RESCUE THE GANGES
Rescue River Ganges By Ebuka Ugboma 1. What is Ganges? The Ganges is a river in India that flows through the states of Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal. The word "ganga" means "river" in Sanskrit; it is called the Ganges River in Hindi and Nepali. In 2015, an estimated 1.5 billion people supported their lives with its waters and over 120 million people depended on it for drinking water alone as it flows along the Gangetic Plain towards South Asia's Bay of Bengal. 2. Why do we need to protect the Ganges? The Ganges has been crucial to our social, cultural, economic and ecological development, and is increasingly threatened by pollution. If left unaddressed, this pollution will threaten all of us: local communities who rely on its clean waters for survival; farmers who depend on its fertile soil for agriculture, with an estimated $1.7 billion (Rs 10,000 crore) in losses every year; and the millions of people who live along its banks in India...