RUDRAPUR: For a devotee, a visit to Atariya temple in US Nagar district headquarters, Rudrapur was seldom complete without a dip in the holy Kalyani river.
The river, which flowed at a small distance from the temple, invited believers and residents alike, who came either to take a bath or to simply walk along its banks.
Two decades later, the scene changed drastically. The once gushing river, say locals, is now no more than a messy sewer and has become a breeding ground for various diseases. The river has become increasingly polluted due to the dumping of waste and untreated sewage. To clean the messy river, efforts have been made in the past but to no avail.
To combat the situation, Pey Jal Nigam has reached out to IIT-Roorkee for help. A team of professors and engineers from IIT-Roorkee surveyed the river and proposed a solution to clean up the river and restore it to its former glory. The two-day-long survey conducted by the team revealed that 170 drains from the city are polluting the river with contaminated water.
Also, the dirty water from the companies in the Pantnagar industrial area is also falling into the river, turning it black. Moreover, people living near the river have also encroached on the river banks and are throwing garbage into the river.
The team, consisting of Professor Arun Kumar, Assistant Professor Sanjeev Kumar, Engineer Piyush Singh, and M.Tech student Anish Verma, all from IIT
Executive Engineer (EE) of the Pey Jal Nigam, Mridula Singh said that the IIT-Roorkee team proposed building a sewage treatment plant (STP) near Rampura Maidan on the banks of the Kalyani River. “According to the proposal, a sewage line will be laid along the river to bring polluted water from households and factories to the treatment plant. The water will be filtered at the STP and released back into the river. The Nigam will have to get the budget approved by the government for this project. Once approved, we will work in tandem with IIT-Roorkee to clean the river,” she said.
