Private Story
Plastic's Threat to Life Along the Ganges River
So sacred is the river that its water, Ganga jal, has been hauled home in jugs by conquering armies and guidebook-toting tourists. Seventeenth-century traders believed it stayed “fresher” on long sailing voyages than water drawn elsewhere. Sir Edmund Hillary, who conquered Everest, was a fan. You can buy it today in blue bottles from Walmart.
Sadly, the Ganges also has long been one of the world’s most polluted rivers, befouled by poisonous effluents from hundreds of factories, some dating to the British colonial period. The factories add arsenic, chromium, mercury, and other metals to the hundreds of millions of gallons of raw sewage that still flow in daily. Plastic waste is only the most recent insult" writes Laura Parker.
In 2019, I joined a female-led research expedition who set out to study how, why, and what types of plastics were getting into the Ganges river and eventually into the ocean. From nylon fishing nets, to environmental activists trying to protect the river, I spent three years documenting this complex topic, and efforts to mitigate future harm. See the story published in National Geographic