Officials admit 'filth' in Sangam waters

Crores of people might be ready for the holy dip at 'Sangam' -- the holiest confluence of three rivers -- Ganga ,Yamuna and the now invisible Saraswati -- Wednesday morning that marks the opening of the 42-day-long six-yearly Ardh Kumbh festval. But little are they aware that far from being fit for drinking, the water at this spot is not even fit for bathing.

Authorities heading the Rs 170 crore fair operations admitted in Allahabad on Tuesday evening, "Yes the water at Sangam is dirty brown and the BOD level (determing the pollution) is higher than the permissible norms."

They attributed the pollution to the lowered river level on account of reduced flow of water from the frozen source of the rivers in the Himalayas.

"Though there is not much that we could possibly do to prevent that, we hope to overcome the problem by ensuring increased release of water from the Narora Dam about 300 km upstream," they claimed.

"Initially at the beginning of December, they were releasing about 300 cusecs of water every day into the Ganga; but with effect from December 23, this had been increased to 1505 cusecs a day; so we are quite confident that when devotees step into the Sangam from Wednesday morning, much of the filth would get drained out and the quality of water would improve," he added.