"She feels her brow begin to furrow, and her face wrinkle with discomfort."
good evening ganges
Blake drops her duffel to the floor. A small puff of red dust settles on her white sneakers, making them look a little bit spray-tanned. The bus ride from Rishikesh was long, and she is tired. Despite a long day of travel, she visited the Ganges riverbank before going to her rental. Her assignment was simple: test water quality along the river to find out where pollution was starting and stopping, and create an intervention if water quality was unsafe. She had three weeks to conduct an initial water-quality assessment. If the water was within standards, she had three days to get to the next city, where she would do more testing. If the water was not within standards, her stay would be extended for three months so that she could identify pollution sources, and create a preliminary intervention.
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preliminary intervention. Her research is sponsored by the Central Pollution Control Board, which is a branch of the Ministry of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change. She was tasked with identifying intervention points and updating water-quality records for a ten-year river refurbishment project they are conducting. Rishikesh, the first city on the Ganges, is where the river descends from the Himalayan foothills. Full of ornate temples and lush greenery, the idyllic city is known to be the center of yoga and meditation in India.
to be the center of yoga and meditation in India. Blake immersed herself in meditative culture, learning new techniques to bolster her practice. She was surprised to find that the icy blue water was polluted, but not toxic. So three weeks later, she moved on.
As she stepped up to the edge of the river, it became clear there was a problem in Haridwar. The river color was a little darker than
Rishikesh’s – more deep green, a bit murky. A plastic bag washed up on the bank with each wave, adding to the barrier of trash between the water and the sandy beach. The air was stale, warm, and fishy. The sun was just beginning to descend on the horizon, casting a blood-orange wash over the bright red temples of Haridwar. The contrast of beauty and litter settled within Blake as she turned her head to look around the river bank. To her left were two young boys and a girl splashing around playing tag, their feet kicking at the river. To her right, an older man bathed beside stone steps cascading steeply into the Ganges.