美国国家公共电台 NPR Will Giving The Ganges Human Rights Protect The Polluted River?

 

MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

Now to India, which is facing a different kind of crisis. It's an environmental crisis affecting the Ganges River. The Ganges is a part of what it means to be Indian. Many consider the river sacred. NPR's Julie McCarthy reports on an unusual bid to clean it up.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELLS)

JULIE MCCARTHY, BYLINE¹: Small cradles of chrysanthemums² illuminated³ by candles flicker⁴ in the moonlight, bobbing along the fast-flowing water. They are offerings to the Ganges, which, for many of India's majority Hindus, is the goddess Ganga or Mother Ganga.

UNIDENTIFIED WOMEN: (Singing in foreign language).

MCCARTHY: Devotees sing her praises in the town of Rishikesh in the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand, where the headwaters of the Ganges began. It's here that the state's high court declared the river to be a living entity⁵. Environmental lawyer Raj Panjwani says that includes all aquatic⁶ biodiversity that would depend on the river. He says, in the court's rationale, the Ganges is what's known as a juristic person, meaning...

RAJ PANJWANI: An entity which is not a human being, yet it has got certain rights.

MCCARTHY: Panjwani says Indian law accepts that a deity⁷ embodied⁸ in a stone carving⁹ is a juristic person.

PANJWANI: If a stone which is a deity can be conferred with rights, then the water which has all the attributes of a deity can also be conferred with rights.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: (Singing in foreign language).

MCCARTHY: Pujya Swami agrees with giving the Ganges rights. At his Riverside ashram, he presided over this aarti - or fire ceremony - one recent Saturday night. Indians worship up and down the course of the 1,500-mile-long river. And he says that's as it should be. But cremating¹⁰ the dead in the river is harmful and should stop, he says. The Swami notes that the Ganges supports the lives of 500 million people.

PUJYA SWAMI: If Ganga dies, India dies. If Ganga thrives, India thrives. No Ganga, no India.

(SOUNDBITE OF FLOWING WATER)

MCCARTHY: The slate-gray river is relatively¹¹ clean here. But downstream, the Centre for Science and Environment's Sushmita Sengupta says the river is clotted¹² with pollutants¹³.

SUSHMITA SENGUPTA: You have flowers, you have plastics, you have dead bodies, you have construction debris¹⁴, so much filth¹⁵ coming in from the cities.

MCCARTHY: But the biggest contaminator - millions of gallons of untreated sewage. Sengupta's center found fast-growing cities on the river to be hotspots of the bacteria fecal coliform. She says government data shows certain places are 230 times the acceptable level for human health.

SENGUPTA: So it's not even suitable for outdoor bathing, leave apart drinking.

MCCARTHY: Sadhvi Bhagawati Saraswati, an American and prominent figure at Pujya Swami's ashram, says many believe the Ganges is indestructible, which explains how Indians can consider the river holy and still pollute it.

SADHVI BHAGAWATI SARASWATI: When you say to people things like, don't put that plastic bag in the river, don't pollute the river, they actually turn around and say to you, that has no connection to her power. Pollution in the river has no impact on the divinity of the Mother Goddess.

UNIDENTIFIED MEN: (Singing in foreign language).

MCCARTHY: Faith leaders recently gathered at her ashram to challenge those attitudes. Environmentalists, meanwhile, say the water is so dirty because sewage treatment plants can't take the load. Poor planning made them obsolete¹⁶ before they were even built. Prime Minister Narendra Modi may have underestimated the problems when he promised three years ago that the Ganges would be cleaned up by now. 30 years of his predecessor's schemes failed to improve the water.

A dissatisfied Uttarakhand court designated state officials to be, quote, "the human face that would protect and preserve the Ganges." Legal experts say that if they don't, they could face fines and jail under existing laws. But it's a rare polluter who is penalized¹⁷ in India. Raj Panjwani says, however, the court order represents a bid to change attitudes towards the Ganges River.

PANJWANI: And all these things take time. Therefore, I would consider it to be a first step in the right direction.

MCCARTHY: Julie McCarthy, NPR News.

1 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

2 chrysanthemums   

n.菊花( chrysanthemum的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The cold weather had most deleterious consequences among the chrysanthemums. 寒冷的天气对菊花产生了极有害的影响。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The chrysanthemums are in bloom; some are red and some yellow. 菊花开了， 有红的，有黄的。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

3 illuminated   

adj.被照明的；受启迪的

参考例句：

• Floodlights illuminated the stadium. 泛光灯照亮了体育场。
• the illuminated city at night 夜幕中万家灯火的城市

4 flicker   

vi./n.闪烁，摇曳，闪现

参考例句：

• There was a flicker of lights coming from the abandoned house.这所废弃的房屋中有灯光闪烁。
• At first,the flame may be a small flicker,barely shining.开始时，光辉可能是微弱地忽隐忽现，几乎并不灿烂。

5 entity   

n.实体，独立存在体，实际存在物

参考例句：

• The country is no longer one political entity.这个国家不再是一个统一的政治实体了。
• As a separate legal entity,the corporation must pay taxes.作为一个独立的法律实体，公司必须纳税。

6 aquatic   

adj.水生的，水栖的

参考例句：

• Aquatic sports include swimming and rowing.水上运动包括游泳和划船。
• We visited an aquatic city in Italy.我们在意大利访问过一个水上城市。

7 deity   

n.神，神性；被奉若神明的人(或物)

参考例句：

• Many animals were seen as the manifestation of a deity.许多动物被看作神的化身。
• The deity was hidden in the deepest recesses of the temple.神藏在庙宇壁龛的最深处。

8 embodied   

v.表现( embody的过去式和过去分词 )；象征；包括；包含

参考例句：

• a politician who embodied the hopes of black youth 代表黑人青年希望的政治家
• The heroic deeds of him embodied the glorious tradition of the troops. 他的英雄事迹体现了军队的光荣传统。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 carving   

n.雕刻品，雕花

参考例句：

• All the furniture in the room had much carving.房间里所有的家具上都有许多雕刻。
• He acquired the craft of wood carving in his native town.他在老家学会了木雕手艺。

10 cremating   

v.火葬，火化（尸体）( cremate的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• On April 19 sorrowing Japanese were cremating Admiral Yamamoto. 4月19日，哀伤的日本人把山本海军大将送进火海中去。 来自辞典例句

11 relatively   

adv.比较...地，相对地

参考例句：

• The rabbit is a relatively recent introduction in Australia.兔子是相对较新引入澳大利亚的物种。
• The operation was relatively painless.手术相对来说不痛。

12 clotted   

adj.凝结的v.凝固( clot的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• scones and jam with clotted cream 夹有凝脂奶油和果酱的烤饼
• Perspiration clotted his hair. 汗水使他的头发粘在一起。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

13 pollutants   

污染物质（尤指工业废物）( pollutant的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Pollutants are constantly being released into the atmosphere. 污染物质正在不断地被排放到大气中去。
• The 1987 Amendments limit 301(g) discharges to a few well-studied nonconventional pollutants. 1987年的修正案把第301条（g）的普通排放限制施加在一些认真研究过的几种非常规污染物上。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法

14 debris   

n.瓦砾堆，废墟，碎片

参考例句：

• After the bombing there was a lot of debris everywhere.轰炸之后到处瓦砾成堆。
• Bacteria sticks to food debris in the teeth,causing decay.细菌附着在牙缝中的食物残渣上，导致蛀牙。

15 filth   

n.肮脏，污物，污秽；淫猥

参考例句：

• I don't know how you can read such filth.我不明白你怎么会去读这种淫秽下流的东西。
• The dialogue was all filth and innuendo.这段对话全是下流的言辞和影射。

16 obsolete   

adj.已废弃的，过时的

参考例句：

• These goods are obsolete and will not fetch much on the market.这些货品过时了，在市场上卖不了高价。
• They tried to hammer obsolete ideas into the young people's heads.他们竭力把陈旧思想灌输给青年。

17 penalized   

对…予以惩罚( penalize的过去式和过去分词 )； 使处于不利地位

参考例句：

• You will be penalized for poor spelling. 你拼写不好将会受到处罚。
• Team members will be penalized for lateness. 队员迟到要受处罚。