LUDHIANA: Residents of Ludhiana city and at least of 40 villages in the district are forced to consume contaminated vegetables and drink unsafe water, thus exposing themselves to water-borne diseases. The villages are situated along Budha Nullah, which carries Ludhiana’s untreated industrial waste into Sutlej, making the river water almost black at the point of confluence.
With no check on the pollution of river water for years together and execution of the “Sutlej Action Plan” getting delayed due to lack of funds, more villages using the river water for drinking and irrigation are getting affected.
With the onset of summer, water-borne diseases strike the area in a big way every year. Villagers now have to dig deeper for safe drinking water as the underground water is getting increasingly polluted. Experts warn that unless corrective measures are initiated immediately, the situation may go out of control.
The residents of villages like Basaimi, Phagra, Birmi, Malakpur, Salempur, Gonspur, Waran-hara and Hambran are the worst hit. Several other
villages like Issewal, Mohi, Chak and Dakha also face the threat. Mr Sukhpal Singh, a resident of Issewal says water in their village is also becoming polluted. Upset at the development, he said the villages were paying for the dumping of Ludhiana’s waste.
The Tribune team also met a resident of Hambran, Mr Harjinder Singh Khaira. He was supervising installation of a motor for pumping potable water. “We dug a bore 300 feet a couple of years ago. But now the water level has gone further down. We are digging up to 350 feet, he said. Mr Khaira said diseases like cholera, typhoid and gastroenteritis were common in the area.
Dr G.S. Dhaliwal, an ecologist of the Punjab Agricultural University, says: “a number of pollutants and toxic elements like cadmium, nickel and chromium and other heavy metals get concentrated in vegetables which eventually are consumed by humans.”
He said studies had revealed that the nullah was causing contamination deeper and deeper into the underground water. The fact that the drinking water is becoming available deep under the ground clearly indicates that there is no treatment of water at the sources that are in the city.
A study by the department of Zoology and Fisheries of the university reveals the extent of damage to the fauna in the river. Another study by Mr Rupinder Singh and his guide, Prof S.S. Sirohi, Associate Professor of Botany in the university, has found that the nullah has polluted ground water up to 1,200 metres on right and 250 metres on its left side. The water turbidity (pollution) was 363.5 mg per litre against the permissible limits of 5 mg per litre. Total hardness was 409 mg per litre against the permissible limit of 200 mg per litre. Ammonical nitrogen was as high as 31.7 mg per litre against the limit of 0.5 mg per litre.
The study also pointed out the source of pollution. It said many hosiery, machine parts, electroplating, heat treatment, cycle manufacturing, dyeing units and chemical industry were discharging effluents into the nullah. More than 20 sullage drains from colonies like Islam Gunj, New Madhopuri, Jamalpur, Gau Ghat Gaushala and Balmiki Mohalla flow into the nullah.
Mr S.K. Verma of the local Sewerage Board said the Pollution Board was the authority to penalise the agencies polluting the nullah and should be contracted for knowing the reasons for not checking it. He said the villages fall in the rural area and the Sewerage Board looks after the city only.
Mr J.S. Dua, Member-Secretary, Punjab Pollution Control Board, said it was the duty of the Sewerage Board to check pollution.
The state and the Centre had embarked upon a save-river project called the Sutlej Action Plan under which plants to treat sullage before its flow into the nullah were to be installed but even after a decade, the plan is yet to be implemented.
Explaining the delay, Mr S.K. Verma, Superintending Engineer, Sewerage Board, said first, there was a problem of funds and then unavailability of land. Now, he claimed everything was ready and the final feasibility report had been sent to the state government for the release of grant.
