How is our holy river ganga getting polluted?? What are it's ill effects? What is being done to prevent its pollution?

Dear student, Major causes of pollution of river Ganga- Release of industrial waste into the river. People add ashes to the river People use river water for domestic purposes and add pollutants like surf , detergents, soap to the river. People flow food items, images of gods and godesses into the river due to ritualistic reasons. River Ganga flows in around 25-30 cities and all these cities contribute to its pollution to large extent. Along with those mentioned above, some include- 1-Sewage- This contains waste water from our household and other domestic waste dumped into water bodies. 2- Industrial waste- This includes wastes discharged from factories, refineries into the water bodies. These wastes contains harmful chemicals such as alkalis, acids etc. and toxic metals like mercury, arsenic etc. Which kills the aquatic life. 3- Oil spills- Oils released from oil drums which are accidentally discharged from ships into the water bodies. 4- Agricultural run off- This is the waste water released from agricultural field which contains pesticides and fertilizers that affects the aquatic life. Some of the ill-effects include: The addition of various pollutant to water affects life. Following are the effects of water pollution 1) Sewage water may contain harmful bacteria, which cause diseases such as cholera, dysentery, typhoid, etc. 2) When chemicals (excess of fertilisers and pesticides) enter water bodies, they cause an increase in the growth of algae (this process is called eutrophication). This excess growth covers the surface of water and reduces the amount of oxygen available to the aquatic organisms. Thus water pollution causes significant harm aquatic life. Also, it causes variation in the temperature of water. A change in the water temperature affects aquatic organisms (and their eggs and larvae), which are sensitive to temperature changes. 3) Chemicals such as mercury salts that are released by paper factories are poisonous. Presence of these substances makes water unfit for consumption. These chemicals cause several diseases of the central nervous system, and severe poisoning even results in death. 4) It adversely effects the quality of ground water by increasing its toxicity. Preventive measures: Some of the measures to reduce air pollution are, Switching over from traditional fuels to alternative, cleaner fuels such as solar energy, wind energy, and hydropower energy. Unlike fossil fuels, these alternative sources of energy do not cause pollution and can be tapped from nature, where these are available in abundance. The burning of dry leaves causes a lot of pollution. Therefore, instead of burning them, one can bury these leaves in a compost pit. The leaf compost thus obtained can be used as manure for plants. Planting of trees is another measure that can be taken to reduce air pollution. Spread awareness: We should explain the importance of trees to our friends and motivate them to plant trees and nurture the already existing trees in their locality. All the best Regards