Haryana has done it yet again. For the third time in less than two months, the two
water treatment plants in Delhi, wazirabad and chandrawal had to shut down because
the ammonia pollution in the
river Yamuna rise above the permissible levels. It has increased to 1.4 ppm, more than
four times above
the maximum permissible level of 0.3 ppm. The water treatment plants of Delhi can
handle the maximum of 0.6 ppm.
The question is, how is it possible for any industry
in the enlightened country like India to poison an important river and hold the
capital city to ransom?
We have a law in India called National heritage act. Newsjyoti wants to ask,
why not the polluting industries be booked under this act for destroying this
national heritage resource which is also the lifeline for a big population?
Is the rivers like Yamuna less important than any heritage? Pollution control board
has not got enough teeth perhaps.
Haryana has been adamant with its commercial interests. The intentions show in many
acts, whichever government had been in power. First, it has been obssessed with liquor
of late. Keeping the low excise rates and opening of enumerous liquor shops near
Delhi border is the smaller example of this. Bigger and the dangerous issue is
its production. The recent disclosure about setting up
of a liquor factory at Yamuna bank hardly 50 metres upstream of Delhi border is the latest
example about how blatantly uncaring the Haryana government can be about the
pollution control of this river.
Every time the ammonia level rises in Yamuna, the Delhi government is seen
'informing' and 'requesting' the Haryana
goverment to stop this and everytime the Haryana stops it for a
while. The Haryana goverment has not taken steps to control it. In his letter
to Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, the Environment minister Mr.
Jairam Ramesh recently mentioned a CPCB report according to which drain no.
6, carrying waste water from Sonipat, flows next to drain no. 8 that carries
fresh water from the Western Yamuna Canal. The water between these two drains often
gets mixed. Jairam Ramesh had asked the Haryana administration to increase the
"height and width of the dividing wall".
The Haryana chief Minister has said that the source of pollution lies in
Delhi itself. This is absurd. There is not much distance between the Haryana
border and the Delhi's wazirabad water treatment plant and no industry is situated
in between.
Isn't it high time that the Haryana goverment be dragged to the supreme
court for its inaction and an order be taken for immediate closure of a whole lot of polluting
industies of
Sonepat, Panipat, Samalakha and everywhere else near Yamuna until they deploy
effective waste treatment measures and give an undertaking
to the court that the untreated waste will never be dumped in Yamuna in future.
After that, the Delhi industries should be tamed and proper waste management be
deployed in Delhi so that the towns downstream of Delhi including Haryana's
own Faridabad can utilize the yamuna water.
In fact Delhi had already been given a deadline of 2012 by the Environment ministry to stop
discharging untreated waste into the Yamuna by strictly implementing its
river cleaning projects.
This is a long
term plan but the first, the most important priority should be
to stop this flow of ammonia poison towards Delhi from Haryana.
Unless this is done, the people of Delhi can expect dry summer noons as well as
the worse; to consume ammonium hydroxide and expect kidney failures, loss of
reproductive capacity and even the cancer.
We are living in an educated enlightened society and still if these kind of
follies are allowed to be committed, its a shame on the society as a whole.
- Jyoti Narula.
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