Sewage throttles Tawi’s flow in Jammu

Sumit Hakhoo in Jammu

Mighty rivers get mighty conservation plans, small rivers none. Like in other parts of India, the rivers in Jammu & Kashmir too are undergoing drastic changes and are facing existential threat owing to population pressure, climate change and pollution.

The focus of conservation plans formulated by successive governments for the Himalayan region has remained on bigger rivers, like Indus, Jhelum, Chenab and Ravi. Smaller but important rivers, especially the Tawi, which snakes through the Jammu region, have been left to die a slow death.

The Tawi originates from the Kali Kund glacier at Bhaderwah in Doda. Along its 150-km journey, which encapsulates a catchment area of 2,168 sq km in India before it enters Pakistan and joins the mighty Chenab, the river is being used as a drain for municipal waste.

Despite being a major sub-surface source of drinking water for more than two million people in the state, it is estimated that about 80 million litres of untreated sewage is poured directly into the river revered by the Dogras and often referred to as ‘Surya Putri’.

Various studies by independent researchers and the State Pollution Control Board (SPCB) have shown that the Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD), reflecting the health of river in the 40-km stretch in Jammu city, has declined due to 12 big drains dumping sewage and solid waste into the water. Otherwise, there are hundreds of drains along its course.

In 2007-08, a detailed project report was prepared during the then PDP-Congress coalition government to divert big drains emptying untreated sewage into the river, but the project is yet to be completed. Even the barrage proposed to create a lake on the river has not seen much headway. Between 2009 and 2014, when the NC-Congress government took over, the Tawi remained out of focus. Three years of PDP-BJP government didn’t change the fate of the river either.

Lackadaisical approach towards completion of the multi-crore underground sewerage project, started under the Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewable Mission (JNNURM) in 2006-07, is threatening its existence.

Despite the HC directions to stop illegal construction and check influx of pollutants, Jammu Municipal Corporation, Irrigation and Flood Control Department and Jammu Development Authority have failed to take effective steps to save the river. During the dry months, the river turns into a cesspool and it is only during rains that a surging Tawi clears the filth dumped on its bed.

“The Tawi is a symbol of how unplanned urban development and unconcerned governments are pushing a sacred river towards becoming a big sewer for the filth of millions of people,” said Bushan Parimoo, an environmentalist.