The holy city of Benares in India, or Varanasi, is known for its Ghats, the sites where the River Ganges purifies the bodies of the live bathers and the ashes of the cremated dead. Close to them is the huge square mouth of the city sewerage system, which disgorges its load of blackwater into the river, irrespective of its religious functions. This combination of spiritual purity and environmental reality is not unique to India: in many countries the same water sources used for religious functions
are contaminated by people