Abstract

Ganga River of India had an age-old reputation of being the most self-purified river whose waters neither putrefy despite long storages in air-tight containers nor cause any water-borne diseases despite its direct inhalation during huge religious gatherings at mass-bathing by millions at a time. These and many other aspects were investigated and the assimilation of biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), a parameter denoting the organic-related pollution status of waters, was comprehensively investigated and published in its varying forms/aspects, many for the first time, by the author. This presentation focuses, also for the first time, on correlating the river’s initial BOD with the rate constant of BOD assimilation in the Ganga and Yamuna Rivers whose evaluations were no easy jobs.

Keywords: Ganga; Yamuna; Biochemical oxygen demand; Waterborne diseases