SHILLONG, March 19: Fortnight after fortnight on Saturday mornings the Operation Clean-Up (OCU) team has been religiously cleaning up the Umkaliar river at the junction between Demseiniong and Nongmensong since 2019. The reason for sticking to this particular point is to prevent the garbage from flowing into the Umkhrah and finally land up at Umiam Lake. When the team met at the riverfront last Saturday, they found the river sporting a darkish black hue. On going further upstream they found vehicles being washed there despite the orders of the Meghalaya State Pollution Control Board stating that those who violate the rules will be penalised.
“In Meghalaya rules are made to be broken because those who break rules are never penalised,” said a member of OCU who has been a part of the team since its inception. Building rules are flouted with impunity and all the houses built right next to the river Umkaliar dump their garbage into the river and release their kitchen and septic tank pipes into the river too all along the course of the river from Nongrah, Lapalang, Rynjah and Umpling to Nongmensong.
Brian Wahlang, Headmaster of KC Secondary School, who never fails to attend the cleaning drive with his students, feels that the froth and greasy, darkish hue of the Umkaliar suggests that some chemicals have entered the river.
“If people wash their vehicles on the river then the diesel and grease will definitely poison the river yet it is amazing how people choose to wash their clothes in this grimy water and not bother to even question why this is happening to a once clean and pristine river,” Wahlang said, adding that more schools should join this cleaning drive.
Team Jiva leader Jiwat Vaswani who has been religiously attending the cleaning drive says, “Sometimes it seems like a hopeless venture we are attempting. But at least we are doing something for the future generation. How can we leave them a legacy of a polluted planet with rivers that have turned into drains and hills that are barren? We have to continue with our mission and hope that peoples’ behaviour along with strict implementation of rules by the government will one day result in something positive.
Every fortnight after the cleaning drive which yields clothes, cement bags, load and loads of plastic bags and bottles, nappies, sanitary pads and what have you, the trucks of the Shillong Municipal Board carts the garbage to Marten, Shillong’s only garbage dump.
Meetings organised by the earlier Deputy Commissioner Isawanda Laloo with the Rangbah Shnong of Nongrah, Lapalang, Rynjah, Umpling and Nongmensong as these are the areas through which the Umkaliar flows, mainly to chart out a course of action so that residents don’t dump their garbage into the river, have met with little success.
The Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council which is the custodian of all rivers has remained a passive onlooker to the state of the rivers.
One of the young boys from KC Secondary School asked this correspondent even while he was pulling out garbage from the river, “Why are people so unkind? Don’t they know that the river is a living being? I feel sad just looking at the state of the river.”
If kids can feel the pain of the river why are grown-ups so apathetic and cruel? Also what about the MLA representing this area where the Umkaliar flows through? Isn’t the health of the river a priority? Also what is the Water Resources Department doing? Can they come up with an action plan?
Ask the OCU team.
