Killing the Ganges Our World

on the government's efforts to clean up the River Ganges.

The Ganges is one of the greatest rivers in the world, but it is in

trouble. Pollution on a vast scale has turned its sacred waters into a

stinking and lethal cocktail. There is industrial waste... What are you

stopping? Why are you stopping? The sewage from 450 million people. All

the while, so much water is being taken out that large stretches of

the river don't flow for months. The Indian PM has staked his political

reputation on cleaning it up. But it is the Ganges, India's sacred river,

still being killed by pollution? Dawn breaks over the Himalayas. And

the glacier that is the source of the Ganges. A small stream emerges

from a cave in the ice. The tower's mouth, they call it, one of the most

sacred sites in all Hinduism. As the river descends from the mountains,

it gathers pace. Mother Ganges, it is known, and it is an apt name. As

I will be discovering on this incredible journey, the Ganges has

nurtured and supported the rise of India's great civilisation, but this

mighty river is under serious threat. Here in the Himalayas, the

water looks pristine, crystal clear. Take a look at this. Now, that looks

good enough to drink, but actually studies show that even here, the

waters of the Ganges are becoming increasingly polluted. As we

travelled down from the source, the issues become more and more

pronounced. In the holy city of ... And ancient fire ritual begins. It

is performed in celebration and in worship of the mother Ganges, but

there is an irony here. While hundreds of millions of Indians

revere the river, they are also pouring their waste into it. It is a

bird in the Ganges simply cannot bear any more. The Ganges is not

near water to Indians, it is the mother, a goddess. Sitting on the

banks I can tell you that we come to give... People think it can take

care of their sins, can take care of anything. And they forget. To me, if

Ganga dies, India dies. And if it thrives, India thrives. This has

become symbolic of an even bigger project. India's effort to lift its

people out of poverty and become a modern world power. When Narendra

Modi won a landslide victory two years ago, one of the first

commitment he made was to tackle pollution in the river. He has

promised serious money, he said he will spend more than $3 billion over

the next five years on his clean Ganga mission. But delivering on his

promise may be one of his greatest challenges, because if anything

speaks of the failure of government in India, it is the abuse this great

river is suffering. There is no better example than this place. The

centre of India's giant leather centre. -- industry. India is one of

the biggest producers of laser in the world, -- leather. Much is

exported to the US. But the industry is very polluting, with toxic

chemicals used to soften and preserve the hives, and many of them

are toxic carcinogens. A local environmental campaigner takes the

on a tour of what he claims is India's dirtiest town. Indian

politicians have been talking about cleaning up the Ganges for three

decades. He says pollution has only got worse. Take a look at this, I

have to say, it really smells here. These poor people have to live

beside the dream. Looking down at the water, you can see it is black

with effluent. It really smells. There is a tannery just there. It is

really powerful! What kind of waste are we having here? Highly chemical

lies and toxic water. Waste water coming from the tanneries. And you

know, tanneries used a variety of chemicals. Including dangerous ones

like chromium mother used to soften the latest, don't they. Yes, heavy

metals and pesticides as well. He says the strain, like many others,

still pours untreated into the Ganges. It is a shocking indictment

on the effort to clean the river. This is where that awful drain,

which you can still smell here, runs down into the Ganges. It is very

disheartening. When I started 20 years back I used to see the river

in a much better position. I have only seen the situation worsening

from bad to worse, and you can see the pollution now, it is killing the

town. The man in charge of the clean Ganga permission admits deep

problems need to be tackled, but he says progress is being made. They

need to use the law to bear upon the industry is in a manner that. ...

Why not, what was going on? You can save corruption is part of it. When

we saw the licences, we found there were only 267 of them. Can we choose

the tannery? He sent us out with a team of pollution inspectors to

demonstrate that things are changing. Hello, sir. Pollution

control. This is a bit different. This does not look so good. He is

stopping something happening. Look at these! What are you stopping? Why

are you stopping? Who is in charge of this place? How many days have

you left this? Four days. There are four days of Flash? This is where

they stripped the flesh from the hives, and there are four days work

here. It is disgusting, you can see the flesh from the hives, and there

are four days work here. It is disgusting, you can see the Flash

running down the machine. There are huge puddles of water, which is that

distinctive blue colour. -- hides. Flesh. This does not look so good.

Not tidy, not much tidy. He says this dream is connected to the

treatment plant which is just down here. We have to literally wade

through these hides, and they are all swollen and bloated. How do you

get across? It is like walking on rubber, that is disgusting. These

are untreated. Everything seems jumbled together. He said to me that

segregation and separation... It is required, but there is none here.

Almost 100 tanneries have been shut down, part-time shop that somewhere

like that place is still operating. It needs some improvement. A lot of

improvement. It was disgusting in there. We will definitely have some

action. What action would you take? Do you think it will be chosen? Will

make a recommendation. You will be saying to close this place. Sure,

sure. There are other problems here, the environmental campaigner

has somewhere else he wants to take me. Rakesh has brought me to the

outflow of the main effluent treatment plant, which treats sewage

and industrial waste. Just take a look at this. Let me remind you,

this is the treated water. The government admits that the

existing plant can only cope with a fraction of the waste from the

tanneries. And guess where this water goes. That is right, on to the

fieldsIt if it gets 2500 hectares of agricultural ground. The problem is

not just what is going into the river, but what is being taken out.

The livelihoods of literally hundreds of millions of Indians

depend on water from the Ganges. That is because irrigation is

crucial to farming in what would otherwise be a virtual desert. Oh,

it is actually relatively easy to get water here. You don't have to

dig that deep. I must say it is pretty hard doing the digging.

Takeover. Thank you. What they have done is they have dug a hole about

20 feet, seven metres deep, and now, they have dug a tube down and

they have to dig deeper and deeper until, the idea is, they hit the

water table. They have put an electric pump in the wellhead. It is

certainly helping. This is the water coming through. This punches the

water table around here. This is essentially Ganges water. That is

why the amount of water they are taking is such an important thing.

That was interesting. I am joined by a worker of the Wildlife Fund.

TRANSLATION: There is no limit to how much water farmers can use. They

can use as much ground water as they like. The government doesn't charge

them anything. Only the diesel is priced. How much does it cost, that

is the only limit. Why is this an issue for the Ganges? They can

easily draw out the water. That is why. All the water farmers use

across the vast Gangetic Plains is essentially water taken from the

supply to the Ganges? Yeah. TRANSLATION: The more they are

taking the more they are taking from the Ganges. Farmers are a crucial

constituency. Over the years, politicians have attempted to buy

their favour by offering incentives to restore pumps. The result has

been water intensive farming practices. Groundwater levels have

in falling dramatically, and so has the flow in some part of the

Ganges. -- been. But the World Wildlife Fund has shown it is

possible to get farmers to use less water. Instead of flooding hole

fields, they now limit water use by using a series of bans. TRANSLATION:

The amount of water we use now has gone down by half. As a result, we

use less water and get more profits. And the crops are also

good. So, do you think other farmers will begin to use the water-saving

measures that you have begun to introduce? Yeah. Everyone is doing

it. It makes sense. We get more profits and cut down on carbon

emissions at all. A few hundred, the is down the river we come to one of

the greatest cities in all of India. -- kilometres. This is one of the

oldest continuously occupied cities in the world. People have been

living here for more than 3000 years. BELL TOLLS. It is the holiest

city in Hinduism, but it is also another huge source of pollution.

Cleaning the river means addressing ancient practices, like Riverside

cremation. -- riverside. Hindus believe that being burned on a pyre

on the Ganges rings moksha, liberation from the cycle of death

and rebirth. -- brings. It is reckoned 32,000 human corpses are

cremated here each year with up to 300 tons of half burned human flesh

released into the Ganges. But it is the bodily waste of the living that

is the biggest challenge here. The first Ganges action plan 30 years

ago brought a series of huge sewage plants. But massive infrastructure

has not brought an end to the problem. Studies show that just 20%

of the sewage reduced along the Ganges is treated. The rest... It

goes into the river. That is why faecal contamination here at

Varanasi is almost 150 times the safe level for bathing. It is one of

the most shocking statistics in India. The fact that 300,000

children under five die in each year from diarrhoea. So, what is Narendra

Modi's Clean Ganga Mission doing about it? I have come to the

spectacular Environment Ministry, the centre of his effort to clean

the Ganges. So has he bitten off more than he can chew? We have taken

lessons from the past mistakes and we are already correcting it.

Therefore, we have a new focus. We are leading from the front. We are

confident that we will achieve our targets. But what we are not seeing

as we travel around the Ganges is concrete evidence of change. It will

not be complete by five years, but we will ensure there is a huge

difference. But it is a huge project. They tried it 50 years ago

but they took 20 years to completely change the ecology of the area. We

will do much like that. Let's hope he is right. Because the Ganges

sustains a unique ecosystem. And one of the rarest animals in the world

as well, the Ganges River Dolphin. They still survive in the main

stretch of the river between the tanneries and the temples. We hoped

we could see the incredibly rare Ganges River Dolphin, and

incredibly, within minutes of arriving, I saw the dorsal fin of

one break the water. A big challenge will be filming them. Wow... This is

Sanjay the cameraman. How difficult will it be to film them? It is

difficult. You are an expert of these dolphins. You work for the

World Wildlife Fund. Your job is to protect them. How rate is it? The

dolphin is an endangered species. -- rare is it. It is rare to spot them.

Varies so of them! Today, there seems to be dolphins all around us.

-- There is so many. There are seven over there. They have to surface

every two minutes also to breathe. The challenge is guessing where they

will be. Or so to. You can see how close we can get. You get a sense of

how big they are. They are big animals. After a bit, just look at

this. Oh my god! Two of them! Mad men. That is really good. -- Good

man. This has been extraordinary. I never

expected to see anything like as many dolphins as we have seen. And

it is such incredibly good news, because what it tells us is that

this river is capable of supporting these wonderful animals. And it also

shows us what is at stake, why it is so important that the Indian's

government's efforts to clean up this river succeeds. The last

journey takes us to the mouth of the river. It is here that the Ganges

and its 2500 kilometre journey where it finally meets the ocean. -- ends.

This is another holy site. We are visiting on one of the most

auspicious days. 80 million pilgrims have come here to celebrate the

descent of the bodice, Ganga, from the heavens. -- goddess. The Indian

Prime Minister knows he will be judged by what he achieves with the

Ganges. It is a test of India's ability to become a modern nation

because it means tackling corruption, introducing proper

regulation, as well as massive and in waste treatment. Narendra Modi

has a key advantage, the fact so many Indians want him to succeed.

And if India can clean up one of the dirtiest rivers in the world, who

knows what else this great rising nation can achieve. INDIAN MUSIC

PLAYS. There is a lot of dry, occasionally

sunny weather to come this weekend. It's just nowhere near as warm

as it was last weekend. In fact,

across the northern half of Britain as Saturday begins, there will be

some spots at or just below freezing