Ancient Indians adorned rivers, lakes, glaciers and other water bodies with an element of divinity. All along the banks and the course of our big or small rivers, temples and worshipping sites sprang and remained in vogue ever since. Not only that, a dip in the waters of some of the rivers and lakes known for sanctimony became cherished aspiration to wash off all sins one might have committed inadvertently. Philanthropists planted trees and shrubs by the banks of rivers and streams to make the environs congenial to nature lovers. This tradition perpetuated millennia after millennia in this land of great historicity and civilizational fame.
Times have changed. Nothing remains static. We are faced with population explosion. Our natural resources are depleting because these have been subjected to general loot. Water is one of the most significant natural resource that is under tremendous pressure. Our glaciers are shrinking; our lakes and other water bodies are partially drying up. Water flow in rivers and streams is getting reduced as new human habitats are mushrooming. We have come to the verge of a disastrous eco-situation. If remedial measures are not taken effectively and at proper time, one shudders to anticipate the catastrophe waiting in wings.
River Tawi has still the tag of sanctimony attached to it. While sitting in a bus and crossing the bridge over Tawi at Jammu, the passengers, men, women and children, all look up to the rising Trikuta Hills from where Tawi flows down to circumvent the town of Jammu, fold their hands in sublime humility and bow their heads in reverence to the river Suryaputri of our scriptures. We wish that this lurking sentiment of sanctimony was transformed into practice of strictly avoiding polluting the waters of this river.
To our great consternation and dismay, Tawi, the Daughter of the Sun God, is desecrated and its water polluted. Today it presents a dismal and disappointing picture of a cesspool rather than a magnificent river flowing with its grace and grandeur. It has been made a repository of all the garbage, litter and refuse of the entire city of Jammu. All pollutants one can imagine are dumped in it and huge mountains of effluents are raised at three places on the banks of the river between Mohinder Nagar and Nagrota. That is what the Jammu Municipal Corporation does and that is what the Jammu citizenry closes its eyes to. It is only during the rainy season that river Tawi carries enormous flood waters to disgorge into the Chenab as its big tributary. For the rest of the year, Tawi presents a dismal look of a dried nullah owing to the blockades created by polluting material especially the polythene bags thrown into it which do not easily get destroyed.
The Cabinet has approved a plan of raising an artificial lake on the bed of Tawi. Perhaps the work on the project has also been started. Its first hiccup came when Pakistan objected to it and ran to the World Bank with a complaint demanding that the State Government shelve the project of raising an artificial lake. However, after inspection of the project and considering that no violation of legalities had been done, Pakistan was silenced and the work was resumed. The question is that the artificial lake meant to boost Jammu’s tourist industry will make sense only when the water of the river is kept clean and the river bed is not turned into a dumping ground of city refuse. The Jammu Municipal Corporation has to devise means and methods of ensuring cleanliness and purity of the river. It is in fitness of things if the State Government and the Jammu Municipal Corporation get into touch with the authorities at the National River Conservation Project and adopt Yamuna Action Plan as a model for transforming Tawi into a river of clean and shining water. It is sad to recall that such is the level of pollution of its water at the moment that villagers are unwilling to let their cattle drink water from it for far of catching some infectious and fatal disease. The question of bathing and washing in the river does not arise.
At present 26 million gallons per day of Tawi water is lifted for providing drinking and washing water to the city of Jammu. Though we have three water treatment plants at sites before the Tawi enters Jammu city peripheries, but with continuously increasing population of the city and its expansion, demand on water supply will increase sharply. Jammu Municipal Corporation must act now and draw a thirty-year plan of supplying pure water to Jammu population and managing the sewerage plants effectively to maintain ecological health of the city. We also suggest that a Tawi Conservation Body should be formed within the JMC framework and entrusted with the task of suggesting how the river could be spared pollution and degradation so that its water is kept clean and usable for supply.
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