New Delhi: Hundreds of people wearing gloves and face masks have picked up garbage along the banks of the Yamuna as they launched a campaign to clean a river that has been reduced to a putrid sewer.
The volunteers hope that the Commonwealth Games coming to New Delhi in October - with its athletes' village located on the river bank - will finally spur action to clean up what has became a source of embarrassment to the government and a public health crisis for the city.
The campaign started Wednesday.
Officials say factories are ignoring regulations and dumping untreated sewage and industrial pollution into the water, turning the holy river that gives the capital much of its drinking water into a toxic wasteland.
