Festivals over, banks of water bodies turn garbage dumps

JAMSHEDPUR: With festive season saying goodbye for this calendar year, the river ghats along Kharkai and Subarnarekha are again looking dirty, littered with garbage and filth as it was before Durga Puja.
Morning walker Ramesh Bhandari, who is a regular like hundreds of others at Dumohini ghat at the confluence of Kharkari and Subarnarekha rivers, complained that ahead of Chhath Puja, civic bodies had pressed in large number of cleaning workers to remove the garbage left behind near all the major ghats of Jamshedpur.
The former banker, who along with his fellow morning walkers spend around 90 minutes, near the riverbanks conducting fitness sessions everyday, said, “Every year ahead of Durga Puja, civic bodies become active in cleaning the ghats, which continues till Chhath but thereafter nothing is done to clean the area.”
Bhandari pointed out that both the rivers are the lifelines of the city with a population of around 15 lakh. He said even in large areas, including those under Tata Steel-administered areas, the drinking water supply is completely dependent on the rivers, so extra vigilance must be adopted to keep them clean.
Homemaker Suman Srivastava, who visited a ghat near Mango after Kartika Purnima with her family, said, “On the holy day after taking a dip in the river, following the age-old customs, many devotees donated old clothes to beggars, who had assembled in large numbers at the ghat but most of the beggars left behind the old clothes at the river banks.” Suman said the whole area now looks dirty as large parts of the banks are littered with abandoned clothes.
She added that civic body officials should look into the matter and take immediate steps to clean the area.
Suman said ahead of the festive season even many social organizations and political leaders, including state health minister Banna Gupta were seen cleaning the ghats but now nothing similar is being done now. She said rivers are both holy and source of water supply for residents of the city, so all-round the year they must be kept clean.
She said many devotees, due to various religious beliefs, prefer to dump items used after worship in the rivers, which is wrong and pollutes the water body. The marine animals suffer a lot after consuming chemicals from the dumped items. She said immersion of idols in the rivers should also be barred here as they contain harmful paint which are toxic.
Earlier this year, a large number of dead fish were found floating near the banks of Subarnarekha, after which administration ordered a probe into the issue.
Experts during investigation found that due to pollution of the rivers, which is a result of dumping of untreated garbage from households and also industries by drains connected to the water body, the fish had died. The experts had advised steps to check pollution of both the rivers flowing by the city.
Mango civic body head Suresh Yadav told TOI on Thursday that though there is no dedicated workforce to clean river banks daily, time-to-time workers are engaged in the area under his jurisdiction to clean the areas.