Ganges River More Polluted Than Ever Despite Costly Cleanup Plan

The Ganges, India’s holiest river, is more polluted now than ever, despite an ambitious program launched in 2014 by the Modi administration to clean it up, a new analysis shows.

Human waste, burnt bodies, and religious offerings wrapped in plastic combine with all manner of industrial pollution to make the water unfit for drinking, bathing, or irrigation, the draft report from the government’s Central Pollution Control Board said.

The Namami Gange—obedience to the Ganges—program, aimed at cleaning up 80 percent of the river by March 2019 with a total budget of Rs 20,000 crore ...