Unauthorised textile units pollute groundwater in Jodhpur villages

Jodhpur: Discharging chemical effluents into agricultural fields and the local Jojari river, illegal textile units are thriving in rural areas near Jodhpur despite regular directives by the National Green Tribunal (NGT) to keep a tab on them and ensure compliance of its orders.These units are located in areas like Salawas, Boranada, Jhalamand, Dhawa, Tanawada, Shergarh, Balesar, and Dechu. They get raw cloth from textile units based in Pali and Balotra for washing and colouring and drain the effluents in pits dug in agricultural fields, polluting the groundwater.Units in Salwas and Boranada, which are designated industrial areas, have even built illegal channels to drain the effluents into the Jojari river, which has almost lost its identity as a river due to constant discharge of industrial effluents since long. Regional officer of the pollution control board, Shilpi Sharma, acknowledged the operation of such illegal units and assured that action will be taken against them soon. Now the district collector of Jodhpur has set up a committee to look into the illegal units and the pollution caused by them. “The committee will be headed by the SDM and will prepare a report on the effluents discharged by the units and impact of the effluents on agricultural land. The committee will also take action against the illegal units and submit a report to the collector,” said a district administration official. There had been a significant check on the mushrooming of such illegal units in rural areas when a task force was constituted by the NGT in May 2019. A committee headed by the assistant superintendent of police took action against 50 such units till January 2021, when in a revised order the NGT dissolved the task force and replaced it with a new committee headed by the former chief justice of Jharkhand high court, Prakash Tatia, to ensure compliance of NGT’s orders.