A viewer asks: “The Ganges is considered by Hindus and even some skeptics to be a sacred river. To Hindus the Ganges is seen as a pure and purifying body of water that is incredibly important. To scientists and outsiders the Ganges appears to be a horrifying example of modern pollution and political corruption where humans are failing to cooperate with a common goal. Is the Ganges River receiving divine protection thanks to a mass prayer request from billions of inhabitants of that region? Are the people that regard the Ganges as sacred providing the intention necessary to allow the divine realm to transform and transmute this potentially harmful and polluted water into something safe?”

What is being sought is protection for personal well-being. So declaring the Ganges to not only be safe but to have healing powers is a reframing of intention and requesting divine support for this to be so. But what needs to happen is not a change of the water itself, but a change in the consequences of exposure to the water on the part of human beings using the water for living, recreation, and cleansing. That is attainable with an adequate belief quotient. And this is assisted by that body of supplicants you referred to in your question, who consider the Ganges life-giving and a source of divine power. There must be some belief in, and invoking of, divinity under some name or concept. It cannot be summoned through an ego-based assumption of personal power or a superstitious reliance on a ritual using the water of the river as an instrument, but in a secular self-serving fashion. As is always the case in the rules of engagement we must follow, we cannot turn something like a river into a magic elixir that will heal and support all equally, because that would override and replace many negative karmic potentials people have acquired through their own choices, and if they are not requesting divine assistance personally, we cannot benefit them. So that is why the river can serve many differing levels of divine awareness, personal progress, and readiness for healing and their opposites. So this is why there is the seeming enigma of what can sometimes be a near cesspool being revered and having rejuvenating powers for true believers.