‘Holy river’ carries industrial waste & sewage from Nepal to India

‘Holy river’ carries industrial waste & sewage from Nepal to India

BIRGUNJ, Nepal — When 38-year-old Pradeep Kumar Bishwokarma was growing up in Ramgadhawa, a neighborhood in southern Nepal’s industrial town of Birgunj, he would jump into the Sirsiya River to beat the summer heat as his mother washed clothes and residents drew drinking water from it. Today, Bishwokarma and his fellow residents of the border town cover their noses with a handkerchief whenever they pass by the river that was once their village’s …