Industrial waste discharge into South Gujarat river aggravates pollution caused by Surat weir: Letter to PM

Facts have come to light suggesting a two-decades-old causeway-cum-weir in Surat on one of the biggest rivers of Gujarat, Tapi, considered suryaputri (sun’s daughter) in folklore, has caused unprecedented environmental pollution in South Gujarat, with some of the top industries in the region discharging pollutants into it.
In a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has claimed to have begun a major mission to clean up India’s rivers, starting with Ganges and Yamuna, a top South Gujarat NGO has alleged that sewage waters are being released into the river, as it reaches Surat, which is Gujarat’s second biggest city, and beyond into the sea, which is just 30 km away.
The letter comes close on the heels of the Uttarakhand High Court seeking to declare Ganges and Yamuna as 'living entities', and Union home minister Rajnath Singh wanting a similar status for Narmada in Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat.
The NGO, Brackish Water Research Centre (GRWC), has alleged, “The situation has worsening by dumping of effluents from the giant industrial units like Kribhco, ONGC, Reliance, NTPC, Essar Steel and other giant ports like Adani, Shell, Essar bulk terminal, Gujarat Maritime Board’s Magdalla Port and jetties like L&T, Ultratech, Kribhco, ABG, Reliance and Niko.”
Saying that industrial waste water is being discharged through storm water drainage at nine difference places, GRWC reminds the Prime Minister that the Gujarat Pollution Control Board (GPCB) has served notices to the Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC) to stop the disposal of sewage water in to drinking water reservoir, but with no results.
Signed by BWRC president MSH Sheikh, the letter says, the polluted waters are causing production of dangerous worms, adding, the reservoir’s plight has worsened because there is virtually no flow of fresh water from Tapi, except for meeting industrial and SMC needs.

Covering Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat, and flowing 228 km in Maharashtra before entering Gujarat, where it traverses a length of 214 km in Gujarat, the letter regrets, “Except monsoon season Tapi does not exist at all due several upstream dams and weirs.”
The dams are Hathnur (Maharashtra), Girna (Maharashtra) and Ukai (Gujarat), and weirs are Dahigam (Maharashtra) and Kakrapar (Gujarat). The last one, just ahead of the sea, is the weir in Surat.
Pointing out that things are likely to get aggravated because of number of small weirs being constructed on the river, BWRC suggests, the Surat weir was built to satisfy the needs of the industry without any environmental impact assessment study.
Built under the public-private partnership between the Hazira Area Industries Association (HAIA) and the Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC), BWRC says, “While SMC is utilizing the 1000+ MLD of water, rest of the water (500 MLD) is being utilized by giant industrial units Like Kribhco, ONGC, NTPC, Essar and Reliance.”
“There is zero discharge in the downstream of Tapi and estuary in summer and winter”, GRWC notes, adding, thanks to the weir, Tapi is unable to meet the sea, as a result of which “Tapi does not have brackish water area except during monsoon.”
“The migratory species of fishes would once come to breed in the area from fresh water and from marine water also throughout the year”, BWRC says, adding, “Tapi estuary has disappeared now in the downstream of weir. The estuary is totally saturated from pollutants. Ammonical nitrogen is very high. Fishing has totally stopped in the estuary.”

Comments

Dalit rights and political tensions: Why is Mevani at odds with Congress leadership?

While I have known Jignesh Mevani, one of the dozen-odd Congress MLAs from Gujarat, ever since my Gandhinagar days—when he was a young activist aligned with well-known human rights lawyer Mukul Sinha’s organisation, Jan Sangharsh Manch—he became famous following the July 2016 Una Dalit atrocity, in which seven members of a family were brutally assaulted by self-proclaimed cow vigilantes while skinning a dead cow, a traditional occupation among Dalits.

Powering pollution, heating homes: Why are Delhi residents opposing incineration-based waste management

While going through the 50-odd-page report Burning Waste, Warming Cities? Waste-to-Energy (WTE) Incineration and Urban Heat in Delhi , authored by Chythenyen Devika Kulasekaran of the well-known advocacy group Centre for Financial Accountability, I came across a reference to Sukhdev Vihar — a place where I lived for almost a decade before moving to Moscow in 1986 as the foreign correspondent of the daily Patriot and weekly Link .

Boeing 787 under scrutiny again after Ahmedabad crash: Whistleblower warnings resurface

A heart-wrenching tragedy has taken place in Ahmedabad. As widely reported, a Boeing 787 Dreamliner plane crashed shortly after taking off from the city’s airport, currently operated by India’s top tycoon, Gautam Adani. The aircraft was carrying 230 passengers and 12 crew members. As expected, the crash has led to an outpouring of grief across the country. At the same time, there have been demands for the resignation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, and the Civil Aviation Minister.

Ahmedabad's civic chaos: Drainage woes, waterlogging, and the illusion of Olympic dreams

In response to my blog on overflowing gutter lines at several spots in Ahmedabad's Vejalpur, a heavily populated area, a close acquaintance informed me that it's not just the middle-class housing societies that are affected by the nuisance. Preeti Das, who lives in a posh locality in what is fashionably called the SoBo area, tells me, "Things are worse in our society, Applewood."

Global NGO slams India for media clampdown during conflict, downplays Pakistan

A global civil rights group, Civicus has taken strong exception to how critical commentaries during the “recent conflict” with Pakistan were censored in India, with journalists getting “targeted”. I have no quarrel with the Civicus view, as the facts mentioned in it are all true.

Whither SCOPE? Twelve years on, Gujarat’s official English remains frozen in time

While writing my previous blog on how and why Narendra Modi went out of his way to promote English when he was Gujarat chief minister — despite opposition from people in the Sangh Parivar — I came across an interesting write-up by Aakar Patel, a well-known name among journalists and civil society circles.

Remembering Vijay Rupani: A quiet BJP leader who listened beyond party lines

Late evening on June 12, a senior sociologist of Indian origin, who lives in Vienna, asked me a pointed question: Of the 241 persons who died as a result of the devastating plane crash in Ahmedabad the other day, did I know anyone? I had no hesitation in telling her: former Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani, whom I described to her as "one of the more sensible persons in the BJP leadership."

A conman, a demolition man: How 'prominent' scribes are defending Pritish Nandy

How to defend Pritish Nandy? That’s the big question some of his so-called fans seem to ponder, especially amidst sharp criticism of his alleged insensitivity during his journalistic career. One such incident involved the theft and publication of the birth certificate of Masaba Gupta, daughter of actor Neena Gupta, in the Illustrated Weekly of India, which Nandy was editing at the time. He reportedly did this to uncover the identity of Masaba’s father.

Why India’s renewable energy sector struggles under 2,735 compliance hurdles

Recently, during a conversation with an industry representative, I was told how easy it is to set up a startup in Singapore compared to India. This gentleman, who had recently visited Singapore, explained that one of the key reasons Indians living in the Southeast Asian nation prefer establishing startups there is because the government is “extremely supportive” when it comes to obtaining clearances. “They don’t want to shift operations to India due to the large number of bureaucratic hurdles,” he remarked.

Search This Blog