Yet another river faces disaster.This time it is Kolhapur’s resident river. Industrialization has turned out tobe a major threat to the river Panchganga. The pollution has raised the alarmamong the residents at Ichalkaranji, where a major outbreak of jaundice resultedin six deaths and 250 being hospitalized.
All the nullahs in the city draininto the river emitting wastes from residences, medical facilities and factories. There are a number of nullahs like the Jayanti nallah, Dudhali nallah, Bapat Campnullah and Line Bazaar nullah that spout waste into the river.
The major contributor is JayantiNala which dumps around 49MLD waste water. The Municipal Corporation ofKolhapur has invested lakhs of rupees in order to stop the flow of the jayantinullah but has had no effect. .
Around 2000 to 10000 litre ofchemical waste is being dumped into the river from the different industrialestates which are operating in vicinity of Kolhapur like Maharashtra industrialdevelopment area at Shiroli, Hatkanangale industrial area and also from clothindustries which are situated at Ichalkaranj.
The Maharashtra pollution controlBoard (MPCB) has not managed to crack down on to the industries releasingindustrial wastes into river. It may be recalled that last year MPCBhad conducted an survey at Ichalkaranj industrial estate revealed that 22 ofthe 27 industries screened were found to be violating pollution norms and closurenotices were issued.
