Varanasi is located in the state of Uttar Pradesh which lies in the middle of Ganges valley 700 km west from Calcutta and 800km east from Delhi. It has a population of approximately 1.5 million inhabitants and is located on the west bank of Ganges. Pilgrims comes to Varanasi from all over the world to take a dip in the holy river Ganges. The religious activities along the riverbank creates a remarkable atmosphere but walking along the riverbank as a westerner one will soon notice that the river suffer from a vast pollution. In this study the focus is held on the pollution of Ganges from a religious and ecological perspective. The purpose is to investigate what the causes of pollution are and how the ecological perspective intersects with the religious believes in the work to clean Ganges. The work also investigates what the main sources of pollution are. The research question that ha been of importance in this study are: How does the scientific view intersect with the religious view in the local and governmental work to clean Ganges? In what way does human activity effects the water quality in Ganges? To answer the research questions both primary and secondary data was used. The primary data consists of sixteen interviews of the local residents in the Assi area in Varanasi, an observation and an interview with V.B Mishra who is a professor in Hydraulic engineering. The secondary data is a study of relevant theories taken from literature. The conclusions from this study are that the main source of the pollution is the untreated sewage water that is discharged into the river. Human activities does lead to an increasing pollution of the river by washing clothes, throwing garbage, flowers and corpses in the river. From the interviews one can tell that there is an awareness of the pollution problems among the residents in Assi Ghat. The mistrust of politicians among the residents in the Assi area limits their social power to reach out to the people. The priest does have this social power to change peoples direct use of the water but do not engage in the debate of how to clean Ganges from environmental pollution. There is no intersection of the two domains in the work to clean Ganges. While politicians and religious leader cannot come together the pollution of river continues.