Polluted by industry, Buddha Dariya faces tipping point

ONE vexed problem of the pollution of the Buddha Dariya, a tributary of the Sutlej, has reached a decisive phase with the Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) ordering dyeing units to stop discharging their untreated water into the dariya.

Thousands of people from Ludhiana, South Punjab and Rajasthan have gathered under the banner of “Kaale Paani Da Morcha”, a group protesting against severe pollution in the Buddha Dariya of Ludhiana. They are demanding that the pollution of the drinking and irrigation water by the industry be stopped.

Unfortunately, the problem has persisted due to lack of political will by successive governments as well as most political parties, due to the fear of losing industry funding for elections, even though the polluted water affects over two crore people.

Every day, millions of litres of untreated raw sewage is flowing into the Buddha Dariya directly.

Earlier, the Municipal Corporation of Ludhiana had started the construction of an intermediate pumping station (IPS) — one of the biggest of its kind in capacity — for water treatment, but the construction had to be stopped due to a land dispute. Land on both banks of the dariya has been heavily encroached upon. The case is pending in the Supreme Court.

The municipal corporation needs to find another plot to set up the pumping station and complete its construction on a war footing so that raw sewage can be stopped from being discharged into the Buddha Dariya at the earliest.

The dyeing industry, despite having common effluent treatment plants (CETP), is polluting the dariya both indirectly and directly. The treated water discharged by the industry does not meet the parameters, as per the reports by the Central and Punjab pollution control boards. This has led to the present crisis. Many units are still connected to the municipal sewerage as officials have turned a blind eye to this indirect pollution.

The only possible solution is that CETPs of the dyeing industry must opt for Zero Liquid Discharge (ZLD) Technology and reuse their water, as is being done by the dyeing industry of Tirupur, Tamil Nadu, following an order by the Madras High Court. On January 28, 2011, the Madras HC had ordered the closure of more than 700 bleaching and dyeing units and effluent treatment plants in Tirupur. It had also directed the industry to adopt the ZLD technology.

For the Buddha Dariya too, the industry and government should work out a way to switching to the ZLD technology, with some support from the Central government.

There are around 2,800 electroplating units in Ludhiana. Of them, 1,700 are registered, 300 are awaiting registration and the remaining are illegal. The registered units are supposed to get their wastewater treated at a CETP by paying Rs 1.25 per litre. However, the owners of these units allege that almost 90 per cent of the polluted water is being discharged directly into the sewerage or by reverse-boring it into the ground aquifers, like the Zira distillery.

Apart from the dyeing industry, there is sheet metal industry that has not yet come under the public glare for polluting the dariya. The dyeing industry blames the sheet metal industry for causing this pollution as it uses hydrochloric (HCL) acid, and there is no treatment plant in Ludhiana to treat HCL acid-laden water. The sheet metal industry is directly disposing of around two lakh litres of acid-laden water in the sewerage.

Making matters complicated are allegations of corruption by PPCB officials. The industries cannot afford to stop production and, at the same time, they do not want to adhere to the pollution board norms because they claim that they still have to bribe PPCB officials. The presence of heavy metals like chromium, nickel, lead and copper in the sludge of the sewage treatment plants (STPs) detected by lab tests points to some wrongdoing. Most industries are disposing of their polluted water into the sewerage. The crisis has intensified as the Buddha Dariya STP can only treat sewage, but not the chemicals.

The only solution is to shift the present and upcoming units and other such clusters to a separate area, away from the city, where they can be directly connected to the treatment plants. Modern industrial clusters with ZLD technology and more treatment plants are needed. Otherwise, more Giaspura-like tragedies are waiting to happen. In this tragedy, 11 persons had died from the sewage gas leak in the area.

Besides industrial units, dairies in the Haibowal, Tajpur and other areas located upstream and downstream of the Buddha Dariya municipal limits are also directly throwing animal dung into the dariya or indirectly into the sewage system. As a result, the STPs may soon stop functioning. Even the new plants meant for treating dairy water might soon become non-functional.

As per the Municipal Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016, dairies cannot exist within the municipal limits.

The solid waste — including domestic waste, plastics, slaughterhouse waste, textile waste and animal carcasses — from the areas around the dariya is choking the tributary.

The authorities need to rebuild the fence around the dariya. The earlier one, erected at an expenditure of Rs 9.34 crore, was damaged during the floods last year.

Also, deployment of manpower is needed to stop solid waste ingress into the dariya. At present, there is no solid waste enforcement force for issuing challans to the offenders. A similar force deployed by the MC along the Sidhwan Canal has reportedly earned Rs 26 lakh through challans even as only Rs 7 lakh was spend on the employees’ salary.

Two or three floating garbage barriers-cum-conveyors are also needed for taking out the solid waste which enters the dariya.

The authorities cannot ignore the horrendous effects of pollution on public health, their economical and psychological suffering or, rather, the slow killing of people. The environment is also degraded by pollution.

The time has come for the Punjab Chief Minister to fulfil his promise of cleaning the Buddha Dariya.