
Filthy India Photos, Chinese Netizen Reactions (*Graphic Images Warning*)  - deusclovis
http://www.chinasmack.com/2010/pictures/filthy-india-photos-chinese-netizen-reactions.html
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alphakappa
It's interesting that the reactions are non-judgmental. That said, India is
really filthy. We (Indians) keep the insides of our homes spotless, but
anything outside of the house is fair game. People don't give a second thought
about dumping trash on the street, or peeing on a wall, but you'll raise
eyebrows if you walk inside a house with your footwear on. Sigh.

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DanBC
The amount of corpses is just weird. Here's a story about someone who collects
corpses on the Yellow River and returns them, for a bounty, to the family.

([http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/09/16/100691/chinese-
fisherm...](http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/09/16/100691/chinese-fisherman-on-
yellow-river.html#.UcH1uDvryDE))

> Wei is a fisher of dead people. He scans the river for cadavers, drags them
> to shore with a small boat and then charges grieving families to recover
> their relatives' corpses. Wei said he kept the faces submerged to preserve
> their features. Any dispute about identity makes it harder to collect his
> bounty.

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tomphoolery
Not photoshopped. NOT. PHOTOSHOPPED. [http://img.chinasmack.com/www/wp-
content/uploads/2010/10/ind...](http://img.chinasmack.com/www/wp-
content/uploads/2010/10/india-photos-68.jpg) [NSFW]

"I am death, the destroyer of worlds"

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aroch
_shrug_

Eh, what's a few dead bodies and rotting corpses? The same "filth" is found in
pretty much any large body of water...whether in solid or liquid form. Are US
rivers really any cleaner? Industrial runoff, agricultural runoff and any
number of other pollutants

~~~
slapshot
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pollution_of_the_Ganges](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pollution_of_the_Ganges)

By any reasonable measure, yes, almost every U.S. river is substantially
cleaner than almost every Indian river. Take fecal coliform bacteria. They
grow in poop and they make people very sick. Western sanitation, for all its
flaws, has largely solved the problem of coliform bacteria.

The standard scoring for fecal coliform bacteria is the number of organisms
found in a 100 ml sample. In the U.S., anything above 500/100 ml will close a
beach or river for swimming. In the Ganges, the count ranges from 60,000 / 100
ml to 1.5 million (!) / 100 ml. [1] Compare to the Mississippi River near New
Orleans, where the EPA found averages between 382 and 2,528 / 100 ml. [2]

I'm sure there are other measures, but for the simple measure of "is this
water safe to drink or bathe in," the Ganges really is one of the worst in the
world. Improvements have been seen, but this isn't one where we can say "it's
all the same."

[1]
[http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/MG02Df01.html](http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/MG02Df01.html)
[2]
[http://www.epa.gov/waters/tmdldocs/ms_riv_3fc_tmdlsfinal_mar...](http://www.epa.gov/waters/tmdldocs/ms_riv_3fc_tmdlsfinal_mar28_2011.pdf)
(see page B-2)

