:00:00. > :00:08.on the government's efforts to clean up the River Ganges.
:00:09. > :00:17.The Ganges is one of the greatest rivers in the world, but it is in
:00:18. > :00:29.trouble. Pollution on a vast scale has turned its sacred waters into a
:00:30. > :00:38.stinking and lethal cocktail. There is industrial waste... What are you
:00:39. > :00:50.stopping? Why are you stopping? The sewage from 450 million people. All
:00:51. > :00:57.the while, so much water is being taken out that large stretches of
:00:58. > :01:03.the river don't flow for months. The Indian PM has staked his political
:01:04. > :01:08.reputation on cleaning it up. But it is the Ganges, India's sacred river,
:01:09. > :01:38.still being killed by pollution? Dawn breaks over the Himalayas. And
:01:39. > :01:53.the glacier that is the source of the Ganges. A small stream emerges
:01:54. > :01:59.from a cave in the ice. The tower's mouth, they call it, one of the most
:02:00. > :02:08.sacred sites in all Hinduism. As the river descends from the mountains,
:02:09. > :02:15.it gathers pace. Mother Ganges, it is known, and it is an apt name. As
:02:16. > :02:21.I will be discovering on this incredible journey, the Ganges has
:02:22. > :02:29.nurtured and supported the rise of India's great civilisation, but this
:02:30. > :02:33.mighty river is under serious threat. Here in the Himalayas, the
:02:34. > :02:43.water looks pristine, crystal clear. Take a look at this. Now, that looks
:02:44. > :02:47.good enough to drink, but actually studies show that even here, the
:02:48. > :02:54.waters of the Ganges are becoming increasingly polluted. As we
:02:55. > :03:07.travelled down from the source, the issues become more and more
:03:08. > :03:16.pronounced. In the holy city of ... And ancient fire ritual begins. It
:03:17. > :03:22.is performed in celebration and in worship of the mother Ganges, but
:03:23. > :03:25.there is an irony here. While hundreds of millions of Indians
:03:26. > :03:34.revere the river, they are also pouring their waste into it. It is a
:03:35. > :03:43.bird in the Ganges simply cannot bear any more. The Ganges is not
:03:44. > :03:53.near water to Indians, it is the mother, a goddess. Sitting on the
:03:54. > :04:00.banks I can tell you that we come to give... People think it can take
:04:01. > :04:17.care of their sins, can take care of anything. And they forget. To me, if
:04:18. > :04:20.Ganga dies, India dies. And if it thrives, India thrives. This has
:04:21. > :04:24.become symbolic of an even bigger project. India's effort to lift its
:04:25. > :04:29.people out of poverty and become a modern world power. When Narendra
:04:30. > :04:32.Modi won a landslide victory two years ago, one of the first
:04:33. > :04:38.commitment he made was to tackle pollution in the river. He has
:04:39. > :04:44.promised serious money, he said he will spend more than $3 billion over
:04:45. > :04:50.the next five years on his clean Ganga mission. But delivering on his
:04:51. > :04:54.promise may be one of his greatest challenges, because if anything
:04:55. > :04:58.speaks of the failure of government in India, it is the abuse this great
:04:59. > :05:07.river is suffering. There is no better example than this place. The
:05:08. > :05:13.centre of India's giant leather centre. -- industry. India is one of
:05:14. > :05:22.the biggest producers of laser in the world, -- leather. Much is
:05:23. > :05:28.exported to the US. But the industry is very polluting, with toxic
:05:29. > :05:33.chemicals used to soften and preserve the hives, and many of them
:05:34. > :05:36.are toxic carcinogens. A local environmental campaigner takes the
:05:37. > :05:43.on a tour of what he claims is India's dirtiest town. Indian
:05:44. > :05:50.politicians have been talking about cleaning up the Ganges for three
:05:51. > :05:59.decades. He says pollution has only got worse. Take a look at this, I
:06:00. > :06:07.have to say, it really smells here. These poor people have to live
:06:08. > :06:18.beside the dream. Looking down at the water, you can see it is black
:06:19. > :06:32.with effluent. It really smells. There is a tannery just there. It is
:06:33. > :06:41.really powerful! What kind of waste are we having here? Highly chemical
:06:42. > :06:48.lies and toxic water. Waste water coming from the tanneries. And you
:06:49. > :06:52.know, tanneries used a variety of chemicals. Including dangerous ones
:06:53. > :07:00.like chromium mother used to soften the latest, don't they. Yes, heavy
:07:01. > :07:06.metals and pesticides as well. He says the strain, like many others,
:07:07. > :07:17.still pours untreated into the Ganges. It is a shocking indictment
:07:18. > :07:20.on the effort to clean the river. This is where that awful drain,
:07:21. > :07:27.which you can still smell here, runs down into the Ganges. It is very
:07:28. > :07:33.disheartening. When I started 20 years back I used to see the river
:07:34. > :07:39.in a much better position. I have only seen the situation worsening
:07:40. > :07:46.from bad to worse, and you can see the pollution now, it is killing the
:07:47. > :07:51.town. The man in charge of the clean Ganga permission admits deep
:07:52. > :07:59.problems need to be tackled, but he says progress is being made. They
:08:00. > :08:09.need to use the law to bear upon the industry is in a manner that. ...
:08:10. > :08:18.Why not, what was going on? You can save corruption is part of it. When
:08:19. > :08:24.we saw the licences, we found there were only 267 of them. Can we choose
:08:25. > :08:27.the tannery? He sent us out with a team of pollution inspectors to
:08:28. > :08:42.demonstrate that things are changing. Hello, sir. Pollution
:08:43. > :08:53.control. This is a bit different. This does not look so good. He is
:08:54. > :09:00.stopping something happening. Look at these! What are you stopping? Why
:09:01. > :09:14.are you stopping? Who is in charge of this place? How many days have
:09:15. > :09:19.you left this? Four days. There are four days of Flash? This is where
:09:20. > :09:24.they stripped the flesh from the hives, and there are four days work
:09:25. > :09:27.here. It is disgusting, you can see the flesh from the hives, and there
:09:28. > :09:29.are four days work here. It is disgusting, you can see the Flash
:09:30. > :09:39.running down the machine. There are huge puddles of water, which is that
:09:40. > :09:55.distinctive blue colour. -- hides. Flesh. This does not look so good.
:09:56. > :09:58.Not tidy, not much tidy. He says this dream is connected to the
:09:59. > :10:06.treatment plant which is just down here. We have to literally wade
:10:07. > :10:19.through these hides, and they are all swollen and bloated. How do you
:10:20. > :10:30.get across? It is like walking on rubber, that is disgusting. These
:10:31. > :10:37.are untreated. Everything seems jumbled together. He said to me that
:10:38. > :10:42.segregation and separation... It is required, but there is none here.
:10:43. > :10:48.Almost 100 tanneries have been shut down, part-time shop that somewhere
:10:49. > :10:52.like that place is still operating. It needs some improvement. A lot of
:10:53. > :10:58.improvement. It was disgusting in there. We will definitely have some
:10:59. > :11:03.action. What action would you take? Do you think it will be chosen? Will
:11:04. > :11:10.make a recommendation. You will be saying to close this place. Sure,
:11:11. > :11:13.sure. There are other problems here, the environmental campaigner
:11:14. > :11:18.has somewhere else he wants to take me. Rakesh has brought me to the
:11:19. > :11:25.outflow of the main effluent treatment plant, which treats sewage
:11:26. > :11:28.and industrial waste. Just take a look at this. Let me remind you,
:11:29. > :11:39.this is the treated water. The government admits that the
:11:40. > :11:43.existing plant can only cope with a fraction of the waste from the
:11:44. > :11:53.tanneries. And guess where this water goes. That is right, on to the
:11:54. > :11:58.fieldsIt if it gets 2500 hectares of agricultural ground. The problem is
:11:59. > :12:04.not just what is going into the river, but what is being taken out.
:12:05. > :12:10.The livelihoods of literally hundreds of millions of Indians
:12:11. > :12:13.depend on water from the Ganges. That is because irrigation is
:12:14. > :12:20.crucial to farming in what would otherwise be a virtual desert. Oh,
:12:21. > :12:26.it is actually relatively easy to get water here. You don't have to
:12:27. > :12:32.dig that deep. I must say it is pretty hard doing the digging.
:12:33. > :12:40.Takeover. Thank you. What they have done is they have dug a hole about
:12:41. > :12:46.20 feet, seven metres deep, and now, they have dug a tube down and
:12:47. > :12:52.they have to dig deeper and deeper until, the idea is, they hit the
:12:53. > :12:57.water table. They have put an electric pump in the wellhead. It is
:12:58. > :13:04.certainly helping. This is the water coming through. This punches the
:13:05. > :13:09.water table around here. This is essentially Ganges water. That is
:13:10. > :13:21.why the amount of water they are taking is such an important thing.
:13:22. > :13:31.That was interesting. I am joined by a worker of the Wildlife Fund.
:13:32. > :13:36.TRANSLATION: There is no limit to how much water farmers can use. They
:13:37. > :13:41.can use as much ground water as they like. The government doesn't charge
:13:42. > :13:48.them anything. Only the diesel is priced. How much does it cost, that
:13:49. > :13:54.is the only limit. Why is this an issue for the Ganges? They can
:13:55. > :14:05.easily draw out the water. That is why. All the water farmers use
:14:06. > :14:11.across the vast Gangetic Plains is essentially water taken from the
:14:12. > :14:15.supply to the Ganges? Yeah. TRANSLATION: The more they are
:14:16. > :14:24.taking the more they are taking from the Ganges. Farmers are a crucial
:14:25. > :14:30.constituency. Over the years, politicians have attempted to buy
:14:31. > :14:37.their favour by offering incentives to restore pumps. The result has
:14:38. > :14:41.been water intensive farming practices. Groundwater levels have
:14:42. > :14:47.in falling dramatically, and so has the flow in some part of the
:14:48. > :14:51.Ganges. -- been. But the World Wildlife Fund has shown it is
:14:52. > :14:58.possible to get farmers to use less water. Instead of flooding hole
:14:59. > :15:06.fields, they now limit water use by using a series of bans. TRANSLATION:
:15:07. > :15:10.The amount of water we use now has gone down by half. As a result, we
:15:11. > :15:16.use less water and get more profits. And the crops are also
:15:17. > :15:21.good. So, do you think other farmers will begin to use the water-saving
:15:22. > :15:27.measures that you have begun to introduce? Yeah. Everyone is doing
:15:28. > :15:32.it. It makes sense. We get more profits and cut down on carbon
:15:33. > :15:38.emissions at all. A few hundred, the is down the river we come to one of
:15:39. > :15:44.the greatest cities in all of India. -- kilometres. This is one of the
:15:45. > :15:54.oldest continuously occupied cities in the world. People have been
:15:55. > :16:06.living here for more than 3000 years. BELL TOLLS. It is the holiest
:16:07. > :16:27.city in Hinduism, but it is also another huge source of pollution.
:16:28. > :16:38.Cleaning the river means addressing ancient practices, like Riverside
:16:39. > :16:47.cremation. -- riverside. Hindus believe that being burned on a pyre
:16:48. > :16:53.on the Ganges rings moksha, liberation from the cycle of death
:16:54. > :16:58.and rebirth. -- brings. It is reckoned 32,000 human corpses are
:16:59. > :17:06.cremated here each year with up to 300 tons of half burned human flesh
:17:07. > :17:12.released into the Ganges. But it is the bodily waste of the living that
:17:13. > :17:18.is the biggest challenge here. The first Ganges action plan 30 years
:17:19. > :17:25.ago brought a series of huge sewage plants. But massive infrastructure
:17:26. > :17:29.has not brought an end to the problem. Studies show that just 20%
:17:30. > :17:37.of the sewage reduced along the Ganges is treated. The rest... It
:17:38. > :17:45.goes into the river. That is why faecal contamination here at
:17:46. > :17:48.Varanasi is almost 150 times the safe level for bathing. It is one of
:17:49. > :17:55.the most shocking statistics in India. The fact that 300,000
:17:56. > :18:05.children under five die in each year from diarrhoea. So, what is Narendra
:18:06. > :18:09.Modi's Clean Ganga Mission doing about it? I have come to the
:18:10. > :18:13.spectacular Environment Ministry, the centre of his effort to clean
:18:14. > :18:23.the Ganges. So has he bitten off more than he can chew? We have taken
:18:24. > :18:27.lessons from the past mistakes and we are already correcting it.
:18:28. > :18:33.Therefore, we have a new focus. We are leading from the front. We are
:18:34. > :18:37.confident that we will achieve our targets. But what we are not seeing
:18:38. > :18:46.as we travel around the Ganges is concrete evidence of change. It will
:18:47. > :18:49.not be complete by five years, but we will ensure there is a huge
:18:50. > :19:00.difference. But it is a huge project. They tried it 50 years ago
:19:01. > :19:06.but they took 20 years to completely change the ecology of the area. We
:19:07. > :19:12.will do much like that. Let's hope he is right. Because the Ganges
:19:13. > :19:23.sustains a unique ecosystem. And one of the rarest animals in the world
:19:24. > :19:28.as well, the Ganges River Dolphin. They still survive in the main
:19:29. > :19:37.stretch of the river between the tanneries and the temples. We hoped
:19:38. > :19:39.we could see the incredibly rare Ganges River Dolphin, and
:19:40. > :19:44.incredibly, within minutes of arriving, I saw the dorsal fin of
:19:45. > :19:57.one break the water. A big challenge will be filming them. Wow... This is
:19:58. > :20:04.Sanjay the cameraman. How difficult will it be to film them? It is
:20:05. > :20:11.difficult. You are an expert of these dolphins. You work for the
:20:12. > :20:19.World Wildlife Fund. Your job is to protect them. How rate is it? The
:20:20. > :20:24.dolphin is an endangered species. -- rare is it. It is rare to spot them.
:20:25. > :20:30.Varies so of them! Today, there seems to be dolphins all around us.
:20:31. > :20:35.-- There is so many. There are seven over there. They have to surface
:20:36. > :20:43.every two minutes also to breathe. The challenge is guessing where they
:20:44. > :20:47.will be. Or so to. You can see how close we can get. You get a sense of
:20:48. > :20:59.how big they are. They are big animals. After a bit, just look at
:21:00. > :21:06.this. Oh my god! Two of them! Mad men. That is really good. -- Good
:21:07. > :21:23.man. This has been extraordinary. I never
:21:24. > :21:27.expected to see anything like as many dolphins as we have seen. And
:21:28. > :21:32.it is such incredibly good news, because what it tells us is that
:21:33. > :21:37.this river is capable of supporting these wonderful animals. And it also
:21:38. > :21:42.shows us what is at stake, why it is so important that the Indian's
:21:43. > :21:47.government's efforts to clean up this river succeeds. The last
:21:48. > :21:56.journey takes us to the mouth of the river. It is here that the Ganges
:21:57. > :22:03.and its 2500 kilometre journey where it finally meets the ocean. -- ends.
:22:04. > :22:10.This is another holy site. We are visiting on one of the most
:22:11. > :22:15.auspicious days. 80 million pilgrims have come here to celebrate the
:22:16. > :22:22.descent of the bodice, Ganga, from the heavens. -- goddess. The Indian
:22:23. > :22:29.Prime Minister knows he will be judged by what he achieves with the
:22:30. > :22:31.Ganges. It is a test of India's ability to become a modern nation
:22:32. > :22:37.because it means tackling corruption, introducing proper
:22:38. > :22:45.regulation, as well as massive and in waste treatment. Narendra Modi
:22:46. > :22:50.has a key advantage, the fact so many Indians want him to succeed.
:22:51. > :22:55.And if India can clean up one of the dirtiest rivers in the world, who
:22:56. > :23:14.knows what else this great rising nation can achieve. INDIAN MUSIC
:23:15. > :23:22.PLAYS. There is a lot of dry, occasionally
:23:23. > :23:26.sunny weather to come this weekend. It's just nowhere near as warm
:23:27. > :23:29.as it was last weekend. In fact,
:23:30. > :23:31.across the northern half of Britain as Saturday begins, there will be
:23:32. > :23:35.some spots at or just below freezing