Wash Away Your Sins at Home: India's Post Offices Sell Bottled River Water

Now, everyone in India can get a drop of holy water from the Ganges River simply by having a bottle delivered to them or buying it at the local post office.

A new scheme that enables all India Post offices to supply water from the Ganges, or The "Gangajal," was launched on Monday. The initiative will provide an opportunity for people to use the holy water for washing off their sins during religious rituals, as it is often inconvenient or even dangerous for them to go to the Ganges itself.

The river's water remains severely polluted due to industrial runoff and human waste. Studies have revealed levels of bacterial contamination that are so high that the water is not fit for bathing in most areas, and certainly not potable. Gangajal is bottled at the Gangotri and Rishikesh streams, which feed the Ganga and are considered to have the purest water. The 200ml and 500ml bottles are priced at 15 and 22 Indian Rupees respectively (US $0.22 and US $0.33).

The new scheme was announced on Sunday by Union Minister for Communications and Information Technology Ravi Shankar Prasad and Union Minister of State for Railways Manoj Sinha in Siliguri, a city in the Indian state of West Bengal.

"Gangajal met with huge demand." The first share of 15 bottles was delivered on Sunday to the state's capital, Kolkata, and vanished in seconds. The same thing happened at Siliguri on Monday, according to officials.

"The supply was meagre in Bengal. We got only 280 bottles of 500ml and 245 bottles of 200ml for the entire state," said Swapan Garai, an assistant director at the Department of Posts, who manages the distribution of Gangajal across the state. "The bottles sold out instantly. People left the counter cursing us," Abhijit Sarkar, a head post office employee, told local media.