Ganga

e Ganges, or as it known in India, the Ganga, is a river of stories. Scholars have collected many tales about this river that springs from a dozen sources on the roof of the world. Each of the stories shares the theme that Ganga, daughter of the Himalaya, is persuaded to shed her purifying waters on the sinful Earth and thus bring salvation to humanity.

The Ganga is the great collector of Himalayan snows. The many sources of the Ganga flow south and east from melting glaciers in these highlands, collecting into the great trunk stream that flows due east before bending slightly southward into the Bay of Bengal. Little water comes from the dry lowlands across the western and southern portions of the Ganga drainage basin.

As the rivers of the Ganga basin leave the steep topography of the Himalaya and enter the hill country to the south, they flow through the first of many cities spread along their courses. Cities such as Kathmandu, Nepal, along the tributary Bishnumati River, release a variety of contaminants into the rivers, and water quality deteriorates rapidly downstream. Organic pollution comes from the tens of thousands of bodies cremated on the Ganga itself, as well as human and animal wastes. More dangerous and persistent chemical contaminants released by the hundreds of factories along the Ganga and its tributaries include mercury, highly toxic heavy metals such as lead and copper, and various synthetic chemicals. Crop lands leak pesticides and excess fertilizers into the