Pollution killing Tawi
S.P.Sharma
Tribune News Service
Jammu, April 28
Residents of this city of temples have abandoned the practice of giving the last dip to the dead in the holy waters of the Tawi as it has become one of the most polluted rivers of the country.
A tubewell has now been dug at the cremation ground at Jogi Gate on the banks of the Tawi to perform the ritual of giving the last bath to the dead before cremation takes place.
The sacred Tawi that divides the Jammu city into two parts has become one the most polluted rivers as the municipal corporation is not only dumping solid waste in it, but raw sewage is also being allowed to flow into it.
Numerous drains in the old city carrying night soil and hazardous effluents flow into the river as the government has failed to lay a sewerage system although the population here has gone beyond 12 lakh.
The Jammu Municipal Corporation and the state Pollution Control Board have miserably failed to protect the river from getting further polluted in spite of repeated orders of the high court.Polythene bags are choking the river in which trucks and buses are also washed by operators.Excavation of building material is being done ruthlessly by the mining mafia that enjoys political and official patronage.
Highly dangerous biomedical waste is also being dumped into the river without segregating it from other solid waste. All this was being done in violation of the Biomedical Waste Management and Handling Rules, 1998, that clearly mention that the occupier of an institution generating biomedical waste shall be responsible for taking steps to ensure that such waste is handled without any adverse effect to the human health and environment.
The pollution board had sometime ago served notices on more than 300 private nursing homes and clinics to take steps to effectively dispose of biomedical waste, but nothing was heard about it later.
According to an official report, about 800 tonnes of garbage is generated here every day, but the corporation collects about half of it while the remaining flows into the Tawi.
The Tawi is a major left bank tributary of the Chenab. It flows through the districts of Doda, Udhampur and Jammu before it enters Pakistan.
Sometime ago a plan was prepared to develop the Tawi front to beautify the city.The plan provided for landscaping of both sides of the river by constructing walkways, gardens and recreation centres to replace the garbage dumps, which have come up over the years.
The river is gradually vanishing as it has got reduced to the level of a nullah that becomes furious during rains.
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