Figure 1: Religious ritual along the Ganges basin, attracts a large crowd (DMMA, 2010)
Introduction
India's over population and cultural ideologies have led to the intense pollution of the Ganges basin. "Mother Ganga" or the Ganges basin is viewed as a deity so pure that it cannot be tainted. Many Indians believe it cannot be polluted by human action especially religious practices. However the Ganges basin is being polluted through human sewage, agriculture and industrial misuse. The National Ganga River Basin Project has been targeting point source and secondary source pollution by building advanced integrated wastewater pond systems and municipal sewage systems.
Population Density
There are 29 cities, 70 towns and1000's of villages located along the Ganges basin (Vass, 2010). There are 900 persons per kilometer in the Ganges basin, which ends up being 40-45% of India's population (Behera, 2011). This intense human population has a negative impact on the Ganges basin.
Figure 2: Demographic of India’s population (Goffman, 2008)