Sewage and trash choke Nepal's holy Bagmati river

The polluted Bagmati River flows to an exit point from Kathmandu, Nepal. Tainted by garbage and raw sewage that is dumped directly into the waterway, Nepal’s holiest river has deteriorated so greatly that today it is the country’s most polluted, dramatically altering how the city of about 3 million interacts with the Bagmati on daily, cultural and spiritual levels. AP

A basket of garbage is stuck along the path of the Bagmati River in Kathmandu, Nepal. Madhukar Upadhya, a watershed expert who studies the river closely, says, "So much damage has already been done to it, that it can perhaps be cleaned to some degree but not restored to its past glory." AP

Garbage sits on the banks of the Bagmati River in Kathmandu. Mala Kharel, an executive member of a governmental committee set up to help clean up the river, said that over the years the campaign has succeeded in collecting about 80% of garbage along the riverbank. But the pickup efforts admittedly fall short, in part since frequent disruptions to trash collection services encourage more dumping than they can keep up with. AP

Bubbles form from the polluted water of the Bagmati River as it is processed at the Guheswori Wastewater Treatment Plant before it reaches the Pashupatinath Temple in Kathmandu. AP

Workers walk through the Guheswori Wastewater Treatment Plant, where some of the water from the Bagmati River water is treated before it reaches the Pashupatinath Temple, in Kathmandu. AP

A man pushes cremated remains into the Bagmati River at the Pashupatinath Temple in Kathmandu, Nepal. The temple was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1979. AP

A man looks at the Bagmati River, swelled by monsoon rains, in Kathmandu. A governmental committee set up to help clean the river is working on upstream dams where rainwater can be captured and stored during the monsoon season and released during the dry months to flush the river, moving waste downstream from Kathmandu. AP