Indian politician drinks water from polluted ‘holy’ river, gets hospitalised

I remember reading somewhere about a theory that there might be a scientific explanation for disease cures allegedly produced by bathing in the holy waters of some rivers in India.

The general idea was that that the amount and diversity of bacteria support phages, which are viruses that attack bacteria, and so perhaps these could cure some bacterial illnesses.

"Phage therapy" seems to be a thing that is occasionally mentioned as a non-western (Russian?) treatment for illness that somehow never gets commercialized by the big drug companies. Maybe because it has to be customized for each application and maybe because it doesn't really work that well.