The waters of the Sutlej run black

“Nark hai eh [It is hell].”

Kashmira Bai is talking about the Buddha nala, a waterbody polluted by industrial effluents that runs along her village and empties into the Sutlej river, just one hundred metres from her home.

In her late forties now, Bai remembers a once clean river that people relied on for drinking water. Originating at Koomkalan village in Ludhiana, the Buddha nala passes through Ludhiana for 14 kilometres before merging with the Sutlej, next to Bai’s village of Walipur Kalan.

 “Asin tan nark vich baithe haan [We are sitting in hell]. Whenever there are floods, dirty black water enters our homes,” she says. “The water turns yellow overnight if kept in the utensils,” she adds.

On August 24, 2024, to protest the state’s apathy towards the people affected by the polluted waters, hundreds of people from all over Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan, came together in Ludhiana to protest. Under the banner ‘Kale Pani Da Morcha'  (protest against water pollution), it included affected people from areas along the Sutlej. 

‘Spare Buddha dariya [river]! Spare Sutlej.’

The uproar against the pollution in Buddha nala is not new, neither are the projects to clean it. It has been going on for at least three decades but to no effect. The first project –Action Plan for Clean River Sutlej – was launched in 1996; three sewage treatment plants (STPs) were set up at Jamalpur, Bhattian and Balloke villages.

In 2020, the Punjab government set up a Rs.650 cr two-year rejuvenation project for the Buddha nala. Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, while blaming the previous government, inaugurated the state’s largest STP at Jamalpur and other projects worth Rs 315 cr for rejuvenation of Buddha nala.

While the blame game continues, Kashmira Bai says that neither the government nor political parties have done anything to resolve the issue. Activists in Ludhiana have been bringing up this issue with the Punjab government time and again, but even after spending crores, the nala remains polluted, forcing people to take to the streets every now and then.

Malkeet Kaur, 60, came to join the protest all the way from Ahmadpur in Mansa district. “The polluted water, the discharge by the industries into the ground is the reason for so many ailments plaguing us. Water is the basic necessity of life, and we should have access to clean water,” she said.

In Walipur Kalan, Kashmira Bai says the entire village is dependent on groundwater – bores go down to 300 feet and can cost upto Rs. 35,000 - Rs. 40,000 to dig. But even that does not ensure clean water for them, she says. Well-to-do families in these villages have water filters in their homes for drinking water, and they must be serviced constantly.

Also from the same village, Baljeet Kaur, 50, lost a son to Hepatitis C. “Both my sons suffered from Hepatitis C and one of them died of it,” tells Kaur, mentioning that there are many patients in this and nearby villages.

“We are protesting because if we still not wake up, our next generations would have no chance at a decent life,” said 45-year-old Rajwinder Kaur of Goniana Mandi in Bathinda. “Every household has a cancer patient now because of environmental pollution. These factories polluting Sutlej waters should be shut down. Our next generations can be saved only if these factories are shut down,” she adds.

“Eh sadi hond di ladayi hai [It is a fight for our existence],” said activist Bibi Jeewanjot Kaur, an activist participating in Kale Pani da Morcha at Ludhiana. “It is a fight to save the next generation.”

Amandeep Singh Bains is an activist at the forefront of the movement. He says, “the root cause of the problem is not being addressed. The government comes up with projects to clean it, but why do they allow the industry to dump discharge in a water source at all? Pollutants should not enter the dariya [river] at all.” 

The Ludhiana-based lawyer adds, “the dyeing industry should be shut down.”

Ludhiana has nearly 2,000 industrial electroplating units, and 300 dyeing units. Both have been blaming each other for the pollution in the Buddha nala. Badish Jindal, a Ludhiana-based industrialist said to PARI, “as per the Punjab Poisons Possession and Sale Rules, 2014, the administration has to keep record of sale and purchase of any poisonous chemicals. But the administration does not have such records.”

He further said that the industries have to adopt Zero Liquid Discharge (ZLD), a water treatment process. “No industry waste, treated or untreated, should go into the Buddha nala,” he said.

Devinder Sharma, agriculture expert, called for a complete shutdown of the polluting industry. Speaking to PARI, he said, “The industry has been polluting our rivers for 40 years and nobody seems to be bothered. Why are we welcoming dirty industry? Just for the sake of investment? Governments should invest in environmental safety and public health.”

Activists revealed that the dyeing industries had clear orders not to discharge any liquid, even the treated waste/water into the Buddha nala. This was revealed in the documents that came up recently during the NGT hearing. Activists ask why the Punjab Pollution Control Board PPCB remained silent on this for 10-11 years.

Punjab’s activists are asking, “if Tripura can ban the polluting industries, why not Punjab?”

Buddha nala’s clear waters turn into a pitch black stream as it passes through Ludhiana and villages downstream. It joins the Sutlej, completely dark to the eye. The greasy liquid goes till Rajasthan before entering into Pakistan and then the Arabian Sea. The satellite imagery too clearly shows the difference between the waters of river Beas and Sutlej at Harike Pattan (barrage) where the two rivers meet.

In a response on August 13, 2024 (a copy of which is with PARI), the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) replied to the National Green Tribunal (NGT) on the status of pollution in Buddha nala. It mentioned that three Common Effluent Treatment Plants (CETPs) in the city have been found “not complying with the disposal condition stipulated in the environmental clearance issued by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.”

CPCB further informed NGT that it issued directions to PPCB on August 12, 2024 to “take appropriate action including imposing environmental compensation. The PPCB in turn has admitted in an earlier report that the water from the Buddha nala is unfit for irrigation. “If it is unfit for agriculture, do you think it is fit for drinking?” activists argued.

In a joint statement, the organisers of the protest march announced their plan to plug the Buddha nala on September 15, later pushed to October 1, 2024. After this ultimatum, PPCB ordered immediate cessation of treated effluent discharge from the three CETPs into Buddha nala, on September 25. However, as per reports, no such action has taken place.

Instead of plugging the stream, activists organised a sit-in at Ferozepur road in Ludhiana on October 1 and gave an ultimatum to the government to act by December 3, 2024.

“Every now and then someone comes and takes samples from the Buddha nala but hunda kuchh nahin [nothing happens]. Either this pollution should be stopped or we should be provided with clean water so that our next generation can live,” says Baljeet Kaur, disenchanted with the government surveys and promises.