India's Hindus bathe in holy river defiled by pollution

Sweeping aside thick toxic scum, thousands of Hindu devotees ignored court warnings Thursday against bathing in the sacred but sewage-filled Yamuna river, a grim display of environmental degradation in India’s capital.

Thousands celebrated the festival of Chhath Puja for the Hindu sun god Surya, entering the stinking waters to pray as the evening rays set in the sky.

A parliamentary report in February called the Yamuna “more of a toxic waterway than a river,” saying the foam clouds were formed from a potent chemical soup including laundry detergent and phosphates from fertilizers.

“Please understand you will fall sick,” a high court order said Wednesday, Indian media reported, restricting ritual bathing on health grounds. “We can’t allow you to go into the water.”

But housewife Krishnawati Devi, 45, said she was not worried.

“I believe the waters of the river are pure and blessed by the sun god himself,” she said. “Nothing will happen to me — god will take care of everything.”

Hindu faithful ignored the order, with women wrapped in fine saris and heavy jewelry wading into the grey waters.

Two men pray in the polluted waters of river Yamuna, laden with foam at sunrise.AFP

White foam swirled around their feet. In places, it was so thick it looked like the river had frozen.

“Chhath is a festival of unflinching faith,” said Avinash Kumar, 58, a government office worker. “We can also offer prayers at home but it doesn’t feel the same as praying in the river.”

Others thumped drums and sang.

New Delhi’s authorities have poured in anti-foaming agents to disperse the froth, and used nets to sweep the scum away — but it has done nothing to clean the fetid water itself.

“It stinks, but it’s ok,” said 14-year-old schoolgirl Deepa Kumari. “What is important is that we get to celebrate in the river with our people.”

Rituals in the days-long festival culminate at dawn on Friday.

“I don’t bother about the pollution,” said Pooja Prasad, 20, a student. “The mother goddess will take care of all our troubles,” she added.

The sprawling megacity of some 30 million people is also smothered in poisonous smog — fueled by burning crop fields and vehicle exhaust fumes.

Levels of fine particulate matter — dangerous microparticles known as PM2.5 pollutants that enter the bloodstream through the lungs — have this week surged beyond 50 times the World Health Organization recommended daily maximum.

“Toxi-city,” broadcasters dubbed the capital.

City authorities have declared repeated efforts to clean the river.

From an icy source of a Himalayan glacier, the Yamuna feeds into the mighty Ganges, flowing more than 3,100 kilometers (1,925 miles) to the sea in the Bay of Bengal.

But barely 400 kilometers into that journey, the water passing New Delhi is already effectively dead.

The parliamentary report warned of an “excessive presence of heavy metals” and cancer-causing pollutants ranging from arsenic to zinc, from everything from batteries to pesticides.

“Contamination... transform it into a carrier of untreated industrial waste, garbage, agricultural run-off and municipal waste,” the report read.

“This has a profound effect on the well-being of the people.”

Government statistics say 80 percent of the pollution load is raw sewage, far exceeding permissible levels for bathing.

Some of the faithful have traditionally drunk the water.

Levels fluctuate, but in one spot in 2021 in south Delhi, fecal bacteria levels exceeded maximum health regulations by 8,800 times.

But many say they are frustrated at the situation.

“The river is sacred to us, but all the filth from the industrial belt nearby is being pumped into it,” added Kumar.

“Every year they say they are going to clean it, but nothing ever happens.”