 Several times a year, toxic foam covers this river in India. Experts say the suds come from detergent dumped upstream by textile factories. They're one of many sources that pollute the river. Everywhere in the world, sacred rivers are in trouble. Now there's a global movement to protect them by treating them less like sewers and more like people. In New Zealand, the mighty Wanganee flows past active volcanoes in rugged hill country before it empties into the sea. And it was the first river in the world to have a legal right to do what rivers are supposed to do. The idea that rivers have a right to be healthy and to be renewed. A right to conservation has been recognized and in a growing number of places a right to flow. The idea that rivers have a right to flow with sufficient water to flow freely. For over 150 years, Mau reactivists fought to protect their sacred river. That fight ended in March 2017. That's when dozens of tribe members gathered in the country's parliament to celebrate the legal recognition of the river as a living being. There's a phrase that the Wanganee we use that says, I am the river and the river is me. Which basically acknowledges that they are indistinguishable from the river. And to protect the river's rights is to protect their own rights and vice versa. Just a few months later, the rights of nature movement had another win. The High Court of Uktarakant State ruled that the Ganges and the Yamuna rivers are living entities that deserve protection under the law. The court was catching up to what many Indians already believe. According to Professor David Haberman, Hindus consider the Ganges both as a deity and as a family member. One river worshiper who regards the Yamuna river as his mother said that it just gives him such anguish and looking at what has happened to his mother. But he also goes on to say that when your mother is sick, you don't kick her out of the house, but you try to help her. Other experts say that religious communities are key to the protection of sacred waters. It's time for religious leaders to act bold since saving the biosphere is a moral, ethical and spiritual-ish because without the ecosphere, we cannot survive. We need that level of mobilization. Religion has that power, that moral authority. The rights of nature movement is gaining steam. But using this legal concept to protect polluted waters faces a number of challenges. Most laws on the books appoint legal guardians to speak on behalf of the river. I would say overall hundreds of rivers have rights across the globe at this moment. Now the struggle is how to put teeth into these protections. How do we enforce it? What's the practicality? That's one of the big things that's coming next.