Skip to main content

Sabarmati 'cleaned up' swimming pool style: Untreated effluents discharged in river

Gujarat CM overseeing Sabarmati riverfront clean-up drive on June 5, 2019
Counterview Desk
 In a fresh letter to the secretary, Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC), Government of India, senior Gujarat environmentalists Rohit Prajapati and Krishnakant of the Paryavaran Suraksha Samiti (PSS) have taken strong objection to the recent clean-up drive of the about 11.3 km stretch of Sabarmati riverbed undertaken by the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC), terming it as “swimming pool type clean-up.” The river’s total length is 371 km.
According to them, the clean-up drive took place ignoring the “notice” to take action against Central Effluent Treatment Plants (CETPs), sewage treatment plants (STPs), polluting industries, and AMC in view of “dangerously very high” Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD), Biological Oxygen Demand(BOD) and zero Dissolved Oxygen (DO) levels observed in the water of the river.
Pointing out that the concerned “main officers of the authorities” failed in in their duties to “prevent the river pollution even after repeated letters and complaints sent to them”, as directed by the Supreme Court in its Order, dated February 22, 2017, in Writ Petition (Civil) No 375 of 2012, against all polluting industries for pollution in the river, the letter states, the “consistent violation” of apex court order, which amounts to contempt of court.

Text of the letter:

In our letter, dated April 1, 2019, we have clearly stated that the stretch of the Sabarmati River in the Ahmedabad city, along the entire river, is dry, and within the Riverfront Project stretch, it is brimming with stagnant water. In the last 120 kilometres, before meeting the Arabian Sea, it is “dead” and comprises of just industrial effluent and sewage.
Our joint investigation reports with Gujarat Pollution Control Board (GPCB), dated March 12, 2019, are shocking and reveal the disastrous condition of the Sabarmati river in and around Ahmedabad district and about 120 kilometres downstream.
The Sabarmati Riverfront has merely become a pool of polluted stagnant water, while the river, downstream of the riverfront, has been reduced to a channel carrying effluents from industries from Naroda, Odhav, Vatva, Narol, and sewerage from Ahmedabad city.
The drought like condition of the Sabarmati river, intensified by the Riverfront Development, has resulted in poor groundwater recharge and increased dependency on the already ailing Narmada river.
The investigation raises fundamental questions against both, the polluting industries that discharge their untreated effluents into the Sabarmati river, and AMC that discharges their poorly treated and untreated sewerage into the Sabarmati river.
Actually, we should not allow at all any discharge of even so-called treated effluent and sewerage into the river stretch where river is dry. This amounts to murdering the river and it is a criminal offence on the part of the concerned industries, concerned authorities, the Government of Gujarat, and the State of Gujarat.
We demand in our letter dated April 1, 2019 that:
  • GPCB immediately issues closure notices to all the defaulting industries located in Ahmedabad industrial clusters, in implementation of the Supreme Court Order dated February 22, 2017.
  • GPCB immediately issues closer notices to all the defaulting CETPs of the Ahmedabad industrial cluster, in implementation of the Supreme Court Order dated February 22, 2017. 
  • GPCB immediately issues notice to the Municipal Commissioner of Ahmedabad to ensure compliance by all STPs in the area. 
  • GPCB files criminal cases against the all owners/directors of the defaulting polluting industries, the officers of the CETPs, and the Municipal Commissioner of Ahmedabad. 
  • MoEFCC should not allow at all any discharge of even so-called treated effluent and sewerage into the Sabarmati river stretch where river is dry. This amounts to murdering the river and it is a criminal offence. 
  • GPCB investigates and prepares further detailed reports about the ground water contamination as well as contamination of the food grains, vegetables, and fodder. 
  • Ensure Interim Exemplary Monetary Compensation along with medical services to the farmers and villagers who have suffered from the surface water and groundwater pollution.
  • Immediately pay Interim compensation per season per acre to the farmers who are forced to use contaminated Sabarmati River water and groundwater for irrigation of agricultural land and, hence, are facing several severe health and related socio-economic problems. 
  • Appoint a competent interdisciplinary committee of officials and field experts to assess the ongoing and past damages to quantify the real compensation payable to the farmers for the damage done. 
  • Implement, in letter and spirit, the Order, dated February 22, .2017, of the Supreme Court in Writ Petition (Civil) No. 375 of 2012 (Paryavaran Suraksha Samiti & Anr V/s Union of India & Ors) and National Green Tribunal, Principal Bench, Delhi Order, dated March 8, 2018 and February 19, 2019, in Original Application No 593 of 2017, (Paryavaran Suraksha Samiti & Anr V/s Union of India & Ors). 
Instead addressing the main concerned issues AMC has taken up clean up drive, which looks like swimming pool clean-up.
Untreated effluents discharged into Sabarmati riverbed
It is unfortunate that many so-called consultants and experts consider the River merely a channel carrying water or affluent. Moreover, Sabarmati River now renamed as “Sabarmati Riverfront” or “Swimming Pool” along the Riverfront Project areas.
Pumping water from Narmada canal into Sabarmati river does not really work to rejuvenate her. We, as a society, tried to dry her out and wherever we could not we severely polluted her. Sabarmati river has been made a dumping ground for industrial effluent and sewage. Why should treated or untreated effluents be dumped into her? The Government of Gujarat and AMC, through Riverfront, have apparently tried to kill her.
We should truly revive and rejuvenate Sabarmati river by using ecological restoration science and techniques and begging by dismantling the Riverfront Project by allowing her to touch the soil of the banks and immediately stopping any dumping of industrial effluent and municipal sewage into her.
The misconceived Sabarmati Riverfront Project is the most visible and has also been most criticized by various experts and concerned citizens. If Ahmedabad, the biggest city of Gujarat, takes the lead in correcting past mistakes and doesn’t throw good money after bad money, it will provide a much needed precedent to emulate for other cities and their misconceived river/water front projects. The time is now, legally and morally.
---
*Copies of the letter sent to Dr Susane George Karumanchery, Nodal Officer (CETP/STP/ETP), MoEFCC; chairman, Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), member secretary, CPCB; Ajay Aggarwal, additional director and nodal officer (CETP/STP/ETP), CPCB; chief secretary, Government of Gujarat (GoG); additional chief secretary, Forest and Environment Department ,GoG), chairman, Gujarat Pollution Control Board (GPCB); member secretary, GPCB; zonal officer, CPCB, Vadodara; Municipal Commissioner, AMC; collector, Ahmedabad district

Comments

Post a Comment

TRENDING

Plastic burning in homes threatens food, water and air across Global South: Study

By Jag Jivan  In a groundbreaking  study  spanning 26 countries across the Global South , researchers have uncovered the widespread and concerning practice of households burning plastic waste as a fuel for cooking, heating, and other domestic needs. The research, published in Nature Communications , reveals that this hazardous method of managing both waste and energy poverty is driven by systemic failures in municipal services and the unaffordability of clean alternatives, posing severe risks to human health and the environment.
Post a Comment
»

Economic superpower’s social failure? Inequality, malnutrition and crisis of India's democracy

By Vikas Meshram  India may be celebrated as one of the world’s fastest-growing economies, but a closer look at who benefits from that growth tells a starkly different story. The recently released World Inequality Report 2026 lays bare a country sharply divided by wealth, privilege and power. According to the report, nearly 65 percent of India’s total wealth is owned by the richest 10 percent of its population, while the bottom half of the country controls barely 6.4 percent. The top one percent—around 14 million people—holds more than 40 percent, the highest concentration since 1961. Meanwhile, the female labour force participation rate is a dismal 15.7 percent.
Post a Comment
»

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.
59 comments
»

The greatest threat to our food system: The aggressive push for GM crops

By Bharat Dogra  Thanks to the courageous resistance of several leading scientists who continue to speak the truth despite increasing pressures from the powerful GM crop and GM food lobby , the many-sided and in some contexts irreversible environmental and health impacts of GM foods and crops, as well as the highly disruptive effects of this technology on farmers, are widely known today. 
Post a Comment
»

History, culture and literature of Fatehpur, UP, from where Maulana Hasrat Mohani hailed

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat*  Maulana Hasrat Mohani was a member of the Constituent Assembly and an extremely important leader of our freedom movement. Born in Unnao district of Uttar Pradesh, Hasrat Mohani's relationship with nearby district of Fatehpur is interesting and not explored much by biographers and historians. Dr Mohammad Ismail Azad Fatehpuri has written a book on Maulana Hasrat Mohani and Fatehpur. The book is in Urdu.  He has just come out with another important book, 'Hindi kee Pratham Rachna: Chandayan' authored by Mulla Daud Dalmai.' During my recent visit to Fatehpur town, I had an opportunity to meet Dr Mohammad Ismail Azad Fatehpuri and recorded a conversation with him on issues of history, culture and literature of Fatehpur. Sharing this conversation here with you. Kindly click this link. --- *Human rights defender. Facebook https://www.facebook.com/vbrawat , X @freetohumanity, Skype @vbrawat
1 comment
»

Epic war against caste system is constitutional responsibility of elected government

Edited by well-known Gujarat Dalit rights leader Martin Macwan, the book, “Bhed-Bharat: An Account of Injustice and Atrocities on Dalits and Adivasis (2014-18)” (available in English and Gujarati*) is a selection of news articles on Dalits and Adivasis (2014-2018) published by Dalit Shakti Prakashan, Ahmedabad. Preface to the book, in which Macwan seeks to answer key questions on why the book is needed today: *** The thought of compiling a book on atrocities on Dalits and thus present an overall Indian picture had occurred to me a long time ago. Absence of such a comprehensive picture is a major reason for a weak social and political consciousness among Dalits as well as non-Dalits. But gradually the idea took a different form. I found that lay readers don’t understand numbers and don’t like to read well-researched articles. The best way to reach out to them was storytelling. As I started writing in Gujarati and sharing the idea of the book with my friends, it occurred to me that while...
Post a Comment
»

Would breaking idols, burning books annihilate caste? Recalling a 1972 Dalit protest

By Rajiv Shah  A few days ago, I received an email alert from a veteran human rights leader who has fought many battles in Gujarat for the Dalit cause — both through ground-level campaigns and courtroom struggles. The alert, sent in Gujarati by Valjibhai Patel, who heads the Council for Social Justice, stated: “In 1935, Babasaheb Ambedkar burnt the Manusmriti . In 1972, we broke the idol of Krishna , whom we regarded as the creator of the varna (caste) system.”
Post a Comment
»

From colonial mercantilism to Hindutva: New book on the making of power in Gujarat

By Rajiv Shah  Professor Ghanshyam Shah ’s latest book, “ Caste-Class Hegemony and State Power: A Study of Gujarat Politics ”, published by Routledge , is penned by one of Gujarat ’s most respected chroniclers, drawing on decades of fieldwork in the state. It seeks to dissect how caste and class factors overlap to perpetuate the hegemony of upper strata in an ostensibly democratic polity. The book probes the dominance of two main political parties in Gujarat—the Indian National Congress and the BJP—arguing that both have sustained capitalist growth while reinforcing Brahmanic hierarchies.
Post a Comment
»

'Restructuring' Sahitya Akademi: Is the ‘Gujarat model’ reaching Delhi?

By Prakash N. Shah*  ​A fortnight and a few days have slipped past that grim event. It was as if the wedding preparations were complete and the groom’s face was about to be unveiled behind the ceremonial tinsel. At 3 PM on December 18, a press conference was poised to announce the Sahitya Akademi Awards . 
Post a Comment
»