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The ongoing pollution of the Ganges, the largest river in the Indian subcontinent, poses a significant threat to human health and the environment.[1] The river provides water to about 40% of India's population across 11 states.[2] It serves an estimated population of 500 million people, more than any other river in the world.[3][4]
It is severely polluted with human waste and industrial contaminants. Today, the Ganges is considered to be the most polluted river in the world.[5] Stretches of over 600 km (370 mi) are considered ecologically dead zones.[6]
Three quarters of all the sewage generated in the northern plains remains wholly untreated before it is discharged into the Ganges and its tributaries[7]
A number of initiatives were undertaken to clean the river, but they failed to deliver significant results.[8] After getting elected, India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi pledged to work on cleaning the river and controlling pollution.[9] Subsequently, in the June 2014 budget, the government announced the Namami Ganga project.[10] By 2016, an estimated Rs 30 billion (US$460 million) had been spent in various efforts to clean up the river, to little avail.[11]
The proposed solutions include demolishing upstream dams to allow more water to flow in the river during the dry season, constructing new upstream dams or coastal reservoirs to provide dilution water during the dry season or investment in substantial new infrastructure to treat sewage and industrial waste throughout the catchment of the Ganges.
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