Ranbir Canal is the life line of Jammu. It was built essentially to irrigate fertile agricultural lands in the plains of Jammu. The Canal is named after the most popular Dogra ruler Maharaja Ranbir Singh, who has so many good works of public utility to his credit. Thousands of agriculturist families draw sustenance from their arable lands irrigated by the water of this canal. Its maintenance during all the long years ever since it became functional has been carried out efficiently and with the passage of time, the canal became part of Jammu’s cultural life. During the rule of the Maharajas, purity of the canal water was meticulously maintained and the people did not know what polluting the water meant. The water was used for domestic purposes, drinking, bathing, washing and cleaning. People carried its water in pitchers for drinking for a distance of a kilometre or more. It got connected with the happy festival of Baisakhi, the 13th of April, which is a notable festival for entire Northern India and Punjabi/Dogri speaking peoples in particular. People thronged the selected sites along the bank of the canal to make merriment. Children in particular did small swimming, playing and pleasantries associating the canal with the cultural life of Jammu. Local people raised many small and beautiful temples by the bank of the canal adding the element of divinity and sanctity to the waters brought all the way from Chandrabhaga River at Akhnoor canal head. The Vedas entreated ancient Indians to worship nature and its manifestations, trees, water bodies, snow capped mountains, springs, verdure and forest cover etc.
This enervating scenario is no more extent. Urbanization has been rapid and sweeping. Jammu city has expanded three-fold during the past six decades of independence. Today, its population has crossed one and a half million. Innumerable colonies, settlements and habitats have mushroomed in the peripheries of the old city in unplanned and chaotic manner especially on the other side of Tawi which now stands connected by no fewer than four wide span bridges serving incredibly heavy vehicular traffic. This mass of humanity will need sanitation requirements according to the population. Ranbir Canal has become the victim of over-populated city of Jammu. All sewerage drains are directed to disgorge into the canal. The once glowing canal is made the bin of all the dirt and inorganic and organic refuse. The water has lost its purity, shine and utility as drinking, bathing or washing source. Not to speak of human beings, even farmers have hesitation to let their cattle drink the polluted water of Ranbir Canal. Once integral to Jammu’s cultural life, the canal has been steadily distancing from the sweet memories of the past and becoming irrelevant to the people of Jammu.
Sensitized to this damaging situation, the Pollution Control Board (PCB) of the State has of late awoken to its responsibility of taking steps to put an end to the wanton pollution of the canal. It has issued notices to the polluting agencies JMC and Urban Environmental Engineering Department to take immediate steps of diverting the flow of sewerage water away from the canal water. Experts have identified sewerage water as the main cause of pollution of canal water and thus legal notices have been served. While this is an indication that the authorities have begun to move but the question is whey they were silent all these years till the situation came to be bursting at seams. The Pollution Control Board should have moved decades ago and stopped polluting the water canal. Anyway even taking up the issue now is at least generating some hope that pollution of this important water source will be stopped.
Public awareness and education are also important in such cases. It is the responsibility of the irrigation department and other associated organizations to induct moral element into the culture of keeping water bodies clean and unpolluted. All concerned agencies shall have to pool their resources and launch a massive campaign among the people in urban as well as rural areas closer to the passage route of the canal. We believe that proper education among the people will go a long way in stopping pollution of the canal. At the same time, some punitive measures should also be taken to deter defaulters and miscreants from indulging in wanton spoliation by throwing organic or inorganic substances into the water. Sector-wise supervision of the canal by guards and chowkidars should be a feature of maintenance of the canal and the guards will carry the responsibility of protecting their allocated regions against all sorts of pollution. We would also suggest that small parks should be built along the banks of the canal at intervals by the irrigation department in combination with other agencies for people to sit under shady trees and enjoy the cool breezes coming from the flowing water of the canal. This could help in protecting the canal against pollution.
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