The river Ganga is both a conceptual and a real figure, occupying a space that is epic and monumental in Indian imagination. It is worshipped as a goddess by millions, but it is also one of the most polluted rivers in which untreated sewage and toxic industrial effluents are dumped along its 2,400 km journey from the Himalayas to the Bay of Bengal. The Ganga receives 220 million gallons of raw untreated sewage every day, and effluents from more than 1,000 industries. The cities and vil