Skip to main content

Industrial waste in Sabarmati river off Vasna barrage: The other side of "prestigious" Ahmedabad riverfront

Off Vasna barrage, where Sabarmati riverfront ends
By Jatin Sheth*
We, myself and two volunteers, visited our holy river, Mother Sabarmati. As per our Hindu culture, rivers have been given the status of mother, since it provides water for our drinking and agricultural needs. And, certainly, we are proud of our culture.
The pipeline discharging industrial waste water
We were stunned to see the condition of our holy Sabarmati just beyond Vasna barrage -- industrial effluents of Naroda, Odhav, Vatva and Narol industries were being discharged into the river.
And, the pipeline has been laid under a contract between industries associations and Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC)! Our domestic drainage water is also discharged here only.
The river passes through at least 100 villages. The villages are inhaling the bad-smelling air round the clock for the last 15 to 20 years.
People who could afford to avoid this bad smell have migrated, but the rest are suffering from poor health and horrible social conditions.
I invite spirited young volunteers to join me for two days’ journey by foot through these villages to understand the magnitude of the problem.
The programme can be worked out after receiving the response.
Farmers using polluted water for irrigation 
The farmers from this place to the river's entire route, up to Khambhat, where the dirty river meets the sea, use this effluent for irrigation to produce vegetables and sell at Jamalpur markets in Ahmedabad!
Ultimately, the poison also enters our bodies through these vegetables, making us victims of several diseases, including cancer.

Talk with officials

We also visited the AMC's refuse station, where our garbage is transferred from motor vans, which come to our homes to collect garbage into large trucks.
The AMC has been spending lakh of rupees for publicity, telling citizens to segregate dry and wet waste, but it was shocking to know that both types of garbage is dumped here, together!
We made representation to AMC senior office bearers such as the solid waste director, deputy commissioner (Swacch Bharat Abhiyan) and discussed the matter.
It was shocking to know that AMC has yet to build the required infrastructure.
---
*Senior Ahmedabad-based activist, who visited Sabarmati river between Vasna barrage and Gyaspur village. Source: Author’s Facebook timeline. For videos click HERE, HERE and HERE. All photos and videos by Jatin Sheth

Comments

Unknown said…
India has many such shocking problems. They all need to be solved but where are the finances and resources such as power and energy?. India's population is too large by a factor of 10 to 20 considering the resources. These problems are not going to go away in the foreseeable future unless there is a major breakthrough in energy production.
Out of millions of such problems perhaps 1% can be addressed and of course everyone wants his problem addressed. One potential though a partial solution is a change of lifestyle and consumption. Live like Mahatma Gandhi and avoid all frivolous consumption and uses like plastic packaging etc.
Nita Mahadev said…
Two years ago, along with Jethinbhai Sheth, we had gone along the Khaticut canal to the villages downstream beyond the Shastri Bridge. People of the villages are tired of talking to anyone. They have made so many representations to the authorities, yet nobody wants to listen to them, they say.

TRENDING

Insider plot to kill Deendayal Upadhyay? What RSS pracharak Balraj Madhok said

By Shamsul Islam*  Balraj Madhok's died on May 2, 2016 ending an era of old guards of Hindutva politics. A senior RSS pracharak till his death was paid handsome tributes by the RSS leaders including PM Modi, himself a senior pracharak, for being a "stalwart leader of Jan Sangh. Balraj Madhok ji's ideological commitment was strong and clarity of thought immense. He was selflessly devoted to the nation and society. I had the good fortune of interacting with Balraj Madhok ji on many occasions". The RSS also issued a formal condolence message signed by the Supremo Mohan Bhagwat on behalf of all swayamsevaks, referring to his contribution of commitment to nation and society. He was a leading RSS pracharak on whom his organization relied for initiating prominent Hindutva projects. But today nobody in the RSS-BJP top hierarchy remembers/talks about Madhok as he was an insider chronicler of the immense degeneration which was spreading as an epidemic in the high echelons of th

Astonishing? Violating its own policy, Barclays 'refinanced' Adani Group's $8 billion bonds

By Rajiv Shah  A new report released by two global NGOs, BankTrack and the Toxic Bonds Network, has claimed to have come up with “a disquieting truth”: that Barclays, a financial heavyweight with a “controversial” track record, is deeply entrenched in a “disturbing” alliance with “the Indian conglomerate and coal miner Adani Group.”

Junk food push causing severe public health crisis of obesity, diabetes in India: Report

By Rajiv Shah  A new report , “The Junk Push: Rising Consumption of Ultra-processed foods in India- Policy, Politics and Reality”, public health experts, consumers groups, lawyers, youth and patient groups, has called upon the Government of India to check the soaring consumption of High Fat Sugar or Salt (HFSS) foods or ultra-processed foods (UPF), popularly called junk food.

Modi govt intimidating US citizens critical of abuses in India: NY Christian group to Biden

Counterview Desk  the New York Council of Churches for its release of an open letter calling on the Biden administration to “speak out forcefully” against rising Hindu extremist violence targeting Christians and other minorities in India. In the letter addressed to President Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and other major elected officials, the NY Council of Churches expressed "grave concern regarding escalating anti-Christian violence" throughout India, particularly in Manipur, where predominantly Christian Kuki-Zo tribals have faced hundreds of violent attacks on their villages, churches, and homes at the hands of predominantly Hindu Meitei mobs.

Link India's 'deteriorating' religious conditions with trade relations: US policymakers told

By Our Representative  Commissioners on the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) raised concerns about the “sophisticated, systematic persecution” of religious minorities by the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi at a hearing on India in Washington DC.

Green revolution "not sustainable", Bt cotton a failure in India: MS Swaminathan

MS Swaminathan Counterview Desk In a recent paper in the journal “Current Science”, distinguished scientist PC Kesaven and his colleague MS Swaminathan, widely regarded as the father of the Green Revolution, have argued that Bt insecticidal cotton, widely regarded as the continuation of the Green Revolution, has been a failure in India and has not provided livelihood security for mainly resource-poor, small and marginal farmers. Sharply taking on Green Revolution, the authors say, it has not been sustainable largely because of adverse environmental and social impacts, insisting on the need to move away from the simplistic output-yield paradigm that dominates much thinking. Seeking to address the concerns about local food security and sovereignty as well as on-farm and off-farm social and ecological issues associated with the Green Revolution, they argue in favour of what they call sustainable ‘Evergreen Revolution’, based on a ‘systems approach’ and ‘ecoagriculture’. Pointing ou

Buddhist shrines were 'massively destroyed' by Brahmanical rulers: Historian DN Jha

Nalanda mahavihara By Our Representative Prominent historian DN Jha, an expert in India's ancient and medieval past, in his new book , "Against the Grain: Notes on Identity, Intolerance and History", in a sharp critique of "Hindutva ideologues", who look at the ancient period of Indian history as "a golden age marked by social harmony, devoid of any religious violence", has said, "Demolition and desecration of rival religious establishments, and the appropriation of their idols, was not uncommon in India before the advent of Islam".

Swami Vivekananda's views on caste and sexuality were 'painfully' regressive

By Bhaskar Sur* Swami Vivekananda now belongs more to the modern Hindu mythology than reality. It makes a daunting job to discover the real human being who knew unemployment, humiliation of losing a teaching job for 'incompetence', longed in vain for the bliss of a happy conjugal life only to suffer the consequent frustration.

Jharkhand: Attempt to create red scare for 'brutal crackdown', increase loot of resources

Counterview Desk  The civil rights group Forum Against Corporatization and Militarization in a statement on plans to crackdown on “64 democratic progressive organisations” in Jharkhand under the pretext of the need to investigate their Maoist link, has alleged that this an attempt to suppress dissent against corporate loot and create an authoritarian state.

A Hindu alternative to Valentine's Day? 'Shiv-Parvati was first love marriage in Universe'

By Rajiv Shah*   The other day, I was searching on Google a quote on Maha Shivratri which I wanted to send to someone, a confirmed Shiv Bhakt, quite close to me -- with an underlying message to act positively instead of being negative. On top of the search, I chanced upon an article in, imagine!, a Nashik Corporation site which offered me something very unusual.