Cleaning water bodies of toxic waste remains tall order; 311 polluted stretches in 279 rivers
By Our Special Correspondent
New Delhi, April 3: The Yamuna stretches in the national capital boast of pink foams. The water bodies in metropolitan cities stay full of toxic foams throughout the year. The Jal Shakti Ministry has admitted that cleaning India’s rivers of toxic waste and effluents remains a tall order, as the said that Central Pollution Control Board identified 311 polluted river stretches on 279 rivers last year.
Maharashtra tops with 55 polluted river stretches, followed by 19 in Madhya Pradesh. Even Kerala has 18 polluted river stretches, said the Ministry in a written reply to a starred question of Lok Sabha MPs Sumedhanand Saraswati and Ranjeeta Koli on Monday.
“Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) monitors water quality of aquatic resources at 4484 locations, including 2108 monitoring locations on rivers and 437 monitoring locations on lakes under National Water Quality Monitoring Programme (NWMP) in association with the State Pollution Control Boards (SPCBs)/ Pollution Control Committees (PCCs). Accordingly, in year 2022, by analysis of water quality of 603 rivers for the years 2019 and 2021, CPCB has identified 311 polluted river stretches on 279 rivers in the country, on the basis of exceedance of Bathing Water Quality Criteria parameter of BOD (exceeding 3 mg/L),” said the Jal Shakti Ministry in its reply.
Even while Maharashtra tops the list of states with most number of polluted river stretches, the state government did not release any funds in 2020-21, 2021-22 for mitigation efforts, as the task of cleaning rivers lies with the state government, stated the Jal Shakti Ministry. Maharashtra released a sum of Rs 63 crores for pollution abetment in the Mula Mutha River in Pune for 2022-23, as per the data provided by the ministry in the Lok Sabha.
In contrast, Gujarat, which has 13 polluted river stretches, has allocated Rs 91 crores (2022-23), Rs 100 crores (2021-22), and Rs 27.26 crores from 2020-21. The Jal Shakti Ministry also stated that Karnataka has 17 polluted river stretches. Bihar too has 18 river stretches, which are not fit for human bathing. Even a small state like Manipur has 13 polluted river stretches. Himachal Pradesh also has nine polluted river stretches. Meghalaya also has seven polluted river stretches, which are not fir for human bathing.
Sikkim, in fact, is among the few states which are paying serious attention to cleaning the river pollution. The small Himalayan state has consistently been releasing funds for pollution mitigation efforts. Sikkim has allocated close to Rs 30 crores in 2022-23.
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