The river contains untreated sewage, remaining corpses, chemicals and disease-causing microbes. The Ganges has the EHEC bacteria also known as 0157:H7. This bacteria infects more than 73,000 people in the United States and kills about 60, according to the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention.
There is over 10 million bacteria in the river and most of them are E.Coli. It is said that each 100mL of the river's waters are heavily loaded with 29,000 fecal coliform bacteria, which potentially causes disease.
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Only 31% of municipal sewage in India undergoes treatment, while the rest gets discharged into the country's rivers, ponds, land, and seas contaminating underground and surface waters according to The Central Pollution Control Border.
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More than 500,000 of the 10.3 million deaths in India in 2004 resulted from the water born diseases according to World Health Organization. The polluted river is the biggest cause of skin problems, disabilities and high infant mortality rates according to Suresh Babu Coordinator of the River Pollution Campaign at the Center for Science and the Environment in New Delhi.
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Prime Minister Manmohan Singh identified cleaning up the river as a national priority. The Indian Government has embarked on a $4 billion campaign to ensure that by 2020 no untreated municipal sewage or industrial run offs enters the 1,560 mi river.
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