Pollution of water resources in Punjab, surface and underground, is rampant and hardly any measures are being taken to keep a check on it or to study its effect on biodiversity. This was the unanimous view from experts during a roundtable conference in Panjab University on Friday.
The topic of the roundtable, ‘Water: Issues and way forward’, also highlighted other issues such as industrial pollution and failure of water treatment systems, lack of public awareness towards saving water and political apathy after election campaigns. In May, a large number of aquatic animals were found dead in the Beas River after molasses from a sugar factory leaked into the river. The discharge caused extensive damage to the flora and fauna and might take years for the river to recover from the disaster.
“No one is talking about the chemicals in the water. Whatever happened in the Beas has still not got this conversation going,” said Baba Balbir Singh Seechewal, a prominent environmental activist who demanded action against the sugar mill that caused the leakage. He said water treatment was the most important step towards reusing the water that is already used daily. “Why aren’t we treating water? Governments should have the will power to actually carry out the plans that they talk about during elections. It’s the government’s duty to set up plants,” he said, adding that all the civic bodies should set up water treatment plants.
Experts said it was ironical that the “Land of Five Rivers” was in the midst of a “debilitating” water crisis. Economist Prof RS Ghumman criticised the power policy in the state and termed it “anti-water” and “anti-diversification”. He stressed on water abuse on a domestic and industrial level. Rainwater harvesting was also suggested as one of the easiest forms of water conservation along with water treatment through low-cost ozonisers. “The big question should be how do we clean recycled water. Water either has bacterial contamination or suspended particles. A simple solution is ozone; PU students have made a low-cost ozoniser that can treat water effectively,” said Prof Navdeep Goyal, Chairperson, Department of Physics.