RIVER POLLUTION

RIVER POLLUTION

TOPIC: Geography

Context- The Sutlej and its tributaries in Punjab are extremely polluted. The state’s air quality index is a matter of deep concern.

Concept-

• More than half of Punjab’s districts have reported dangerous levels of uranium, arsenic, cadmium and lead in their groundwater.

Rivers in Punjab:

• Since the partition of India in 1947, only two-and-a-half Rivers of the Indus system have been flowing through Punjab.
• These include the Sutlej, the Beas and some part of the Ravi.
• The others — Jhelum and Chenab — now mostly flow through Pakistan, which has also been allocated their waters through the Indus Waters Treaty of 1960.
• Sutlej that has suffered the most from pollution.

River Sutlej:

• The Sutlej is one of the fastest flowing rivers in the world.
• It originates from Lake Rakshastal, near Lake Mansarovar in Tibet.
• The river is 1,550 km long, passing through the Himalayas.
• The Sutlej enters the plains at the town of Nangal in Punjab’s Rupnagar district. It flows through Rupnagar, Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Kapurthala and Ferozepur districts, covering a distance of 440 km, before entering Pakistan.
• The Bhakra dam is built on the Sutlej near Nangal. Much of the river’s water is stored in the GobindSagar reservoir for hydroelectricity.