Vijayawada: River Krishna, the fourth-biggest river in terms of water flow and basin in India, is among the most polluted. The river figures in the list of the 51 polluted rivers in India and has been identified as such by the Central Pollution Control Board.
Almost all the canals of the river that pass through the district are being polluted relentlessly. This menace has increased over the past few years with locals releasing sewage into the canals at Amaravati where the river enters the district and at Hamsaladeevi, where it merges into the Bay of Bengal.
The plastic waste that is dumped into the river at almost every spot that it passes through is becoming an obstacle to its flow, besides polluting the water.
Adding to this, people who live on the riverbanks are releasing their household waste and sewage directly into the river, causing discolouration of the water.
Visitors, devotees and pilgrims who come to the city also pollute the river by throwing plastic wastes into the water. Also, rampant sand mining is also damaging and polluting the river.
Taking note of all this, division and mandal level taskforce committees would be appointed to control pollution, according to district collector A. Md. Imtiaz.
Recently, Mr Imtiaz organised a major clean up drive across the district called the “Krishnamma Shuddhi (cleaning of River Krishna). However, in several place, lack of coordination between the municipalities, panchayats and irrigation department led to obstacles in the implementation of the programme.
Now, the district authorities have started corrective measures. Mr Imtiaz organised a meeting on Wednesday with the district level environment surveillance taskforce committee.
He told the committee that measures should be taken to stop pollution of the river in the limits of district and hence the taskforce committees should be set up immediately.
The collector pointed out that the Central Pollution Board has identified 51 polluted rivers in the country and one of them is the Krishna.
He said that the district-level taskforce’s duty should be controlling sand mining and stop pollution by identifying the cause. The collector shall be the chairman of the committee and the superintendent of police, district Judge, Pollution Control Board engineers would play a major role as convener-members of the taskforce.
