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�������II��t: �������� '_�!!!",,� ;: "We are killing our mother, " says Veer Bhadra Mishra, ead pri est of the Sankat Mochan Temple, as he looks out over anges from his office on Varanasi's southern edge. "Everyday I see usands of people coming here to take their holy dip but mean­ Ie we pump millions of liters of sewage straight into this mother worship. If we can save endangered animals, why can't we save endangered people from extinction?" These endangered people are getting sick, according Prabhakar Shukla, president of the Varanasi chapter of the Indian Medical Association. Everyday he sees a steady stream of patients suf­ ng from waterborne diseases such as cholera, dysentery and id. Eye, throat and ear infections are the most common prob lems and with antibiotics too expensive for many patients, even these mild conditions can kill. "I usually prescribe antibiotics and order the patient out he river, but the temptation is too strong for them and after a days I will see them taking their morning di ps again, " he says. "You have to understa nd, this is an tradition for them. It's a instinct I can prescribe against." A devout Hindu himself, Dr Shukla hasn't bathe in the Ganges for ten years. Science doesn't always take precedence over re lig ion, though. Veer Mishra thinks the two ideologies must work togethe to save the Ganges. A Brahmin priest and a descendant of the Hindu int, Tulsi Das, Veer Mishra is also a trained scientist, university pro­ and head of the Sankat Mochan Foundation, an non-govern­ mental organization formed in 1982 to save the river and its tradi- . ns. His message is simple: as a Hindu he bel ieves the Mother Ganga is eternally pure-whatever the feca l chloroform level-and as a sci­ he knows that they must not desecrate the river with sewage. "If I tell people the river is dirty they will not listen to me. hey will say 'why are you insulting the Mother?'" Veer Mishra ai ns. "So I never say the river is dirty but I do ask people why we must throw filth on her." Government efforts to save the river have treated pollution rictly as a scientific and economic issue. The government's Ganges ion Plan, started in 1986, spent nearly US$ 100 million building modern, western-style treatment faci l ities in Varanasi. When the phase was completed in 1994, officials claimed the new facil uld take care of the city's sewage problems for the next 50 years. Less than five years later, however, the new treatment system, with its five huge coll ection cylinders sca rring Varanasi's ancient wate front, may be ca using more harm than good. Under ideal circum stances, the facil ities are only able to treat 100 million liters sewage a day. But conditions in Varanasi are ideal: the city produces 200 million liters of sewage a d leaving raw sewage spilling out from 12 outlets di rectly into bath ing areas. Monsoons and near-daily power out- es also bring the system to its knees. "It is a total failure, " says Veer Mishra, clearly �;:�����ing failu re could only be the work of politics and corrup­ on, he claims. What Veer Mishra and his foundation have pro­ posed for the second phase of the Ganges Action Plan is a ::::::'" ===-T()lr,, 1 departure from the kind of high-tech, western-style m imposed on Varanasi. With the help of engineers and other specialists from the University of California, er Mishra has submitted a plan for building a pond in the nearby vil lage of Dhab. With the vil lagers' approval, Veer Mishra proposes building a series of ment ponds that wi ll use algae and sunlight to natural break down sewage. The system won't stop when th power goes out and can easily be expanded to handl Varanasi's rapid growth. Its end products will be an alga sludge that can be fed to livestock and drinkable water. The only remaining question is whether anyone will liste to Veer Mishra. Although he has the support of the ci yor, powerful lobbyists seem determined to undermi possibil ity of creating an affordable and usable Every morning at 6AM, Veer Mishra climbs down steep steps of the Tulsi Ghat to take hi s five dailY : immersions. Standing up to his chest in the river he takes breath, grabs his nose and goes under. To an outsider, his holy dips might appear crazy considering how much he knows about the river's physical condition. But Veer Mishra laughs off suggestions that science and religion can't work together. "I want to take holy dips for the rest of my life, " he says as he dries himself off on the river bank. "Even hough my scientific background tells me something dif­ ferent, I have to do this. When your mother is sick how can you abandon her?" li![��l�� I ngered by official stupidity and indifference. Such a glar­

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