Nadi (river) means not dirty nadi. Very clear water, and waves are flowing. By the modern civilization I have seen so many rivers in Europe, in Paris, in Moscow and in Germany — all rivers are very, very dirty. Very, very dirty. You cannot take bath, what to speak of drinking water. So dirty due to this rascal industry. Even in our New York, the bays and the seas, they’re also polluted. All dirty things are there. How long the water will be clear? No. The rivers, at least the rivers in the city, they should be kept very clean. But they cannot keep clean because they have got so many dirty activities, enterprises, mills and factories. So in Calcutta also, the… There are so many jute mills and factories on the riverside. All the night soil, they are thrown into the Ganges. So still the Ganges is so powerful that it keeps clear. Hundreds and thousands people, still they take bath in the Ganges, and they keep very good health, those who are taking bath regularly in the Ganges. And cities and town, there must be a river. In India you’ll find, all the important cities in India, they are on the bank of the Ganges, on the bank of the Yamuna, on the bank of the Narmada, Krsna, Kaveri, like that, all the important cities. And Canakya Pandita says that “Don’t go to a town and city where there is no river and where there is no friend and there is no temple.”
From Srila Prabhupada’s lecture on Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.8.40 – October 20, 1974, Mayapur