TURA: Three weeks of prohibition on the sale of water in plastic bottles witnessed a drastic drop in waste pollution in the town, particularly the streams and rivers, but the return of its sale has once again brought back the waste menace.
Since the beginning of the week, used plastic bottles have begun to be found strewn in several localities, particularly in drains and garbage bins.
The most polluted areas from plastic waste was centered primarily in the main market area and certain localities such as Beldarpara witnessed clogging of drains due to dumping of the used water bottles.
West Garo Hills deputy commissioner, Ram Singh, who had spearheaded the movement to do away with the use of bottled water in plastic containers, was shocked to witness the return of plastic waste during his early morning inspection of the town’s busy areas.
“The condition of waste from plastic has once again returned and this is a tragedy,” lamented the deputy commissioner.
Traders and whole sellers have been importing tons of packaged drinking water ever since the district administration gave in to demands for reintroduction of packaged drinking water following complaints of water shortage in the busy market areas.
“We are already in the process of installing more RO water filters in market areas to bridge the gap,” inform the deputy commissioner who hopes a time will come soon when people will no longer have to reach out to packaged drinking water.
Surprisingly, days after packaged water bottles went off the shelves in shops, plastic pollution has significantly dropped in water bodies.
Gandrak stream which flows through the busy Chandmari market and the Babupara stream that passes through the market area were found reasonable clean and devoid of fresh plastic waste.
There is now apprehension amongst environmentalists that the re-entry of packaged water bottles would bring a return of the days of large scale plastic pollution.