Real efforts for mythical waters

Pradeep Sharma in Chandigarh

The mythological Saraswati river ‘died’ some 5,000 years ago. However, the BJP government in Haryana is on a ‘mission’ to bring it back to life. The Khattar government has roped in national agencies such as the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), the National Institute of Hydrology and Geological Survey of India to speed up work on the rejuvenation of the mythological river considered sacred by the Hindus.

Prashant Bhardwaj, deputy chairman of the Haryana Saraswati Heritage Development Board, said that the Indian Space Research Organisation has prepared a GIS database of Saraswati palaeo channels. “This project was started in 1999 and after continuous efforts of 19 years, ISRO is in the process of hosting a special web portal on the Saraswati,” he added.

In 2015, digging was started by the government near Adi Badri in Yamunanagar, believed to be the point of origin of the river. The idea was to create a water channel up to Pehowa in Kurukshetra. During digging in Yamuananagar’s Mugalwali village, workers had hit upon a current. It was claimed that this water was a palaeo channel of the now inactive Saraswati. A year later, the government pumped in 100 cusecs of water into a dug-up channel from tubewells at Uncha Chandana village in Yamunanagar. The government plans to build three dams on the river route to keep it flowing throughout the year. 

While a lot of focus has been on the Saraswati, the Ghaggar has been at the receiving end of pollution with untreated sewage being thrown into the river at several places like Ambala, Kalka, Kaithal and Sirsa. In fact, Haryana has been blaming Himachal for pollution in the Markandya river, a tributary of Ghaggar, at the Kala Amb industrial belt. While the Central Pollution Control Board has put the government on notice several times, the proposed two sewerage treatment plants along the river are yet in the planning stage only.