No end to residents' woes as air, water, soil pollution plagues city

Tribune News Service

Harshraj Singh

Ludhiana, June 4

Even after the passing of years, issues related to air, water and soil pollution in different parts of the city have not been resolved, forcing residents to live in miserable conditions.

The people want permanent solutions to their concerns about highly polluted Buddha Nullah, fly ash emanating from factories and poor solid waste management among other things.

Gurwinder Singh of the Bhamian Khurd area on Tajpur Road said, “Fly ash emanating from chimneys of factories is a major problem in our area. People have raised this issue many times, but complaints to the authorities concerned have fallen on deaf ears.”

“Sometimes, it is hard to breathe due to extreme levels of air pollution here. The ash emanating from chimneys often falls on houses. If a white cloth is hanged on the roof overnight, a layer of black ash will cover it by the morning. We want the government to take the issue seriously otherwise people will keep suffering from health problems,” he said. The issue of fly ash is common in areas, including Tajpur Road, Dhandari and several other parts of the city. The fly ash emanating from factories is dumped on vacant plots or roadsides too.

Non-processing of waste

Around 20 lakh metric tonnes of solid waste has accumulated at main garbage dumpsite of the Municipal Corporation (MC) on Tajpur Road, near Kakka village. The waste processing plant here has been lying closed for a long time.

Earlier, the Punjab Pollution Control Board had imposed environmental compensation on the MC for violating the Solid Waste Management Rules 2016. The dumpsite is polluting the soil and groundwater.

Whenever fire incidents occur at this dumpsite, people living in the nearby areas suffer from breathing problems and irritation in eyes. The situation turns worse during rainy days as the dumpsite produces an extremely bad odour.

According to officials concerned, the MC is planning to launch projects to set up waste to energy generation plant and bioremediation of legacy waste.

Pollution in water bodies

The residents of nearby areas have been raising their voices for making highly polluted Buddha Nullah pollution free for decades altogether. The untreated waste is dumped into Sutlej River via Buddha Nullah and Bhattian STP drain.

Notably, Rs 650 crore Rejuvenation of Buddha Nullah project is underway. Three common effluent treatment plants (CETPs) have also been set up for dyeing units.

Sharing his concern, a city resident and member of the Buddha Nullah Task Force Col JS Gill (retd) said, “Recently, the civic body found that a number of dyeing units are still releasing untreated waste in the MC sewer line even after construction of the CETPs. Such violations must be stopped strictly.”

“Scattered dyeing and electroplating units and other industries that dump their untreated waste into the MC sewer line or Buddha Nullah should be dealt with strictly,” he added.

He further said, “It needs to be ensured that no untreated sewage, industrial effluents, solid dairy and meat waste is dumped into Buddha Nullah.”

Govt must clear its stand, say activists

Members of the public action committee (PAC) have demanded from the AAP government to clear its stand regarding the proposed industrial park to be set up near Mattewara Forest and Sutlej River. Kapil Arora of the PAC said, “No industrial park should be set up in such an eco-sensitive zone otherwise it will be harmful to the forest and river as well.”

Meanwhile, the Ludhiana East AAP MLA, Daljit Singh Grewal (Bhola), said, “The AAP government is working to resolve issues like pollution in Buddha Nullah, waste accumulation at dumpsite and fly ash emanating from factories.”

“Earlier, the previous governments had ignored such issues. Now, it may take some time to resolve all these issues, but good results of steps taken will be witnessed soon,” he said.

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