Figure 1 displays the location of the Ganges river in India (Jaiswal, 2012)
Introduction
The Ganges basin is located in northern India, which has a population of over 1.2 billion and is second only to China. The Ganges basin alone has a population of over 500 million people making it quite densely populated. With a large population often comes significant environmental problems. Of the many environmental issues in India, river pollution is quite serious as it impacts the health of millions of people per day. Majority of people in the basin have little or no access to clean water and retrieve their everyday water directly from a river source. Drinking straight from highly polluted water sources can cause numerous illnesses, some of which can be fatal due to the lack of health care in India. The three main sources of river pollution in the Ganges basin stem from agricultural runoff, industrial activity and human waste. Water-borne illness is on the rise in many areas of the Ganges basin; the future health of the rivers and the Ganges basin inhabitants is seriously threatened.