Sacred Purity and Environmental Pollution

Background
Discussion Questions
Responses
Further Resources

Background

When students in the city of Kanpur, a city which contains one of the most polluted reaches of the Ganges, were asked to define pollution they quickly responded with a variety of definitions from many textbooks.  When asked to develop these ideas further, however, it was clear that the easy answers covered much confusion about the nature of the term.  Can the sacred be defiled by human actions?  The answer to this question must affect a society's response to the discharge of wastes into a river.  Children grow up with a greater awareness of the nature and effects of contamination, and yet cleaning the river depends on a consensus among many groups.

Click here for a PDF File containing Background and Discussion handout for classroom use
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Discussion Questions

1.  The scientific method ought to be free of the influence of culture: observation, development of hypotheses, design of experiments and testing of each hypothesis should be an objective exercise.  And yet, the practice of science is colored by convention, language and cultural values that make the ideal impossible to achieve.  Is it possible for eastern and western scientists to reach very different conclusions about the quality of the river when faced with the same data? 

Response

2.  Any water quality sampling strategy gathers data on a small subset of the total number of pollutants reaching the river.  The costs of analysis and sample collection are important factors in the development of a practicable design for a wastewater treatment program.  How might a sampling strategy developed for a river in North America or Western Europe bias results and lead to potentially inappropriate conclusions about the health of the river? 

Response

3.  How can the divine nature of a River affect the way that people treat the waters?  The Indian tradition appears to be quite different from that of other cultures.  Why do cultures actively work to protect water quality?  The links below include sites that discuss other perspectives on water that may assist in this discussion.

Response

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Responses

1. It is possible for different western scientists to reach different conclusions about the quality of the water when faced with the same data.  There are few absolutes in the study of water quality making the careful framing of the questions asked critical.  Contamination is relative to the uses of the water and the severity of the effect relative to other risks in the community.  Coliform bacteria are not harmful in waters not used for drinking or bathing; periodic exposures to heavy metals have a low probability of causing harm.  An assessment of water quality thus depends on the considered application of a model based on the principles of risk assessment. 

The first step of the risk assessment is hazard identification, which leads to the development of the experimental design for data collection.  As discussed in Classroom Activity WQ1, it is impossible to test for all pollutants at all times introducing bias into the results obtained.  Past research on the levels of pollution of Ganga assembled for this project show considerable reliance on a small number of pollutants measured irregularly.  

As discussed in “The Mysterious Factor X”, different conditions in different systems may make the interpretation of results more difficult.  Particularly high levels of bacteriophage activity may lessen the importance of periodic high levels of bacteria to human health.

1. As discussed above, western rivers are tested for pollutants most commonly associated with regional industries and land uses within the watershed.  Rivers are unique in their ability to absorb and detoxify pollutants (see The Mysterious Factor X) and an effective sampling plan must reflect an understanding of both the types and sources of the pollutants and of their behavior once discharged.  The Indian government's heavy reliance on dissolved oxygen (DO) levels as a basis for determining water quality exemplifies this issue.  While certainly useful as a general indicator of pollution, DO levels fluctuate seasonally, daily and with depth.  The amount of oxygen consumed by the life of the river is balanced by the levels of photosynthesis, mixing that occurs at the surface and the levels of oxygen demanding waste that exist at that location.  Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD) is a better indicator of river conditions, but is more difficult to measure and may provide little indication of the presence of other serious pollutants.

The west has banned the use of many toxins used in developing countries and requires a level of reporting that is unlikely to be found in India.  Heavy metals, toxic organic compounds and other pollutants may enter the river at rates vastly higher than those which would occur in the west, requiring an open-minded and well-researched approach to any study.

1. If a river’s waters are sacred, the mundane issues of pollution may be of less importance to those relying on the resource.  The divine nature of the Ganga allows many to look beyond the superficial quality of the water as measured in the west to the true nature of the goddess.  Certainly she could purify herself were this important, but purity may not be in any way affected by the occurrence of human detritus.

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