Netizens run campaign against water pollution across Punjab, urge CM Bhagwant Mann to take action

JALANDHAR: After recent reports of tubewells throwing up highly polluted blackish water at a couple of places, including at a village in Sangrur, and images of black water flowing in Ferozepur canal from Harike head works, Punjabi netizens took to Twitter on Sunday in a major way to rake up issue of water pollution in the state.
Though environment activists have been flagging the issue of water pollution in the state for the last quite a few years, it was first such online campaign on the issue and over 13,000 tweets were done on the issue, with #StopPollutingPunjabWaters. They posted pictures, videos, news stories or different facts about pollution in overground water sources and groundwater. Several messages also tagged chief minister Bhagwant Mann and urged quick and drastic action against polluters.
"Rivers of Punjab are being fed with deadly chemicals by untreated waste discharged by industry. Dyeing and electroplating industry is in fact adding heavy metals to waters which has resulted in clusters of cancer," tweeted @Tractor2twitr, a major influencer on farm issues. The same handle also tweeted, "Due to corruption of officials pollution dept, toxic industrial waste is being dumped directly underground via bore-wells. At many places, tubewells have started pumping out poison," while tagging chief minister Bhagwant Mann and water resources minister Bram Parkash Jimpa, asking them to take action.
"The extent of the pollution caused in Sutlej in Punjab can be gauged from the fact that the state disposes of around 2000 kilolitres of sewage in the river per day," tweeted another user Avijeet Singh Dhaliwal from handle @AvvijitDhaliwal.
"Industrial waste when mixed into river water used for irrigation & consumed by millions is turning a huge geographical section of Punjab & Rajasthan into a cancer belt. In fact, a train which carries passengers to Bikaner hs been named as cancer train," was a tweeted shared by multiple users.
"It is curious that the topic of groundwater contamination in Punjab doesn't get the public attention it deserves even as it causes immense human damage to the state's people and environment," tweeted @TeamDhaliwal.
Attaching a TOI story from 2018, user @Aman_Kaur45 tweeted, "This story is from October 16, 2018 an initiative to clean Ludhiana's Buddah Nallah which has become the eyesore for the government and state, CM @capt_amarinder constituted a task force to free the Nallah of polluting effluents. Results of??"
"The PPCB has failed to take action against the industrial sector, which dumps untreated garbage into MC sewage, which then enters the budha nullah and eventually reaches Satluj. @BhagwantMann please take a notice?" tweeted Deep_KSandhu.
Several Facebookers have also posted against pollution in water channels and of ground water.