Dead rivers, flaming lakes: India's sewage failure

New Delhi -- Mohammed Azhar holds his baby niece next to a storm drain full of plastic and stinking black sludge, testament to India's failure to treat nearly two-thirds of its urban sewage. Coupled with huge volumes of industrial effluent, the sewage is causing disease, polluting India's waterways, killing wildlife and seeping into groundwater. Photo: AFP 'Water crisis' Mridula Ramesh, author of a book about India's water woes who lives in a "nearly" net-zero-waste home, said properly treating sewage into useable water would help solve the crisis. "India's water is so seasonal. "India's water is so seasonal.