Pollution ‘factories’ by river side

Dharamsala :Courtesy good monsoon, much has been said about the damage to the infrastructure because of swelling rivers. Though the swelling rivers pose a threat to life and property almost every year during monsoon, many big industrial units are coming up on the banks of rivers, and in some cases, even inside the river basins.In Una district, a new paper mill is coming up on the banks of the Swan River on Santoshgarh road. The place where the industrial unit has been set up exposes it to swelling river waters, especially during monsoon. In the Gagret industrial area, a battery-making industrial unit has been set up in the middle of the bed of a seasonal rivulet. Sources told The Tribune that the unit had been inundated many a times during monsoon but the unit was still persisting with its position in the middle of a rivulet. Similarly, many industrial units in Solan, Sirmour, Una and Kangra districts had been set up on the banks of rivers.Interestingly, both units come in red category due to pollutants released from them. The environmentalists alleged that the units were just being brought on the banks of rivers so that the toxic effluents could be released easily in natural water courses. Since water is running, pollutants get washed away easily, they added.Already much hue-and-cry is being raised regarding the pollutants being released in rivers from the Baddi and Golthai industrial areas. The environmentalists from Punjab alleged that the pollutants from Baddi industrial units were damaging the environment in the Ropar international wetland area and those from Golthai the Nangal national wetland area.The environmentalists had moved the Punjab Human Rights Commission against the said pollution. The commission last week sought an information regarding the steps taken by the Himachal Pollution Control Board against the polluting units. The officials in the Department of Industry said they allowed the units to come up near river only after a no objection certificate from the Irrigation and Public Health Department (IPH).However, officials of the department said land of river beds on which the industry had been set up was a private land. There is no policy to stop private owners from using their land for other purposes.