Nag River: India’s Hidden Pollution Crisis that Needs Immediate Attention!

Nag River: India’s Hidden Pollution Crisis that Needs Immediate Attention!

Nag River is a river in Nagpur city of Maharashtra. It is highly polluted due to high urbanization and industrialization around it. "An Innovative study for investigation of pollution and its solution in highly polluted Nag River" An innovative study for investigation of pollution and its solution in highly polluted Nag River has been done by Dr. Damini Bramhankar PG  Research Department of Chemistry, Hislop College, RTM Nagpur University on the comprehensive study published in Applied Water Science. This study is done through water quality index (WQI), principal component analysis (PCA) and cluster analysis (CA) for comprehensive spatial analysis of sources of contamination of 17km metropolitan area of Nag River.

A division bench of Justices Anil Kilor and Rajnish Vyas had suo motu taken cognizance of a TOI report on pollution in Nag river and converted the matter into a public interest litigation.
The court was told the city produces about 520 million liters of sewage every day, of which 423.5 million liters are treated. About 320 million liters of the treated water is supplied to Koradi and Khaparkheda thermal power stations and left over treated water is released in Nag river.
The river finally meets Gosikhurd dam, raising concerns about how the discharge could affect the quality of water in the reservoir.

The central and state government has spent Rs 926.99 crore on this project as this was meant for the pollution abatement of Nag river. "The sewerage treatment plant, 500 km sewerage line and pumping station has been executed," the court said. It also asked, "how many crores has been spent by the public on anything not in relation to this river?" The bench said that the petition did not specify the location of the river. It also said that it wanted to "visualise the location of the river" so that it can "understand the issue in detail."

In a ruling released on Wednesday, the court asked which party would be "responsible for the condition of the river after the project was completed, if the river was polluted?" and who "should be in charge of monitoring the project." "We ruled 16 years ago that the river should be cleaned, but no one did anything," the court said in its statement. 

The bench directed NMC and state govt to come up at the next hearing with a concrete solution to the problem.