17.11.2013 Ravishing Ravi
The governments in Indian and Pakistani Punjab must guarantee the rights of all rivers so that they are allowed to flow in their natural course
By Noreen Haider
It was a beautiful spring day in April and the scenery was picture perfect. The day was mild and the sun only added to the vitality of the day. Travelling along the BRBD (Barki, Ravi, Bambanwala, Deepalpur) canal, in the outskirts of Lahore, the small private road led to the India Pakistan border. There was lush greenery everywhere and wheat was ripening in the late spring warmth. My objective was to visit the exact point where River Ravi enters Pakistan.
After travelling almost for 40 minutes along the canal, I reached the waterworks called Ravi Siphon. It is at the Ravi Siphon that the BRBD Canal carrying water from River Chenab actually transverses River Ravi from underneath it as it enters the outskirts of Lahore. The gushing canal water is siphoned under the Ravi river bed through huge barrels fixed underneath it, totaling 158 ft. in length. Ravi meanwhile flows serenely over it quite oblivious to the fact that it is crossing an international border from India to Pakistan.
I found the river water sparkling and there was not even a trace of any trash visible in it. It was glistening at places where the sunlight caught it at the right angle and it twinkled happily. It was utterly unrecognizable from the sorry sight of Ravi that flows along the entrance of Lahore city.
A few kilometers ahead of the siphon is the India-Pakistan border and an observation post of Pakistan Rangers. There is marked the exact entry point of Ravi River into Pakistan. The reason I wanted to make that trip was to see the state of water and collect some data on the river flow but I was not prepared for what I found.
I belong to Lahore and have seen Ravi hundreds of times but the river that I met as I reached the border was another river altogether from the one I knew so well. This river was beautiful, clean and calm flowing elegantly in its course. The alluvial soil around the bed had created lush fields and the ground water was of excellent quality as well. There were herds of cattle grazing along the river and some 85 villages that thrive on both sides of the banks.
But just few kilometers after entering Pakistan, the condition of river starts deteriorating. After travelling ten kilometers, the river reaches Shahdara Town near Lahore where the water from municipal and industrial drains is dumped into it. The water instantly changes colour and becomes blackish with objectionable foul smell. As the river flows further downstream, untreated raw municipal sewage, industrial waste and solid waste material from no less than fifteen major drains is dumped into it.
According to the official data by Punjab Irrigation and Power Department, the biggest of these drains are Shadman drain with 162 cusec discharge, Farukabad drain, 106 cusecs, Buddha Ravi drain, 44 cusecs, Outfall drain, 127.56 cusecs, Gulshan-e-Ravi disposal, 176.66 cusecs, BabuSabu drain, 165 cusecs, and Hudiara drain with 430 cusecs of waste water discharge. Raw sewage from City District Lahore’s municipal drains is also discharged untreated in Ravi at various points.
Other than that, there are thousands of cusecs of discharge of untreated industrial toxic effluent dumped into the river. The heavy metals and poisons water eventually end up in the cultivation fields along the river and degrade the quality of soil reducing yield and contaminating crops. It is also the major source of ground water pollution as the affluent waste contains large amounts of toxic chemicals, heavy metals and microbial contamination. The water is even unfit for washing and bathing.
All the industries along River Ravi without exception are dumping untreated waste water without the slightest consideration to the criminal abuse done to the river as well as being an environmental disaster.
Just to give an idea of the enormity of the situation briefly, there are about 299 industrial units reported in district Faisalabad that dispose of about 453.47 cusec of untreated effluent into the surface drainage system that ends in Ravi and Chenab river. The different industries include textile, dying, chemical, Petro-chemical, pulp and paper, hosiery, soap and detergent manufacturing plants, oil refineries, sugar and flour mills, tanneries, distilleries, synthetic material plants for drugs, fibers, rubbers, plastics, and hosiery etc.
In district Sialkot, 58 industrial units are disposing of 56.66 cusec of untreated effluent into the surface drainage system which eventually enters Ravi through various drains.
About 271 industrial units in Lahore district are disposing of its 281.6 cusec untreated waste water into Ravi. Mostly the industries are of textile, chemical, food processing, pulp and paper processing, poultry, dairy, plastic, paint, pesticides, leather, tanneries and pharmaceuticals.
About 22 different industrial units reported in district Kasur dispose of 17.96 cusec untreated highly toxic waste effluent including nitrogenous fertilizer into the surface drainage system.
The list goes on and on along major cities and industries criminally using the river as a sewage drain. Especially the 72 kilometer stretch from Ravi Siphon to Balloki has the worst contamination and woefully, there Ravi actually turns into a sludge carrier.
At Balloki, the water from River Ravi is diverted through Balloki-Sulemanki Link Canal to Southern Punjab and the people there are forced to use the polluted water for all purposes including drinking and washing which is causing serious health issues there.
The real culprit of this massive abuse of River and canals is the government of Punjab which has been and is totally blind to it all. There is an Environment Protection Agency in Punjab which consists of skeleton staff and is totally impotent. The industrialists have a huge influence on politicians as they are the chief supporters in their elections. Many important politicians in Punjab are themselves industrialists so they have absolutely no interest in putting any restrictions on the hundreds of industrial units for treatment of waste water or even being partially responsible for it.
The old name of Ravi was Parvashni or Iravati. It originates in the Himalayas in the Chamba District of Himachal Perdesh in India. From there its clean icy glacial waters take a north-westerly course and flow through the picturesque Dilhousie Town before it enters Punjab near Madhopur and Pathankot District. In its natural course it flows in Indian plains for 80 kilometres before entering Pakistan. Travelling 725 kilometers, it finally falls into the Chenab River.
Ravi is actually among the three eastern rivers that were divided between India and Pakistan according to the Indus Water Treaty. Under the Indus Water Treaty (1960), all the waters of the eastern tributaries of the Indus River originating in India, i.e. the Sutlej, Beas and Ravi rivers taken together, were made available for the unrestricted use of India. So for the major part the water of Ravi is mostly diverted through the Madhopur Headworks and used for irrigation in Indian Punjab.
According to IWT, it was decided that the water from western rivers would be diverted in Ravi and Sutlej by link canals to maintain them, however, that did not turn out to be quite enough to keep them alive and healthy.
Because of the mistreatment of this beautiful river, all its flora and fauna and aquatic life has died and with it the once vibrant river is also dying a painful death.
Rivers are not just water bodies but beyond that, they must be seen as legal entities and they must be allocated some rights. The most important among them is the right to life and flow. The governments in Indian and Pakistani Punjab must guarantee the rights of all rivers so that they are allowed to flow in their natural course as the lifelines of our planet earth.