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`Dump the mindset to save water'

C K Chandramohan

Focus on making polluters clean the water systems

MEERUT: Water and planning experts led by the Uttar Pradesh Environment Minister, Ujjwal Raman Singh, emphasized on the need to create awareness to change the mindset of the people from exploitation to conservation of water and natural resources.

Speaking at the national conference on "Water Pollution and Health: a Deadly Burden", organized by the Janhit Foundation here, Mr Singh said any number of legislations would prove futile unless the consumers -- farmers, households, industries and institutions -- realized the dangers they were spreading through dumping of inorganic and chemical wastes that were sinking into the aquifers rendering the underground water as well as land surface highly toxic and harmful to all living things.

Lauding the efforts of the Janhit Foundation in highlighting the hazards of water pollution due to industries in Daurala and Jaibhim Nagar villages, the Minister felt that similar efforts should be replicated in all localities and villages.

Anil Rana, director of the Janhit Foundation, said that the Ganga-Yamuna Doab area known for plenty of water and rich crops would become a desert in another 30 years if water conservation efforts were not taken up as a mass movement.

Shrikant Panigrahi of the Planning Commission said that the consumers as well as planners must wake up to the fact that water that sustains life had been made a killer due to contamination by a greedy few. Mukesh Meshram, District Magistrate, said it was shocking to note that in Meerut alone five times more than the required quantity of chemical fertilizers was used every year. This excess chemical content drains down to the aquifers and pollutes the water while the land surface is robbed of its natural strength for crop production.

Krishan Gopal Pandey of Industrial Toxicology Research Centre, Lucknow, V P Sharma of IIT, Delhi, Namrata Pathak of the World Health Organisation, Anil Gautam of People's Science Institute and R K Srinivasan of the Centre for Science and Environment also spoke. About 200 delegates from eight States participated in the conference.

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