Srinagar, Aug 26: J&K’s water bodies and fragile aquatic ecosystems are facing a pollution crisis triggered by rapid urban expansion, rising consumption and nearly inexistent waste and sewage infrastructure.
The recent government audits and proceedings before the National Green Tribunal show that the problem extends far beyond visible garbage.
A recent Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) audit found that 50 of 63 test-checked lakes in J&K were being dumped with untreated sewage. Of these, sewage from around 91,000 households, with approximately 4.55 lakh people, was entering 34 lakes. The audit identified 69 specific pollution source points at 29 of these lakes, where waste was getting directly dumped into the water bodies.
In the 63 test-checked lakes, authorities had not assessed water-carrying capacity in any of them, reflecting broader neglect.
Shockingly, the water budgeting had not been undertaken for 62 of the 63 lakes.
These lakes had no flushing system, no de-weeding and dredging was being carried out and the lakes and their falling ecosystems were not part of any academic or research pursuits.
The damage is being done in more than one way: the CAG’s assessment found that 518 of 697 natural lakes in J&K had either disappeared or shrunk since 1967.
Of these, 315 lakes had vanished completely, and the remaining 203 had shrunk in size.
Of the shrinking lakes, 63 had lost more than half of their area.
The audit blamed the changes in land use within lakes and their catchments, deforestation, climate change and unregulated human activity for this crisis.
The catastrophe of J&K’s lakes is a work of Government’s inaction over decades, and people’s apathy towards natural resources, the report aply proves.
The most visible decline remains Dal-Nigeen.
A J&K Pollution Control Committee assessment placed before the NGT stated that water samples taken from 24 locations in Dal and Nigeen between January and May 2024 had a shocker: only one location conformed to Class B water-quality criteria.
Class B water quality criteria means that the surface water standards of the location is safe for bathing and swimming.
The water from entire Dal and Nigeen Lake, as per the report, is not even fit for bathing, let alone cooking and consumption in other forms.
The report further detailed that the biological oxygen demand ranged from 2.1 to 23.5 mg/litre.
The total coliform levels ranged from 200 to 36,000 CFU/100 ml and faecal coliform from 20 to 2,000 CFU/100 ml.
The acceptable fecal coliform in water for body contact is fewer than 200 colonies per 100 ml.
J&K generates 1470.3 tonnes of municipal solid waste daily according to data submitted by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change in the LokSabha. Of this, only 283.5 tonnes is scientifically treated.
Srinagar generates roughly 158.3 MLD of sewage, while the installed treatment capacity of only 67 MLD.
Even the treatment plants function below capacity or have become defunct.
In Jammu city, 77.8 MLD of sewage are generated with an installed capacity of 72.6 MLD.
However, the oversight reports from NGT note that actual functional efficiency is lower.
In J&K, ecosystems and water bodies are getting destroyed due to a mismatch between an expanding urban population and consumption economy.
Parallelly, the capacity of municipal systems to collect, process and safely dispose-off the resulting waste and wastewater remains primitive.
