Cleanliness at Haridwar

It is said "Cleanliness is next to Godliness". I believe this but my belief was a little shattered this time in India. I went to Haridwar, a religious place in Uttarakhand to pay my offerings to River Ganga. I like to go to that place because it is quite and serene. I love to watch the evening Aarti and dip in the ice cold water. In all its always a very pleasant experience. I have seen my share of obscene people in this place but that did not deter me from going there since childhood. I think lusty looks have become so common from men in India that women just prefer to ignore them altogether. I had become so used to them also but after coming to US I realized that it is not common and it should not be acceptable.
This year around my experience was very different. I went to Haridwar and saw the dirt, leaves, cow dung, flour and many more things on the shore. It was a mess. To top it all people offer flowers, money and other stuff to the river. That would mean that people through all these things into the river. This was really disturbing to me. I know that Indian government has been trying to clean up Ganga for a very long time. They have spent millions of rupees in this process. Ganga is not only a religious river but it is also a source for water to many cities and villages, along its course. I think the government of India should not only clean the river but stop all the dirt from getting into the river in the first place.
I also saw people washing their clothes in the river, right where people were taking a dip. It was so ridiculous that I felt like slapping people. Where is your social responsibility? You talk about culture and being very close to God then how come you don’t respect the person next to you. I think it is up to the general public to keep our country clean. The government can only do so much about cleaning the streets, but if we keep making it dirty then it would be just a vicious circle of filth. I am not picking up on only haridwar but this is the case in every religious place in india. There is prashaad and flowers and stuff, always thrown around on the ground. it is really bad and we ahve to do somethign about it.