Ahmedabad: The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) in a recent report tabled by the Union ministry of Jal Shakti has termed the Sabarmati river in Gujarat the second most polluted river in the country after the Cooum river in Tamil Nadu. Aam Aadmi Party leader Isudan Gadhvi while attacking the government said that the BJP government has time to instal meters on boreholes or wells of the farmers, but it does not have time to clean the rivers of the state.
"Sabarmati river is the second most polluted river of the country. This is how the condition of the river has become under the rule of BJP. Forget about drinking water from the river, it is not even worth taking a bath! Instead of cleaning them, the BJP is putting meters on their borewells to harass the farmers," said the AAP leader in a tweet.
Also read:River Festival launched in Gujarat to create awareness on pollution
The CPCB data identified 311 polluted stretches on 279 rivers based on monitoring results in terms of biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), an indicator of organic pollution. According to the report, the stretch of Sabarmati between Raysan in Gandhinagar and Vautha in Dholka had a BOD of 292 milligram per litre.
Despite the suo motu intervention by the Gujarat High Court in August 2021 to rein in river pollution, followed by a series of interventions by a court-appointed nine-member joint task force, the ecological status of the Sabarmati has only gone from bad to worse in the past five years. Far from being a lifeline, it is now the second most polluted river in the country. This was revealed during the parliamentary proceedings.
