Garbage pollutes Ghaggar, Panchkula residents carry out cleanliness drive

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Panchkula, April 1

The apparent failure of government bodies to contain the illegal dumping of garbage in Panchkula has resulted in the creation of waste piles in the Ghaggar River. As a result, residents and NGOs have started taking matters into their own hands by cleaning the site.

Parts of the Ghaggar River have become garbage dumping sites for the residents of adjoining villages. While the smell emanating from the site is unbearable for residents, the un-segregated dumping in the Ghaggar has been resulting in pollution of the natural resource.

Rashim Malik, a resident of Sector 31, who recently formed an NGO ‘Irada Humara’ focused on environment restoration and protection and cleaning urban areas, has been carrying out cleanliness and awareness drives among residents who live close to the river.

Malik said the Ghaggar flowing through Sector 31 was in dire need of attention. “The river bed is being used as a garbage dumping yard by villagers. Garbage is littered across the river bed, stretching in kilometres.”

She said they have written to the irrigation department, the Haryana State Pollution Control Board (HSPCB), and the Panchkula MC seeking immediate measures as untreated sewer waste was also being released into the river regularly.

Another group led by youngsters and elderly residents of Panchkula, ‘Ghaggar saviours’, has been carrying out cleanliness and awareness drives in the area for the restoration of the river and the prevention of pollution. A member, Mohit Gupta, said they had filed a case with the NGT, which prompted the HSVP to install fences on the Ghaggar overbridge to prevent pollution.

Irrigation Department XEN Anurag Goel, who paid a visit to the river body today, said a lot of garbage has been dumped in the river. He added that the department would issue notices to individuals who dump garbage in the river.

Officials of the Panchkula MC also visited the site, and Assistant Sanitary Inspector Harvinder Singh said they had sent a team to carry out cleanliness at the site adjoining the river.