Pb, Har, HP agree to make rivers pollution-free

A joint meeting of the Chief Secretaries and other senior officers of Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh was held today to resolve the issues related to pollution in river water in the three states.
During the meeting, it was informed that River Satluj is mainly being polluted in Himachal Pradesh by industries of Golthai, Mehatpur and Nalagarh area, a Punjab government release said here.
After detailed deliberations it was decided that joint sampling and monitoring on quarterly basis will be done by the officials of Punjab and Himachal Pradesh near these industrial areas to effectively check the water quality in these rivers.

Punjab shall complete all 18 Sewage Treatment Plants on various locations of River Satluj by June 30 next year, it was decided in the meeting.
Various initiatives being taken by Punjab to reduce pollution in river Satluj include connection of untapped points of Anandpur Sahib town to STP, utilisation of treated sewage for Irrigation purpose, cleaning of Budha Nallah by installing bio gas power plant, stoppage of garbage/solid waste into Budha Nallah and cleaning of Kala Sanghian drain, the release said.
Further various initiatives have been taken by Punjab to reduce industrial pollution of companies like NFL Nangal, PACL Nangal, Thermal Plant Ropar, Dying & Electroplating companies in Ludhiana, it further said.

Detailed deliberations were also made on various options to reduce the pollution in river Ghaggar which originates from Sirmour Hills (Himachal Pradesh) and passes through district Mohali, Patiala, Sangrur and Mansa in Punjab.

It was informed that untreated industrial effluent and domestic effluent from the industrial area of Nahan, Parwanoo, Kala Amb etc in HP is polluting river Ghaggar.
Chief Secretary Himachal Pradesh said that locations where river Ghaggar is getting polluted have been identified and five STPs including at Parwanoo, Kala Amb, and Baddi will be made operational soon.
The sources of pollution identified for river Ghaggar from Haryana State included Sukhna Choe, Singh Nallah, Gazipur Nallah, Ghail drain, Sagar Parra drain, Kaithal drain, waste water of Jakhal and Ratia town.

The officers from Haryana mentioned that a joint monitoring of the pollutants level is already being done with Punjab and this has resulted in reduction in pollutants level.
To further reduce the pollutants, 73 STPs were being installed out of which 36 have already been commissioned and remaining will be made operational in the next six months.
Among those who attended the meet include Punjab's Chief Secretary Sarvesh Kaushal, P Mitra, Chief Secretary Himachal Pradesh and Alok Nigam, Additional Chief Secretary, Public Health Engineering, Haryana.