Rivulet associated with Guru Nanak Dev to come back to life soon

Ninety per cent of the work on cleaning the river, associated with the life of Sikhism founder Guru Nanak Dev, has been completed and by November, clean water will be flowing in it, environmentalist and MP Balbir Singh Seechewal said.

Kapurthala (Punjab): What appeared to be an impossible mission 23 years ago is set to become a reality soon -- clean water flowing in the 165-km-long holy rivulet of Kali Bein in Punjab. Ninety per cent of the work on cleaning the river, associated with the life of Sikhism founder Guru Nanak Dev, has been completed and by November, clean water will be flowing in it, environmentalist and MP Balbir Singh Seechewal said. Before the launch of the river rejuvenation mission by Seechewal in 2000, the rivulet had virtually turned into a drain with waste water and sewerage being discharged into it from towns and villages.

Sikhs believe that Guru Nanak Dev stayed at Sultanpur Lodhi on the bank of Kali Bein for more than 14 years and attained enlightenment after taking a dip in the rivulet. The 165-km-long rivulet originates from Dhanoa village in Hoshiarpur district and meets the Beas river near Fattewal village in Kapurthala's Sultanpur Lodhi. Seechewal, who is a Rajya Sabha MP of the state's ruling Aam Aadmi Party, said the river rejuvenation work is nearing completion.

The work to stop the flow of sewage into the rivulet is underway in the remaining eight villages -- Paroj, Prempur, Talwandi Dadian and Himantpur in Hoshiarpur district and Chanchak, Dograwal, Nanakpur and Saido Bhulana in Kapurthala -- he said. Six sewerage treatment plants have been installed in Dasuya, Tanda, Bholath, Begowal, Sultanpur Lodhi and Kapurthala to check the flow of dirty water into the holy rivulet. The work on STP installation in Saido Bhulana is under progress.

Seechewal, with the support of people, launched the rejuvenation drive by cleaning the rivulet and removing hyacinth manually. His efforts were well recognised and the late president APJ Abdul Kalam had applauded him and had visited his village here in 2006 to see his work. Earlier, dirty water from 47 villages located on the banks of Kali Bein was flowing into it. With the help of the "Seechewal model", dirty ponds of 39 villages have been treated.

Under the "Seechewal model", the sewage water passes through different wells to remove impurities in it and then it is shifted to a pond. Thereafter, it is taken to fields for irrigating crops through pipes. Seechewal claimed that it helped raise the underground water level and reduce the level of total dissolved solids in water.

Not only this, the flow of rivulet also gave a new lease of life to the Kanjli wetland, which attracts a large number of Siberian migratory birds. It also helped solve the problem of waterlogging near Budho Barket and Tarkiana villages, Seechewal, known as "Eco Baba" and hailed as one of the top 30 'Heroes of the Environment' in the world by the Time magazine, said. (PTI)