River Tawi, which the local people in Jammu consider a holy river has been turned into a garbage dump by the very people whose elders considered it a holy river and worshipped it at sunrise. How callous are we towards our own culture and tradition.
It is shocking that neither the authorities nor the representatives of the civil society are interested in keeping Tawi safe from pollution. While hearing a PIL on the pollution of the river, the Divisional Bench of the State High Court came to startling revelation that about 100 million litres of sewage of the city of Jammu is flowing into the waters of Tawi. The DB has come to know that that all the nullahs carrying sewage and refuse flow into the Tawi and thus happens wholesale pollution of its water. It noted that at the entry point the water of Tawi is clean but at the exit point it is all polluted.
Sewage is treated in a scientific manner in all big cities in the country. Jammu city has three Sewage Treatment Plants (STPs). The sordid story of these plants is that three STPs have been set up or are under construction at Bhagwati Nagar in the immediate periphery of Jammu city. One Sewage Treatment Plant has a capacity of 10 million litres per day but the same is underutilized and approximately five million litres per day is treated in this Sewage Treatment Plant. There is another Sewage Treatment Plant having a capacity of 30 million litres per day but this is not operational. The third STP at Bhagwati Nagar having a capacity of 27 million litres per day is under construction. Thus the statistics boils down to 5 million litres of sewage treated in three Sewage Treatment Plants in Jammu every day whereas the three plants have the capacity to treat in all 67 million litres of sewage per day. This is a dismal and alarming picture and the fate of Tawi with this quantum of sewage dumped in its waters is bleak. Dumping of sewage in its waters is also the main reason why the proposed River Lake could not come up. What happened to the much trumpeted scheme of changing the direction of the nullahs in Jammu number nearly 12 and keep the refuse away from river Tawi. It is indeed a sad and disappointing reflection on the authorities and also the citizens of Jammu who do not awake to the enormous pollution of water and air of the city. If people do not care for themselves how will the Government care for them?
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