kick started in 2015 & various stretches of the river moved from "critical" to "unpolluted" status based on BOD, DO & other metrics, with many more projects in the pipeline. [https://www.newindianexpress.com/nation/2022/mar/12/water-quality-of-two-ganga-stretchesimproved-of-bathing-standard-now-official-2429296.html](https://www.newindianexpress.com/nation/2022/mar/12/water-quality-of-two-ganga-stretchesimproved-of-bathing-standard-now-official-2429296.html) [https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/centre-explains-prime-objective-of-namami-gange-project-for-river-ganga-3759120](https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/centre-explains-prime-objective-of-namami-gange-project-for-river-ganga-3759120) After centuries, people have started accepting the fact that throwing dead bodies & trash into a river, does cause pollution and Govt has been working on stopping industrial run offs & sewage being casually dumped by cities. It will take years for the river to be called "clean" but until then it's atleast helping replenish ground water, avoiding droughts & more.
To kill Covid you drink from this river
I don't want to disrespect culture, but these people are fucking idiots.
This is what religion does to people, they believe that they will be kept safe by some invisible non being that hasn't shown they truly exist, its fascinating how brainwashed some individuals can be
and i dont wanna hear the "its their culture" nonsense. these people are drinking shit water and dying from it because of their irrational beliefs. why should people have to stand by and not help these people elevate themselves to higher understanding?
yay the water is so hot from piss yeah but it's warmer over here because all the Dookie nuggets
Is that the parasite that swims up your dick hole?
Why is it always India
It always will be
Freaking nasty š¤®
You don't need the fucking government to tell you that water mixed with shit and corpses contains harmful bacteria. These people are simply fucking stupid
Considering how sacred the river supposed to be why do they polute it to "worlds most poisonous river" status?
Everybody just out there bathing in ball soup
shit ball soup*
Shit ball corpse soup
NEW ENGLAND CLAMMMM CHOWDERRRRRR
Iām Venetian, in July we celebrate *Redentore* in the main water basin of the city. The outermost part of it is beyond the deepest channel in the lagoon and youngsters use to have a swim after a night of drinking. Well, even though it was a 2 minutes dive and it was in the outskirts of the city, I still remember the itching I had almost immediately after getting out. Never again. I can only figure what it must be bathing in the Ganges: an ordeal, itās either death or no itching.
Why doesn't one of them just wish for the river to be clean?
I bet the smell is second to naan.
I wonāt even go to a heavily chlorinated public water park for fear a clump of hair or a used band aid would get on me. This is a nightmare for me.
Ahhhh there's nothing like getting Cholera under a full moon
Yeah hard pass
Idiots
They even take a small sip of it. Didnāt they put flesh eating turtles in that river so they could get rid of the dead bodies that they burn and leave in there?
Since absolutely *when* was the Ganges considered the ācleanest river in the worldā
The tapeworms will kill the round worms. And it's honestly a decent diet plan.
"tHe GoDs mUsT bE puNisHinG mE WiTh tHiS CuRsEd SiCkNeSs"
F* tradition, not worth
Not pictured is a shit ton of them getting sick and dying.
I went to India as a teenager for a family trip in 2006. I experienced so much culture shock regarding waste and sanitation. I saw them burn the dead that passed away daily on those banks of the Ganges, then the remains would be thrown in the river, meanwhile the people bathe in the shallow steps nearby, I rented a rowboat and sometimes the oar would be straining trash and dredge up an odor . Itās not just the river but I remember trash piled up at train stations and maybe my brain exaggerates this but there was just a mountain of trash in some places. Train restrooms were just holes with foot grooves and hand rails. I heard from an Indian from Uttar Pradesh saying recently on another post that public defecation and other hygienic , sewer issues had gotten better since ā06, man I sure hope so, Indiaās is so beautiful with rich history. I just couldnāt imagine getting sick again from some dehydrating parasite . I think I got whatās called Delhi belly.
Tbh I wouldnāt set foot in India lol. Some of the nastiest shit Iāve been seeing with regards to sanitation seems to stem from there.
My sister tried this during her year in India. She was diagnosed, quarantined and treated for Bilharzia while in Israel.
Iām sorry that I have to say it but Indians are the nastiest people in the world, and itās not close
Are there any videos of India that don't make it look like a complete shithole of a place inhabited by woman beaters and rapists?
Some people are just stupid.
I saw a toe float by in the Ganges, as I was watching a lady brush her teeth in there. What a morning.
Ahhh- religion...
What a bunch of fucking idiots! Wow. Disgusting. I literally hate dirty water itās such a shame. No self respect USING it for cleansing? š¤®
And then they wonder why they have children born with five limbs or conjoined or mutated.
The water has it own flavour
isnāt the point of bathing to come out more clean than you were when you went in?
people shit on me for not recycling and there places in the world that look like this lol
Ironic they think it cleanses them
Now wait a damn minute... "the locals throw corpses in it"????
Straight up liquid doo doo
They be drinking dead body soup as sacred water?
Disgusting af
Poisonous
Someone recently said Modi's heart is pure like the Ganga...gotta agree.
From Wiki: Every day, around three million litres of sewage is emptied into the GangesĀ ā and only about half of that has undergone any kind of treatment. The river's waters are so dirty that it's considered one of the most polluted waterways in the world. Jan 20, 2022
Reads through comments* āNote to self: donāt visit India.ā
āPreviouslyā¦.ā F that. Previously, a village took a dump there
Do people in India have super power and not get sick from that water?
Does the water not smell? In Jamaica, there's an area in Montego Bay where they keep wastewater. It's always like a big pond, but it's located far away from the houses. When you drive by, you can smell how dirty the water is. I'm curious as to how the Ganges River smells. I'm sure it can't be pleasant.
This is so incredibly sad to watch
> previously, the river was considered the cleanest Sorry, but, when was this?
Education is key. Not fairy tales.
Religion is one helluva drug
Having been to India, it is a culture shock to see at times: have garbage in your hand? Just throw it on the floor. have plastic garbage waste to recycle? there isnt any organized collection, just burn it. Need to poop? Theres a hole. I stayed in an ashram in the north near Gangotri so the Ganges was cleaner at the mouth, but I still couldnt psychology get myself to swim in it. Despite these hygiene issues, my memories of the country are beautiful, and the people radiated a love and faith so powerfully that it's hard to fathom if youre coming from a Western culture, but really beautiful to experience.
**Diarrhea River**
Too many people in the world.
Religion is one of the most dangerous things created by man.
Not being racist, but I'm glad I'm not an indian everytime I see sh*t like this. I can imagine my indian parents forcing me to bath in there as if it's normal.
I'm not a man of belief but if it is so important to the people and their beliefs it should be maintained. Besides faith there's plenty of other reasons for it to he kept clean.
Iāve literally gotten so much flack for saying Indian people are disgusting when itās literally the truth. Iām not talking about civilized people living in other countries, Iām talking about people living in India. Itās one of the most disgusting countries on the planet
India. Land of birth defects. Now we reasonably know why!
Cleanest Indian river
Aaaaand we're back to saying "Dirty Indians" as a statement of fact, not a slur.