Gujarat’s rivers are bearing the brunt of industrial pollution, as are the people living on the banks of these rivers. All the major rivers and streams of Gujarat are in a bad state due to effluent discharged by industry, be it the Kolak, the Mahi, the Daman Ganga or the Amlakhadi. One can see red water flowing in the Sabarmati, released by the common effluent treatment plant (CETP) in Vatva. Several times, drug factories in Vapi dump spoilt batches in the open. These contain chemicals that are highly toxic. A tractor unloads hazardous industrial waste brought from the factories in Nandesari to the disposal facility Take the case of the farmers from 11 villages between Lali and Navagam, who irrigate their fields with untreated effluents released into the Khari river. Nearly 100 tubewells and borewells have been contaminated. “When factories were prevented from dumping effluents in the Mini river, they resorted to reverse boring, pumping untreated effluents straight into underground aquifers,” says Sahabsinh Darbar, 73, a farmer from Sherkhi village in Vadodara district. Children from villages near Nandesari learn their lessons in colour from the water they drink. In this particular case, the water is yellow. But mostly it is red “We do not require any study to confirm that channels and rivers in Gujarat are polluted. You can see that from the colour of the water,” says Mayur Pandya, a noted lawyer who chaired a committee set up to investigate pollution of Khari river near Ahmedabad by the Gujarat High Court in 1995. So, what have the people done to prevent their land and rivers from being defiled?
Posted on: Wed, 05 Mar 2014 09:42:25 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015