My dad, during the early sixties, stored Ganges water collected from Rishikesh in a bottle to verify people's claim that it always remains pure. When examined under microscope after about two years by a Professor of chemistry who was my dad's friend, the sample was found to be completely free from any bacteria or algae. Chemical tests did not show presence of any known germicidal or toxic chemical.which could inhibit any organic growth. The Professor opined that this very qualty of Ganges gave it the status of Holy River and that some friendly virus which could not be seen by standard laboratory microscopes, may be responsible for the sterile quality of the water.
Now that technology has greatly advanced since those days, can anyone explain the actual reason?
2006-10-29 08:27:36 · 6 answers · asked by believer 3 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Chemistry
1. The container(bottle) for storing the water was not sterilised before use. Hence, possibility of existence of bacteria icannot be ruled out.
2. The water was collected at Rishikesh which is close to the place of origin of the river.
2006-10-30 07:08:59 · update #1
ofcourse bacteria are present there but water of river GANGES is rich in "BACTERIOPHAGES"(viruses which eatup or destroy bacteria). that's why water of river Ganges remains sterile even after storing in bottle for years.
2006-10-30 16:43:46 · answer #1 · answered by upasana 2 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Really Good Question!!
I do not know the actual answer ..but i can guess
1) The water may be 100% pure at the place from which the sample has been taken. This means it does not contain any kind of bacteria. now for the generation of bacteria at least a single bacteria is required which is not there. So the water remains bacteria free for ever.
2) It may contain some sort of chemicals (like sulfur) which inhibits bacteria growth. As the water sample from anypart of the ganga remains sterile (i guess but i'm not sure), this seems more vaild reason then the above one.
2006-10-29 17:04:21 · answer #2 · answered by sg_iit_8&3 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I am unsure why the water was truly sterile to begin with - wothy of further investigation - but if you take "as read" that the water was pure when initially bottled, it would be reasonable to expect it to remain pure at any such time in the future.
I would be interested also in knowing if this was a specific part of the Ganges the water was taken from - because water taken around the more densely populated areas is incredibly polluted.
http://www.africanwater.org/ganges.htm#Pollution
Was this fairly close to the source of the river perhaps?
2006-10-29 16:41:58 · answer #3 · answered by Mark T 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
well...if the water was examined before it was stored and found not to have any kind of contamination it is possible hat there is a friendly bacterium in the Ganges water.
yet another possibility is that when water is stored in a bottle the bacteria are deprived of the essential condition for remaining active (they may lack the optimum temperature,oxygen may get depleted and the like)and hence the water remains sterile
2006-10-29 22:24:53 · answer #4 · answered by asdfgf;lkjhj 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Ganges water coming from Himalayas has D2O in it.
Water made of so called heavy H2 (Deuterium). May be that is why it is baceriocidal
2006-10-29 20:46:45 · answer #5 · answered by Madhu S 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It is because the water is sacred.
2006-10-29 16:29:36 · answer #6 · answered by Isis 7 · 2⤊ 1⤋