The Ganges is very clean

It never ceases to amaze me what sorts of opinions one can hear in Skypeland. Someone in one cast very aggressively told everyone who would listen that the water in the Ganges River is extremely clean and of very high quality. (Since I had heard about dead animal carcasses floating in the Ganges, I was a bit amazed to hear someone make this sort of claim. There has been a government program to clean up the Ganges since 1985: http://www.hindu.com/2006/07/13/stories/2006071314760400.htm
and there has been a marked improvement in Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD) in the last 20 years. However, it is still a very polluted river: http://ywwf.net/knowledgebase/riverbasins/as-ganges.html
and is well below the Indian water quality standards (let alone World Health Organization standards), and contributes substantially to the incidence of various enteric diseases in India: http://www.indmedica.com/journals.php?journalid=7&issueid=63&articleid=782&action=article

When I mentioned this, I was told in no uncertain terms that I was wrong, since one person in the cast had seen the Ganges and he said it was perfectly clean. Oh really....

Addendum: Here is a blog from a woman living in India talking about the water pollution problems in the Ganges:
http://alternativefrock.wordpress.com/2007/10/04/ram-teri-ganga-maili-ho-gayi/
She claims large volumes of untreated sewage are dumped in the river, that animal carcasses floating in the river are common and that the water is not suitable for agricultural use now. Hmm... Does not sound very clean, does it?