Irrigation canal turns drain in Faridabad

FARIDABAD: The 30km stretch of the Gurgaon irrigation canal passing through the district has virtually turned into a drain with the water unfit for the purpose the canal was built for

Updated At : 05:35 AM Mar 04, 2017 IST

The Gurgaon canal passing through Faridabad and Ballabhgarh has become a source of water and air pollution. Tribune photo: Sayeed Ahmed

Bijendra Ahlawat

Tribune News Service

Faridabad, March 3

The 30-km stretch of the Gurgaon irrigation canal passing through the district has virtually turned into a drain with the water unfit for the purpose the canal was built for.

The Faridabad Action Group (FAG), an NGO, has decided to take up the issue with the National Green Tribunal (NGT) in case measures to contain pollution in the canal are not taken up soon.

The canal was thrown open for irrigating the fields of Faridabad, Gurgaon and parts of Mewat in 1968, said AK Gaur, a spokesperson of the FAG.

He said the quality of water had been severely affected in the past several years due to rampant release of untreated industrial waste and sewage into the canal and no measures to check pollution.

He said it was nearly impossible to stand on its bank due to the foul stench being emitted from it round the clock.

He said the black water flowing throughout the city had become a bane due to severe air and water pollution for residents of dozens of colonies and sectors located in its vicinity.

The canal receives water from the Yamuna near Okhla (Delhi) and flows along with the Agra canal till Ballabhgarh town. He said the city was mainly dependent on groundwater for drinking water supply.

He said the quality of water of tubewells and borewells had become unfit for consumption due to heavy total dissoluble solvents and concentration of chemical properties.

Claiming that no cleaning had been done in the past about 20 years, he said some desilting was done in 1997-98.

The FAG would submit a memorandum to the district administration soon, he said. If no work was taken up within a month, the NGO would file a formal petition with the NGT, he said.

Satbir Dagar, president of the Progressive Farmers Front, described the canal as a source of life-threatening diseases.

He said a remarkable rise in health disorders especially the cancer had come up in nearly all 60 villages of Faridabad and Gurgaon districts receiving water from it.

Around 15 persons in Jharsently village had succumbed to cancer in the past two years, he claimed. He said all samples taken in the past few years had revealed a sharp rise in the level of pollution.

He said the water treatment plant set up on the Gonchhi drain, a subsidiary of the Gurgaon canal, had been lying non-functional.