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| Rural Jammu craves for drinking water | | Dying lakes battling untreated sewage | | Ishtiyaq Ahmad
Early Times Report
Srinagar, Apr 19: The quality of water in several lakes in the state especially in Jammu division is deteriorating and becoming vulnerable to severe levels of pollution.
Sources told early times that River Tawi, which the local people in Jammu consider a holy river has been turned into garbage dumping site while in Srinagar a study conducted by the University of Kashmir, found that Dal lake has lost 24.49% of its area during the last 157 years due to unregulated changes in land use and land cover.
Source said that there are various aspects which are responsible for snatching the glory of these water bodies. "It is shocking that the authorities are not interested in keeping Tawi safe from pollution. While hearing a PIL on the pollution of the river, the High Court had came to startling revelation that about 100 million litres of sewage of the city of Jammu is flowing into the waters of Tawi. The DB had come to know that all the nullahs carrying sewage and refuse flow into the Tawi and thus happens wholesale pollution of its water. It had noted that at the entry point the water of Tawi is clean but at the exit point it is all polluted," one of the social activists said.
Experts said that many rivers and other water bodies in Jammu have become the prime target of pollution due to an inadequate system of waste disposal. "River Tawi, Plusta River in Poonch, and the Basantar River are the glaring examples of the neglect.The truth is that much of the garbage and filth of the cities and towns is directly or indirectly being dumped into the water bodies around, polluting them abundantly," they said.
"There was a time, when water from all these rivers as well as Ranbir and Partap canals, ponds and wells was used to be crystal clear and pollution free as no sewage drains used to fall in the rivers. After bathing in rivers and canals, the people of Jammu chanted the name of God offered prayers as per their faith. Many of them both men and women could be seen with a Garhwa full of river water, which they offered to Tulsi or peepal tree. However, now a day's almost all water bodies have become highly polluted. The water of the rivers like Ravi, Chenab, Jhelum, Tawi, and seasonal streams are highly polluted due to industrial effluents, disposal of organic wastes vis-à-vis disposal of night soil and animals dead bodies," said one of the social activists.
The activist said that more than 30,000 persons in Ghagwal (Samba)and adjoining villages in Hiranagar tehsil of Kathua district are forced to consume unhygienic water unfit for human consumption.
Meanwhile sources said that the Dal lake in Srinagar, which once covered an area of 75 square kilometres has shrunk to 12 square kilometres in the last two decades.
July 2017 estimation by Srinagar's Lakes and Waterways Development Authorities (LWDA) said that nearly 50 million litres of sewage flows into the Dal Lake daily, of which 20 million litres is untreated.
It would be unfair to say that there have been no efforts to save the Dal Lake. Over Rs. 1,100 crore has been spent on improving the lake's state since the 1980s.
According to some Medical Doctors, water pollution is the worst problem in Jammu and Kashmir as various chronic diseases of stomach, liver and intestines have been detected among patients. It is because many people of our State are consuming polluted water to a great extent which is dangerous.
People of several areas both rural and urban districts; face extreme shortage of drinking water. While most of the areas remain without water supply scheme others get water which is far free from being fit enough for drinking purpose.
According to some locals of different village, the women folk have to fetch water from Nallahs, when the taps have run dry. "Like the people of the villages of the Kashmir, the people of Jammu region are also facing lot of problem for securing clean drinking water. For instance, villagers of far flung areas of Sundarbani are reeling under potable water shortage due to deficient rainfall. Similarly the villagers of Lakhil, Bacloli, Parangoli, Kadot, Banuchak, Dhali, Mangloor and many more belonging to kandi areas of Billawar are still without water and mostly depend on traditional sources of water and as such they are not getting pure drinking water.," said sources.
Sources said that due to non availability of potable water people have to rely on old water resources like ponds, boulies etc, for drinking water which have usually become unhygienic, especially during the rainy season.
The state government had recently admitted that the condition of lakes was deteriorating.
The written reply from the government in the legislative assembly an amount of Rs 4.06 crore was spent on cleaning, dredging and deweeding of Dal during 2015-16 year.
"An amount of Rs 3.54 crore was utilized in 2016-17 and Rs 2.77 was utilized during 2017-18 up to December for dredging, cleaning and deweeding of Dal,".
The government had said that the government, in pursuance of the directions of the High Court, Rs 100 crore has been sent as pre-feasibility report (PFR) for Gilsar, Khushallsar and Anchar lakes to Economic Reconstruction Agency (ERA) for their prioritization under next ADB loan funding. |
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