Gujarat, Central govt "mess" over poisonous Narmada waters

By A Representative
Even as the Gujarat government is going ahead with Narmada Jubilee celebrations, Mother Narmada is allegedly facing it's worst-ever crisis. The Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) in a statement says that after stopping Narmada water from big dams, the drinking water consumption was reduced, and now the reservoir is getting polluted.
The "poisonous" waters of the reservoir has killed fishes in tonnes, says NBA, adding, despite this, the Gujarat and Central governments are confusing everyone. First it was suggested that this was due to certain chemical released from the turbines of the dam's power houses. Then it was said that the fishes died because water was drained out to remove crocodiles in order to develop tourism.
Meanwhile, senior officials of the Rajpipla Gujarat Water Supply Board said it was not safe to drink water without purifying it. Clearly, the main canal and branch canals, it was found, had increased sulphide levels. This happened, it was suggested, because oxygen level in the water had gone down. As a result, the Gujarat Pollution Control Board said, water is not potable and they have started investigating it.
While water was stopped being supplied to 138 villages of Narmada and Chota Udaipur districts. Ironically, despite this, the drinking water of Narmada, big cities of Gujarat -- Baroda, Ahmedabad, Gandhinagar -- continue getting it, NBA said.

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February 12, 2019

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